Two media projects in Africa are using geo-mapping tools to expose eco-offenses, track organised crime syndicates in southern Africa and redefine development reporting. 1. The Oxpeckers Center for Investigative Environmental Journalism The Oxpeckers Center for Investigative Environmental Journalism is Africa’s first data journalism project focusing on environmental issues. Based in South Africa, the non-profit center combines traditional investigative reporting with data analysis and geo-mapping tools. Oxpeckers hopes to improve the quality and impact of African environmental journalism by: Providing a home for investigative journalists interested in environmental issues; Launching a geo-narrative platform using cutting-edge mapping techniques and forensic data tools to improve reportage; Stimulating transnational and transcultural investigative reportage through project or research-based Oxpecker Fellowships; Sharing investigative resources / source documents / data, as well as specialist tools and skills through Oxpecker Manuals and workshops; Curating specialist environmental reporting or research projects on behalf of media partners; Publishing our own exclusive environmental investigations, in both legacy and new media, as well as through eBooks and other channels. The project has partnered with WildLeaks, the world’s first secure online whistleblower platform dedicated to wildlife crime. In an investigative piece titled “Angola's new resource curse,” Richard Grobler investigates the geo-political impact of Lobito Corridor between Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo: Swiss commodity giant Trafigura, partnering with the politically connected Angolan company Cochan Limited and the mysterious China International Fund, has quietly gained total control of Angola’s railway infrastructure, fuel distribution network and iron ore deposits via a vast global network of off-shore companies registered in various tax havens. Using funds generated by Angola’s oil sales to China, the consortium has built up a vast business empire as the DT Group. It consists of property, fuel, steel-making, shipping and logistics holdings that could have profound economic and political implications for all of south-western Africa. China had overtaken Portugal as Angola’s top source of both imports (27,68%) and exports (46%) by late 2012, largely due to a series of oil-for-infrastructure deals that started in 2003. A confluence of interests at the centre of the DT Group has taken advantage of this position to dominate the petroleum and mining commodity trade in Angola and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). With a rebuilt deepwater port on the Atlantic coast at Lobito, replete with a new bulk ore terminal, a nearby 200,000 barrel-a-day oil refinery under construction and a new, Chinese-built railway system poised to enter the DRC’s troubled Katanga province, questions are being asked about the intentions of Angola’s DT Group. The strategic Caminho de Ferro de Benguela (CFB), the shortest rail line linking Congolese and Zambian mining interests to European markets, could prove to be a double-edged sword for the DRC. Katanga is now at risk of being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea – quite literally. 2. Land Quest Land Quest, a project based in Nairobi, Kenya run by two journalists from Europe, two from Kenya and one from the US, uses geo-mapping tools to redefine the focus and audience of development reporting. The data portrays Kenya “as the battlefield for two competing financial interests: the flow of aid money from Europe to Kenya and multinational profits from Kenya to the Europe Union, Kenya’s second largest trading partner after China.” Through open data, the project shows “the need for developed and developing countries to become partners in development that work together to harmonize and regulate development and private sector investments through open data.” Land Quest investigation focuses on two hot spots in Kenya: - Turkana, where newly discovered oil has forever changed (for better or worse) the landscape for the poorest people in Kenya and the humanitarian groups that serve them -Lake Naivasha, where transnational agro-industrialists cultivate and export much of Europe’s annual flower supply while non-profit organizations groups protect water quality, defend labor rights and resettle internally displaced people, thanks to European donors. Land Quest partners with newspaper El Mundo in Spain to publish their content and visualizations in Spanish, and it also makes it available in English to Kenyan media outlets.