A Brief History of YRE
From three youth missions to the Arctic to 450,000+ young reporters in 44 countries — the story of Young Reporters for the Environment.
Our story
From a youth mission to a global movement
Young Reporters for the Environment began with a simple idea: send young people to see environmental change for themselves, and let them report it to the world.
What started as a response to the ozone crisis in the early 1990s became a programme of the Foundation for Environmental Education, run today from Copenhagen and active in dozens of countries, including Bangladesh.
Timeline
How YRE came to be
Witnessing the global change of the environment
When the depletion of the ozone layer was detected in the Polar Regions, back in 1985, the world understood it as a global environmental threat directly resulting from human activity. By 1991, scientific expeditions to assess the extent of the problem and measure its evolution had been launched – the first of which was based in Kiruna, Sweden’s northernmost town, and in Sodankyla and Utsjoki, in Finland.
Youth as special envoys
Struck by these developments, an enthusiastic and idealistic young Frenchman, Philippe Saugier, founded the Ozone Project, which sent three youth missions up north to follow, monitor, and report on the work of scientists. This series of field visits and expert interviews attempted to fully understand the ozone issue, and to report it to the widest possible audience in real time.
Germany, Denmark, Finland, France, Latvia, Norway, Poland, and Switzerland were the first to send “youth envoys”.
New communication opportunities
Change was also afoot in the communications industry. Things that are easy today were complex and time-consuming a mere 25 years ago. The Internet and emails already existed, but were unavailable to the wide public, and mostly limited to research centres and universities.
In Denmark, the University of Copenhagen quickly became the focal point for the international communication between the youth envoys and the local teams. Local teams carried out missions and interviews to probe further into how the ‘ozone issue’ was rooted locally, and deeply ingrained in our daily lives.
Merging into the Foundation for Environmental Education
When the project was experimentally absorbed by what was then the Foundation for Environmental Education in Europe (FEEE) – today’s FEE – the last step to create Young Reporters for the Environment had finally been taken. In 1994, Luxembourg became the first country to officially implement the YRE programme. It was no longer an experiment.
YRE Bangladesh
YRE Bangladesh has been nurturing young environmental reporters since August 2023. Globally, over the years, the YRE Programme has witnessed the incredible impact of our participants’ work in raising awareness about crucial environmental issues.
YRE today
450,000+
students involved
44
countries and counting
19,000+
photos, articles and videos submitted each year
1994
first country to join: Luxembourg
Young Reporters for the Environment today
Coordinated from Copenhagen, active around the world
The international coordination of the Young Reporters for the Environment programme now takes place at the International Head Office in Copenhagen, Denmark. 450,000+ students in 44 countries (and counting) are currently involved in the YRE programme, and over 19,000 photos, articles and videos are submitted to national competitions every year.
For more on the origins of YRE, watch this video featuring Philippe Saugier – the YRE creator – and Pedro Marcelino, one of the earliest YRE students (Mission Antarctica, 1996).
Recognition
Awards for the YRE programme
2018
The first Earth Prize
The YRE programme was awarded the first edition of the Earth Prize by the World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC) Network and the city of Luino – a huge recognition of the work done over the years by students, teachers, National Operators and the international YRE team.
2019
Special Commendation, Global Youth & News Media Prize
This honours actions that give young audiences information and hope for saving the Earth, and that strengthen engagement between news media and young people. The prize is supported by News-Decoder, the European Journalism Centre and the Google News Initiative.
Explore more
Learn more about YRE Bangladesh
About YRE Bangladesh
Who we are and what we aim to achieve.
YRE Methodology
The four steps every project follows.
Why Join
What young reporters gain from YRE.
Brochure
Our programme at a glance.
Become part of the YRE story
Registration for the YRE Bangladesh Competition 2026 is now closed. Follow us for news about the next competition.