Photo of Carpathian Biosphere Reserve in Ukraine – among Wiki Loves Earth 2015 winners

Wiki Loves Earth, a competition where participants take photographs of protected natural areas and upload their photos to Wikimedia Commons. This year the contest was held internationally with 26 countries, Joinfo.ua reports with the reference to zak-kor.net.

Ukrainian Carpathian Biosphere Reserve is on the 6^th place. Carpathian Biosphere Reserve is located near the town of Rakhiv in Zakarpattya region. It is included into the network of UNESCO biosphere reserves. The total area of the reserve is 53,630 hectares.

As the organizers said, the goal of Wiki Loves Earth is two-fold. First – to photograph as many natural monuments and protected areas as possible and release the imagery under a free license. Second – to contribute to environmental protection by raising public awareness.

The idea of Wiki Loves Earth began in Ukraine in 2013. In 2014, Wiki Loves Earth was joined by 15 other countries from four different continents—Europe, Asia, Africa and America. During 2015, over 100,000 pictures were submitted by the participants.

The international jury was composed of 9 photographers from different countries, all experienced in nature photography: Dmytro Balkhovitin (Ukraine), Matthew Buck (Great Britain), Dietmar Bartz (Germany), Walaa Abdel Manaem (Egypt), Alex Wang (USA), Katerina Zareva-Simeonova (Bulgaria), Zeynel Cebeci (Turkey), Susanne Plank (Austria) and Yathin Krishnappa (India).

The photograph of Pakistanian Lower Kachura lake, a popular tourist destination in Central Karakoram National Park won the first prize.