African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and Nature’s Best Photography (NBP) have announced the official “Call for Entries” for the the Benjamin Mkapa African Wildlife Photography Awards. Competition participants will have through June 18, 2021 to submit photos for consideration by a panel of judges. Professional, Amateur, and Youth (18 and younger) photographers from Africa and across the globe are invited to enter the competition. The results are scheduled to be revealed at an awards ceremony in November 2021.

Named to honor the late, iconic African leader and former Tanzanian President, H.E. Benjamin Mkapa, this new competition recognizes his leadership in conservation, education, and his passionate support for AWF programmes. To help celebrate World Wildlife Day, AWF and Nature’s Best launched the awards as a pre-cursor to the 60th Anniversary of AWF later this year.

Speaking from the launch event last month from AWF HQ in Nairobi, Kenya, AWF CEO, Kaddu Sebunya said, “We value innovation and technological mechanisms. Mechanisms that can scale up AWF’s work and impact, like digital technologies that can create new experiences by more directly connecting people to wild lands and wildlife. Breaking degrees of separation between people and nature and creating ownership, transparency, demonstrated impact, and personalization. This is what the Benjamin Mkapa African Wildlife Photography Awards is all about.”

“Bringing Africa to the World and the World to Africa” defines the global competition geared towards creating a platform for Africans to embrace conservation through photography and to value the beauty of its nature.

In line with AWF’s mission to ensure wildlife and wild lands thrive in modern Africa and Nature’s Best’s to celebrate the natural world through the art of photography and visual storytelling, the competition’s goal is to engage, involve, and attract photographers at all levels of expertise, while encouraging young talent to become advocates for generational behavioral change towards wildlife conservation.

The Grand Prize Winner will be awarded US$5,000, an interview and portfolio in Nature’s Best Photography magazine; and publication in a special edition of Nature’s Best devoted to the Mkapa Photography Awards. The category Winners will each be awarded US$1,000 and will be featured in Nature’s Best special edition. Plus, there will be two overall Youth Winners: one African-based and one Global Winner.

The competition will enhance the visibility of African wildlife through the following categories: African Wildlife Behavior, African Wildlife Portraits, Wildlife at Risk, Fragile Wilderness, African Conservation Heroes, Wildlife in Modern Africa: Coexistence And Conflict, Art in Nature, African Wildlife Backyards, Mobile, and through the Africa in Motion/Video category, participants will be able to submit footage of natural wildlife behavior and outdoor experiences in wild lands.

In further elaboration of the new awards, Nature’s Best Photography President, Stephen Freligh, says, “Through my 40 years as a publisher of photographic works, I have personally witnessed the positive impact of combining the creative and documentary talents of professional, amateur, and youth photographers alike. Their memories are our new discoveries, and their stories are the window to the wild.”