On 1st May 2015 the Wikimedia community with the help of its Ukrainian and Polish Chapters and volunteers is starting an international photo contest with a natural heritage theme, Wiki Loves Earth 2015. This is the third year of the competition. In 2013, Ukraine was the only participant, last year there were 16 countries in the contest and now it encompasses Algeria, Andorra and Catalan areas, Austria, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Estonia, France, Germany, Macedonia, Nepal, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Uruguay, Ukraine and many more are willing to join in to share their natural monuments with the world!
Wiki Loves Earth is organized through numerous national contests, coordinated by local volunteers. The national juries then submit up to 10 pictures to the international stage of the contest. Last year with 16 participating countries, the international jury had to consider a total of 156 candidate pictures!
This photo contest is not only a great opportunity to show the charms of nature, but also a chance to draw public attention to environmental problems and Wikipedian activities. The focus is not only on sites of national importance, but also on the areas protected on the regional level and on the widest variety of natural sites possible: forests, parks, gardens, rocks, caves and whatever is protected within the participating countries. This means that most users will be able to find several natural heritage sites close to them.
The full report of the last year’s international jury, explaining its work, selection process and bringing the results together with comments of the jury, is available here.
We truly hope that you will participate in our joint efforts to make this year’s contest even brighter!
All photographs in this post are published by their authors. Click the photos for details.