Submission deadline extended to 6 March!
Celebrating rangelands and their stewards
Rangelands cover 54% of the Earth’s land surface and sustain billions of people, cultures and livelihoods worldwide. Yet they remain underrepresented, misunderstood and undervalued.
To celebrate the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, we’re inviting photographers from across the world to tell powerful visual stories of these landscapes and the people who steward them.
We want you to show us what rangelands and pastoralism are all about – and why it’s so important that we preserve these cultures and livelihoods.
Remember, though: rangelands aren’t just grasslands. They’re simply ecosystems grazed by livestock or wildlife, and they can also take the form of savannas, woodlands, shrublands, deserts or even tundra.
So, get your cameras ready and send us your best snaps of rangelands from anywhere across the globe, capturing the people and landscapes shaping pastoral livelihoods.
Entries will be accepted until 6 March. Finalists will be announced by mid-March, with winners announced by the end of April.
The best photos will be showcased at GLF Africa 2026, featured on our Flickr account and social media channels and showcased across other GLF and partner events.
Best of luck, and we’re excited to receive your submissions!
Prizes
- Cash prizes of USD 500 (1st place), USD 400 (2nd place) and USD 300 (popular vote).
- A feature article on ThinkLandscape.
- A showcase at GLF Africa 2026 and other GLF and partner events throughout the year.
Eligibility
- The GLF Photography Awards 2026 are open to anyone aged 18 or above, whether you’re a photo enthusiast or a professional photographer.
- By submitting your photo, you agree to follow the rules, terms and conditions of these awards.
- Photos that have previously won other photographic awards will not be considered.
How to participate
- To participate, upload your photo here.
- You can submit up to three photos, but each photo constitutes a single entry.
- Your submission must include the photo’s title and the contributor’s name and contact information, including email address, social media handles (if applicable) and a caption listing the subject and location.
Selection
All entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges selected by the GLF, who will shortlist up to 35 photos from all eligible submissions received during the awards period. Finalists will be chosen based on the following criteria:
- Creativity (30%)
- Photographic quality (30%)
- Composition (30%)
- Execution of theme (10%)
The GLF will publish the finalist entries on its online platforms. The panel of judges will choose the first and second prize winners from the finalist entries, while members of the public will be invited to vote online for their favorite entry. The entry with the most votes will receive the ‘popular vote’ award. The GLF team will ensure that the first prize, second prize and popular vote winners are all selected from different participants.
Finalists
The GLF team will email all finalists and invite them to share a short video message about their photo and work. The best photos will be exhibited in our art gallery at GLF Africa 2026 Hybrid Conference.
See below for the terms and conditions
Anyone aged 18 or above may submit entries to the awards. We will accept entries from anywhere in the world.
Contributors must be 18 years or older to submit a photo. The photo must be original and owned by the contributor. By submitting photos to the awards, the contributor agrees to a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial share-alike license (BY-NC-SA).
By uploading the image, the contributor ensures that the image was taken legally, that it was not generated using AI and that they have the right to portray all people and any other information contained in the image.
The award organizers reserve the right to use photos submitted for GLF materials and exhibitions in GLF events and campaigns. Contributors will be given proper credit if the organizers publish or use their pictures. Contributors will not have the right to use the photos they submitted for commercial purposes.
Contributors 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 contest organizers have permission to publish the author’s piece from the media outlet where the photo originally appeared. If this applies to you, please attach your authorization in the submission form.
The organizers reserve the right to disqualify any contestants found to have engaged in fraudulent or otherwise suspicious activity throughout the voting period.
