Category: News

Wikimedians of Nepal are ready to organize the contest

It’s our pleasure to inform you that Wikimedians of Nepal (Wikimedia Nepal) are ready to organize «Wiki Loves Earth 2014» in Nepal – an open photo competition of the Natural Monuments in Nepal, in coordination with Wikimedia Foundation Inc.

Pokhara and Phewa Lake. In the background all Annapurna summits. From left to the right: Annapurna South, Annapurna I with the snow covered Hiunchuli in front, Machapucharé (steep summit left of the image center), Annapurna III (image center in the background), Annapurna IV, Annapurna II, and Lamjung Himal. © User: Wolfgang Beyer / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0
Pokhara and Phewa Lake. In the background all Annapurna summits. From left to the right: Annapurna South, Annapurna I with the snow covered Hiunchuli in front, Machapucharé (steep summit left of the image center), Annapurna III (image center in the background), Annapurna IV, Annapurna II, and Lamjung Himal.
© User: Wolfgang Beyer / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0

Now our colleagues from Nepal communicate with Nepal Tourism Board for getting a list with natural heritage. Also they are going to cooperate with Nepal Nature Conservation, UNESCO, ICIMOD, International Union for Conservation of Nature and other environment funds.

Machapuchare from Annapurna Sanctuary, Nepal. © User: Ben Tubby / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0
Machapuchare from Annapurna Sanctuary, Nepal.
© User: Ben Tubby / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0

We are pleased to welcome Nepalese team at the International Photo Contest «Wiki Loves Earth 2014» and wish them really great results from their intensive work!

Achievements of our Spanish colleagues

We are happy to hear news from Spanish and Andorran colleagues. Spanish team works hard, but time is running out. Well, we can cheer them up and wish really great results from their intensive work.

«On the Catalan Wikipedia we have been working on lists of Andorra and three regions of Spain: Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencian Community. It has been a hard work. Previous experience with Wiki Loves Monuments and Wiki Loves Public Art has been helful for working with this kind of lists, but in that case there is not an unique register of natural heritage sites. In Andorra there is little information about natural protected areas. In Spain the legal situation is quite confusing. The same area can have different protection levels and denominations. We contacted the local natural heritage office in Barcelona and they provided us more information helping to clarify concepts and thus to make more comprehensive lists of sites.

Waterfall near Urbasa, Navarra. Author - Bea.miau. License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Waterfall near Urbasa, Navarra. Author – Bea.miau.

The collaborating natural heritage office of the government of Catalonia has become a partner for organizing the contest. Their press department will help with promotion. The tourism office of the province of Girona has collaborated in previous editions of Wiki Loves Monuments and they were willing to sponsor a prize for Wiki Loves Earth. We plan to offer ten prizes distributed on a territorial basis in order to try to spread the contest to all territories and to promote specially more unknown natural sites. Local agents will organize photographic expeditions to areas of interest conducted by specialists.

Botanical garden «Sorteny Natural Park», Andorra. Author - Simonjoan. License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Botanical garden «Sorteny Natural Park», Andorra. Author – Simonjoan. License: CC BY-SA 3.0

For jury members we have contacted two professional photographers with experience photographing nature. They have made a lot of questions about free licenses from their professional point of view, but they have understood the purpose of the project and they join it without any reserve. Other members of the jury will be two scholars of natural heritage and two experimented Wikipedians. This composition of the jury reflects three basic points to evaluate: quality, representativeness and utility for Wikipedia.

There is still work to do but we are excited about this, as well as Wikipedians and sponsors are»

Vicenç Riullop

«Wiki Loves Earth» winners awarded

«Wikimedia Ukraine» awarded «Wiki Loves Earth» winners.

12 best photos belong to six authors, all of them awarded: Krasnickaja Katya, Serhiy Krynytsia (Haidamac), Balkhovitin, Ihor Dereviahin, Mykhaylo Petzkovych та Slava Leontiev.

Main prizes in «The best photo» nomination got the following pictures:

1st place — Katya Krasnytska, Dawn on Ai-Petri Mountain, Crimea

2nd place — Serhiy Krynytsia (Haidamac), Dniester Canyon national nature park, Zalischyky, Ternopil Oblast

3rd place — Balkhovitin, Upper Cretaceous rock exposure (geological natural monument), Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast

Winners in the «Most natural monuments pictured» nomination:

Katya Krasnytska (center) — Best photo winner

Serhiy Krynytsia — second prize in Best photo nomination

Also first place for the numbers of monuments. With travel guides by Assa publisher (“Ukraine! Take an active break” series).

Dmytro Balhovitin, third best photo (also 4th, 5th and 7th)

WLE 2013 Ceremony 3 168.jpg
Organizers, jury and winners together

Source: http://uk.wikinews.org

«Wiki Loves Earth» greets the winners

From 11736 photos uploaded by 365 contestants jury selected 12 best:

Dniester Canyon national nature park, Zalischyky, Ternopil Oblast, author – Serhiy Krynytsia (Haidamac)
Dawn on Ai-Petri Mountain, Crimea, author – Kateryna Krasnytska
Tykha Bukhta regional landscape park, Crimea, author – Ihor Dereviahin
Töpe Oba Massif botanical nature reserve (zakaznik), Crimea, author – Slava Leontiev
Khapkhalskyi hydrological nature reserve (zakaznik), Crimea, author – Dmytro Balkhovitin
Lake Vorozheske (hydrological natural monument), Svydovets mountain range of the Ukrainian Carpathians, author – Serhiy Krynytsia (Haidamac)
Zuivskyi regional landscape park, Donetsk Oblast, author – Dmytro Balkhovitin
Obrucheva mud volcano (geological natural monument), Crimea, author – Ihor Dereviahin
Bily slon (English: White Elephant), the building on the peak of Pop Ivan (former Polish Astronomical and Meteorological Observatory), Carpathian Biosphere Reserve, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, author – Mykhailo Petskovych,
Kamyani Mohyly (literally: “stone tombs”) nature preserve, Donetsk Oblast, author – Dmytro Balkhovitin
Zelenyj island in Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi, Cherkasy Oblast, author – Serhiy Krynytsia (Haidamac)
Upper Cretaceous rock exposure (geological natural monument), Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, author – Dmytro Balkhovitin

21 magnolias planted in A.V. Fomin Botanical Garden in Kyiv

21 magnolias were planted by A.V. Fomin Botanical Garden scientists together with employees of  «KPMG-Ukraine». The company presented the trees for the 174th anniversary of the botanical garden, one of the oldest in Ukraine – founded on May 22 1839. Magnolia alley was planted in 1976, now being the largest magnolia collection in Eastern Europe.
Also beautification in the botanical garden was done with the help of 236 KPMG employees. Denys Sylantyev, world champion and Olympic games silver medalist in swimming and Yevhen Buket, coordinator of Wiki loves Earth contest  took part in action.

Contest is over. First summary

Chestnut tree alley in Poltava. Photo by user Сарапулов, sent 20 seconds before deadline

“Wiki Loves Earth” 2013 is over today at 0:00:00 Kyiv time with 11736 photos uploaded from April 15 to May 15 by 365 contestants. About 100 000 internet users visited Ukrainain contest site.

Among various Wiki Loves… contests held by different  Wikimedia Chapters (Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Pride, Wiki Loves Sound, Wiki Loves Libraries etc.)  only the Monuments contest became international for now. Ukraine’s statistics in  “Wiki Loves Earth” is similar to first Wiki Loves Monuments held by Netherlands in 2010. We have confidence that next year “Wiki Loves Earth” will become international, which is already negotiated with different Wikimedia chapters.

Continue reading “Contest is over. First summary”

Wikimedia Ukraine initiates new photo contest – “Wiki Loves Earth”


Wikimedia Ukraine is launching a new photo contest, “Wiki Loves Earth,” on April 15, 2013. The goal of the contest is to collect free pictures of Ukraine’s Natural Heritage sites, landscapes and ornamental gardening objects in order to illustrate articles on Wikipedia.

Anyone can take part in the competition; however, registration on Wikimedia Commons is required. The Organizational Committee has begun preparation work on the competition list and already has almost 8,000 possible photographic entries, including nature reserves, landscape parks, protected areas, natural heritage sites, zoological gardens and parks, flora and ornamental gardening objects.

To enter the contest, find an item or place you are familar with from the competition list, submit a picture you have taken (past or present), and upload it to Wikimedia Commons beginning April 15 through May 15, 2013. The photographers with the best pictures will be awarded prizes. The winners will be announced at the awarding ceremony in Kyiv on World Environment Day on June 5, 2013.

According to Yuri Perohanych, Wikimedia Ukraine Executive Director, this photo contest will draw society’s attention to the existing problems surrounding Ukraine’s natural heritage protection, and the contest itself will highlight green/eco tourism in Ukraine.

Contest Coordinator Yevhen Buket pointed out that the idea to hold such a photo competition came from the successful international photo contest Wiki Loves Monuments in Ukraine this past September. The goal of the Wiki Loves Monuments contest was to collect pictures of cultural heritage monuments in Ukraine.

Wikimedia Ukraine invited the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, environmental organizations, as well as donors and sponsors to help with the organization of the competition and to contribute to the contest prize fund.