Landscape Heroes

Tell their story to the world!


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Submissions to this year’s Landscape Heroes are now closed

Check the top 5 Landscape Heroes here.

Do you know of anyone taking action to help achieve the sustainable future we keep talking about? Do you know a landscape hero? Across the world there are many unsung heroes, big or small, who take a stand for their landscapes and the environment. 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 environment’s most critical problems. Small or big, their ideas and projects are the fuel we need to boost the momentum for environmental action.

They might be restoring forests or finding new ways to secure food and improve nutrition; they might dedicate their everyday work to clean energy, reducing carbon emissions or developing alternatives to polluting materials; they might be scaling-up recycling schemes, empowering communities, protecting wildlife or cleaning up the oceans. Show us what are they doing and how are they changing the world for the better.

Send us a short story and a photo. You may also share a video and relevant links of your landscape hero’s work and we’ll put the most inspiring ones on the world’s radar, for a quarter billion people to see and vote on.

Why this matters?

This year for GLF Bonn 2018, we are focusing on how to move from commitments on paper to actions that bring a visible, positive change in the landscape and in people’s lives. And you can help us show global leaders in government and finance that action is happening at every level across the world, that solutions are out there and that scaling them up is not only critical, but possible.

View inspiring stories of Landscape Heroes here

Submissions close: 14 November 2018

Submissions open for voting: 15-23 November 2018

Most compelling stories announced: 24 Nov 2018


Who can participate?

Anyone! If you want to put environmental action into 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 corners of the world.

Outcome

The most inspiring stories and complete submissions will be featured and shared across GLF products and platforms including podcasts, digital summits, videos, website, social and online communication, Landscape News and will have the chance to be presented in GLF Bonn 2018.

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, abiding the theme)
  • Story originality and style
  • Photo and/or video quality and relevance to story

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

The judging panel will consist of:

  • Alex Popescu, GLF Communications Coordinator
  • Gabrielle Lipton, Landscape News Coordinating Editor
  • Sabine Reinecke, GLF Knowledge Coordinator

In the second phase, between 15-23 November 2018 finalist stories will be published across GLF platforms and submitted to public vote.

The winner will be chosen by popular vote.

How to submit your story?

Upload your story of no more than 300 words via the submission form. Tell us why he or she is your landscape hero. Include their name and contact information, as well as an image, and if available, a video of your chosen nominee or their project, in addition to relevant links to their work (if applicable).

Photo submission requirements

  • Submit your photo in .jpg format; minimum size: 3,000 pixels in height or width; size: maximum 9 MB.
  • Provide us with a title, a caption and the photo credits.
  • Include the title of the photograph and the photographer’s name in the file name, for example: Jungle-JohnSmith.jpg
  • Provide location of the photo (optional)
  • You can submit a maximum of 4 photos
  • Please note photo 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 best to keep it short for maximum online engagement
  • Submit a video in English, French, Spanish or German; for other languages, please provide a translation
  • Upload videos:
    • via a file sharing service. We recommend Dropbox: it’s 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, WMV
    • Supported aspect ratios: 16:9 (horizontal)
    • 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.

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 the featured hero across its communication products and platforms.

By submitting blogs, photos and/or videos 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 exhibition at Forum 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.