Landscape Heroes Competition

Thanks for voting!

The overall winner will be selected by an expert panel and will be awarded EUR500 in prize money to support their project, onboarding to the GLFx platform, tickets to GLF Biodiversity and more. Find out who is selected as audience winner and winner selected by the expert panel during the GLF Biodiversity Digital Conference! Results of the winner will also be published on the webpage after the conference.

All Landscape Heroes selected for voting will be rewarded with 25 free tickets to the conference! We’ll get in touch with you via email. For any questions related to conference registration or the Landscape Heroes competition, reach out to a.soer@cgiar.org.

Infobrief

We received more than 80 inspirational submissions from around the globe. From beekeeping to riverbank restoration, safeguarding red pandas to protecting glaciers. Who will be the next GLF Landscape Hero audience favorite? The final winner will be selected by an expert panel and both selected winners will be announced ahead of the GLF Biodiversity Digital Conference: One World – One Health. Cast your vote until the 22nd of October.

Do you know of anyone taking action to safeguard our planet’s biodiversity?

Across the world there are unsung heroes taking a stand for their landscapes: mountains, oceans, forests, peatlands, cities, drylands, agriculture, etc. Tell us their story and bring to light the work of individuals, communities and organizations surpassing the hurdles towards sustainable landscapes and solving some of the world’s most critical problems. Small or big, their ideas and projects are the fuel we need to boost the momentum for action.

They might be restoring forests, documenting biodiversity or finding new ways to secure crop diversity and improve nutrition; they might dedicate their everyday work to protecting wildlife or cleaning up the oceans. Show us what they are doing and how they are changing the world for the better, and we’ll show them to the world.

Tell us their story in up to 300 words, and share media that supports the story. This can be a video, a podcast or other audio, a graphic, or any media that highlights their efforts. Your submission could reach more than a quarter of a billion people.

There will be one winner based on public choice, and one based on the decision of the expert jury.

What’s in it for the heroes?

The top landscape hero will be invited to present their efforts at the GLF Biodiversity Digital Conference.
The panel-selected winner will receive 500 Euros as prize money to support their initiative.
One hundred (100) free tickets to the GLF Biodiversity Digital Conference.
A feature on the GLF media outlet Landscape News, which reaches over 215,000 people
Onboarding to the GLFx platform and a Community of Practice of their interest

The winner will be selected by the panel and an audience favorite will be chosen based on votes. The audience favorite will receive recognition on GLF’s website and social media, a shoutout during the GLF Biodiversity Digital Conference and one hundred (100) free tickets to the GLF Biodiversity Digital Conference. All Landscape Hero nominees displayed on the voting page will receive 25 free tickets.

See stories from last year’s Landscape Heroes here.

See below for the terms and conditions

Who can participate?

Anyone! If you want to put biodiversity-related environmental action in the spotlight, then this competition is for you. You can nominate yourself, a community member or a community organization that you know of or work with. We are looking for a range of entries that represent various parts of the world.

Outcome

The most inspiring stories and complete submissions will be featured and shared across GLF products and platforms. The winner will receive 500 Euros in prize money for the support of their project and will potentially have the chance to present at the GLF Biodiversity Digital Conference. The winners(s) will also receive onboarding training to the GLFx platform and a Community of Practice related to their project focus.

Evaluation process

In the first phase, a GLF-designated panel will evaluate the stories and select the finalists, based on the following criteria:

Meeting basic requirements (story length, relevance to the theme)
Story originality and style
Media quality and relevance to story

The number of finalists will depend on the quality of stories submitted.

The judging panel will consist of:

Kimberly Merten, GLF Knowledge and Learning Coordinator
Gabrielle Lipton, Landscape News Editor
Peter Cronkleton, Senior Scientist (Anthropologist), Center for International Forestry Research
Iliana Monterroso, environmental scientist (Equity, Gender, Justice & Tenures), Center for International Forestry Research

In the second phase between 1-15 October 2020, finalist stories will be published across GLF platforms and submitted to public vote.

The winner will be selected by the panel and an audience favorite will be chosen based on votes. The audience favorite will receive recognition on GLF’s website and social media, a shoutout during the GLF Biodiversity Digital Conference and five (5) free tickets to the GLF Biodiversity Digital Conference.

How to submit your story?

Upload your story – of no more than 300 words – via the submission form. Tell us why this person is your landscape hero. Include their name and contact information, as well as an image and, if relevant, other types of media representing the story of your chosen nominee or their project, in addition to links to their work (if applicable). Diverse forms of media are welcomed in support of the landscape hero’s story – whether that be a podcast, a graphic, or something else.

Photo/graphic submission requirements:

Submit your photo or graphic in .jpg format – minimum resolution: 3,000 pixels in height or width; maximum file size: 9 MB.
Provide us with a title, a caption and the photo/graphic credits.
Include the title of the photograph/graphic and the photographer’s owner in the file name, for example: Jungle-JohnSmith.jpg
Provide location of the photo (optional)
You can submit a maximum of four photos/graphics
Please note photo/graphic submission will be made under a no-rights-reserved (CC0) Creative Commons license

Video submission requirements:

Submit original video content.
Video length can be between 1.5 and 5 minutes, but it’s best to keep it short for maximum online engagement.
Submit a video in English, French or Spanish; for other languages, please provide a translation.
Upload videos via a file sharing service. We recommend Dropbox or Google Drive: they’re free and can handle large files. Create a URL link to the file.
Make sure your video is in one of these file formats: MP4, MOV or WMV.
Use the supported aspect ratio of 16:9 (horizontal).

Audio submission requirements:

Submit original audio content.
Audio length can be between 1 and 5 minutes, but it’s best to keep it concise for ensuring online engagement.
Submit audio in English, French or Spanish; for other languages, please provide a translation.

Make sure you read and agree to the Terms and Conditions.

We will email all published entries when their submissions go online and are available for voting.

Terms and conditions

By submitting a nomination, the story and image/video assets can be used by the GLF to promote across its communication products and platforms.
By submitting blogs, photos and/or videos or other types of digital media to the competition, writers agree to a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial share-alike license (BY-NC-SA). Competition organizers will use these materials for event products and exhibitions at events. Writers are not permitted to use these pieces for commercial purposes.
Professional writers who work for the media are required to attach an authorization signed by a representative of the media company employing them. This authorization should state that the organizers of the contest have permission to publish the author’s piece from the media outlet in which the blog originally appeared.
The GLF reserves the right to disqualify contestants in the case of suspicious activity throughout the voting period. Fraudulent activities will be monitored and will lead to exclusion.