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Showcase your creativity and capture nature's resilience.

As photographers, your lens has the power to reveal the hidden stories that shape our world. We invite you to capture how nature sustains life and supports society, showing both the challenges it faces and the actions helping it to recover. Celebrate the moments when ecosystems thrive, are disrupted or renewed.

Choose the category or categories that inspire you the most and submit your entry between 18 May and 10 August 2026 (23.59 PM). Don’t forget to be mindful of our Terms and Conditions before applying.

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Photo competition categories

Harmony

Nature is constantly at work, creating connections and supporting life, often in ways we do not immediately see. Healthy ecosystems provide essential services that underpin our daily lives, from food and clean water to climate regulation and protection from natural hazards.

This category invites photos that capture the dynamics of nature: cooperation, patterns, and structures that keep ecosystems functioning. Think about ants building their nests, fungi networks connecting trees, rivers carving landscapes, bird flocks migrating or pollinators at work. We want to see how life organises itself into something harmonious, strong and interconnected, even in changing environmental conditions. Go behind the scenes of the beautiful landscapes to reveal the ingenuity of nature at work and how it quietly supports us.

Image Fabio Sartori, REDISCOVER Nature /EEA

Disruption

Change is constant in nature and ecosystems are naturally adapted to cope and recover. Today, however, Europe’s ecosystems face intensified pressures. Climate change is making natural events more extreme (e.g. floods, wildfires, storms and droughts), while human activities such as deforestation, pollution and land-use further disrupt natural systems and challenge their ability to adapt.

This category focuses on moments when the natural balance is tested, and systems are pushed to their limits. We welcome photos that witness these moments of change as they happen, showing the fragility of systems, the speed of change, and the impact on the living world. It’s not about a perfect shot. Motion, blur, and fleeting moments are welcome, showing nature in action as it faces disruption.

ImageZvonimir Zvonar, Climate Change PIX /EEA

Renewal

If we look closely, nature shows us ways to recover and adapt. People are increasingly finding ways to work with nature rather than against it, designing solutions inspired by nature that strengthen resilience.

This category celebrates initiatives that restore balance, support regeneration, and/or create new sustainable systems inspired by nature itself. Think reforestation, river restoration, bio-mimicry designs, wetland creation, or innovative ways communities are adapting to climate change. We welcome photos that show hope and the concrete actions that help nature recover, adapt and find a new equilibrium.

ImageCesare Barillà, Environment&Me 2025 / EEA

Get inspired and find out more

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