The “Wiki Loves Earth” contest has played a unique conservation role for over a decade by creating the largest open-access photo bank of Ukraine’s Nature Reserve Fund (Pryrodno-Zapovidnyi Fond, or PZF). Hosted on Wikimedia Commons with an open license, the photo bank encourages Ukrainians to annually document the state of their country’s PZF territories. This helps preserve knowledge about these protected sites and monitor changes in their ecosystems. The images also serve to illustrate articles on Ukrainian Wikipedia dedicated to each PZF site.
The results of the 2024 contest were announced recently, with several members of the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group (UNCG) serving on the jury. This partnership has become a tradition, and our team was excited to be among the first to see this year’s submissions. The video of the awards ceremony is available online.
In 2024, during the designated one-month period, 106 participants submitted 6,437 photos of PZF territories, covering 833 different sites. Of these, 130 were documented for the first time in the contest.
Looking back at the contest’s 12-year history, it’s clear why we call it the largest “protected area” photo bank. Since its founding in 2013, 127,444 photos have been uploaded, illustrating 5,407 of Ukraine’s PZF territories, which represents 60% of the total list.
The contest went international in 2014, although it continues to be coordinated by the Ukrainian team. This year was a record-breaker for participation from other countries, with 56 nations and over 3,800 participants uploading more than 80,000 photos globally.
In the future, the photographs from this contest will also be vital for assessing the damage inflicted on PZF territories affected by russia’s full-scale invasion.
