Abu Dhabi: The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) and ARKive have launched a photography competition for species found in the UAE.
Budding wildlife and photography enthusiasts with either photos or films of species that can be found in the UAE are being encouraged to take part in the contest.
The organisation is looking for entries into the new competition to find the very best audio-visual records of the beautiful biodiversity that can be found in Abu Dhabi.
The best media will be chosen to sit alongside work from thousands of the world's finest filmmakers and photographers, saved for future generations in the ARKive digital vault and published to the world via www.arkive.org.
ARKive is Wildscreen's (a charity that promotes conservation through wildlife imagery) flagship initiative, a project which is creating an audio-visual database of the world's most endangered species.
To date the organisation has a rapidly growing collection of over 36,000 films and photographs, stored safely at high resolution in its centralised vault and freely available online for scientific and educational purposes.
Sir David Attenborough, Wildscreen's Patron said, "Films and photographs are major elements in the battle to protect our imperilled natural world."
A unique partnership with the Environment Agency in Abu Dhabi means that many films and photographs of UAE species are already listed on the website.
Majid Al Mansouri, EAD Secretary General added: "We are extremely pleased with the progress of the ARKive project in working with us to document our precious endangered species here in the UAE. We not only want this project to be accessible to everyone but also for people to feel as though they too have played their part in preserving the UAE. I look forward to viewing the entries of this competition."
If you have images of species that can be found in the UAE e-mail them to Wildscreen arkive@wildscreen.org.uk in low resolution.
Already, films and photographs of 364 UAE species, such as the sooty falcon and Arabian oryx, have been banked in the ARKive vault and are available online.
The closing date for the competition is August 28. Winners will be notified by e-mail and announced by September 11.
The best media will be displayed on the prestigious ARKive website, with an overall winner receiving a copy of BBC Planet Earth personally signed by Sir David Attenborough.
Do you think enough is being done to conserve wildlife? Do you like travelling around UAE and taking photographs? Send us your thoughts through the form below or send us your pictures of wildlife in the UAE at letter2editor@gulfnews.com
