🇪🇺 Photo Competition for Europe 📷 Capture Nature's Resilience in the EEA's "Resilient by Nature" 🌿 (Win up to €1,000)

If you love photography and care about the planet, the European Environment Agency wants to see the world through your lens. The 2026 "Resilient by Nature" photo competition invites you to tell the story of your connection to the environment, with cash prizes, a dedicated Youth Prize, and the chance to have your work featured in EEA publications across Europe. Entry is completely free.

About the Competition

Launched by the European Environment Agency (EEA), the photo competition "Resilient by Nature" invites you to tell the story of your connection to the environment. The Earth has been telling its story for billions of years, as landscapes shift, rivers carve valleys, and forests grow and regenerate, with countless species interacting in a delicate interplay that creates systems that endure and adapt over time. These natural systems do more than sustain themselves: they provide clean air, water, and food that support our health and well-being.

Today, this relationship is increasingly shaped by a changing climate, calling for Europe to adapt and prepare for the challenges ahead. This competition invites you to capture how nature underpins Europe's resilience, how natural systems support our societies, how climate-related and human pressures disrupt this harmony, and how people are finding ways to restore and strengthen the systems we all depend on. Through your photos, the EEA wants to see the hidden stories of nature, the moments of change, and the actions that help our planet and societies find a new equilibrium.

The Categories

You can submit up to 5 photographs depicting any of the following three categories:

🌳 Harmony

🌪️ Disruption

🌱 Renewal

Why Participate

🏆 Win exciting cash prizes

�’ Have your work featured in EEA publications and other communication activities

🌍 Contribute your perspective to Europe's story of environmental resilience

Prizes

💶 €1,000 for the best photo in each of the three categories

🗳️ €500 for the Public Choice Award

🌟 €500 for the Youth Prize, awarded to the winning entry among those submitted by persons aged between 18 and 24 in any of the three categories

All finalists will be put forward for the Public Choice Award and may also feature in future digital and print material from the EEA and its European partners.

Eligibility

🇪🇺 The competition is open to citizens of the EU 27 Member States, as well as citizens of 🇮🇸 Iceland, 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein, 🇳🇴 Norway, 🇨🇭 Switzerland, and 🇹🇷 Türkiye; and, under the stabilisation and association agreements, 🇲🇰 North Macedonia, 🇦🇱 Albania, 🇽🇰 Kosovo, 🇲🇩 Moldova, 🇲🇪 Montenegro, 🇷🇸 Serbia, and 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina

📸 The photos must be taken in the countries mentioned above

🎂 All participants must be 18 or older

©️ You must have full copyright to the submitted material

🖼️ Photos should comply with the manipulation rules set out in the Terms and Conditions

🔢 You may submit a maximum of 5 entries, each handled separately with its own submission form

Selection Process

The competition will select 30 to 50 finalists and 5 winners.

🔍 The best photographs in each category are selected by a pre-selection committee of communication and environment experts designated by the EEA

⚖️ An independent jury of environmental communication experts from across Europe, sourced from the Eionet knowledge network, assesses the finalist photos and determines the winners of all prizes except the Public Choice Award

🗳️ For the Public Choice Award, the finalist entries are open to a public vote from 14 to 27 September 2026

🎉 The winners of all prizes are announced on 9 October 2026

How to Enter

📷 Take an original photo in electronic format (such as JPEG, PNG, or TIFF) with a minimum resolution of 2000 pixels, preferably more than 4960 pixels, on the long side

✍️ Support your photo with a title and an optional short description (maximum 1000 characters in English)

🖥️ Submit your entries (maximum 5) via the online form, reading the Competition rules and Terms and Conditions carefully before applying

Entry is free of charge. The copyright of submitted photos remains with each participant, but each entrant grants the EEA and its partners the right to use the submitted photos in their digital and print material, crediting the copyright owners.