It was evening of 20 May, when last photographs were obtained from the participants of the “PhotoHunt” contest.

15 people participated in the contest from different regions of the country. It may seem not enough for the national contest. But this time, it was a joint decision to hold the contest without division by teams and everyone can participate without interruption from their usual business. While assigning the participants by teams would be a game and the contest would be limited to only one Tashkent city and other participants and people who wishes to participate would not be able to express themselves and compete for prizes.

53 photographs in total were received for the contest. 5 people did not meet the requirements of the contest and they sent only 7 photos in total. In addition, many of them did not have a mark of the category they participated. And there was one creative participant who just took a photo of the picture that, of course, was inconsistent with the terms of the contest, where it was the “must do” term to provide a “real photographs”. Although such participants were not able to take part in the contest, they showed a certain level of their creativity.

After the announcement of the contest, some people complained that too little time was arranged to the competition and not everyone had the opportunity to go out of city in search of a good shot. In this regard, we would like to note that it is possible anywhere to make a successful shot, to catch it, to come up with creative photos decision on the subject - whether in the city, in the backyard etc. because biodiversity is everywhere! It comes out in all spheres of the earth and in every moment of life...

Briefly without details, we remind our readers about tasks or categories in which participants were required to demonstrate their abilities and vision. 5 topics were nominated that we have announced before.

The panel consisted of 6 people. The following panel members kindly agreed to participate in evaluation of the photographs: Manzura Bekchanova, news agency journalist of “Turkiston press”; Sergey Zagrebin, a biologist, Sevara Davlyatova, a staff member of the State Committee for Nature Protection; Ernest Kurtveliev, a professional photographer and a great lover of nature and Andrey Maleev, a supporter of an active lifestyle, the main engine of the process and a volunteer at heart and Maksad Bauetdinov, a representative of the GEF SGP..

On the eve of the holiday, i.e. on 22 May all panel members gathered to evaluate the works of the participants on all three criteria. The criteria were not complicated and photographs were evaluated by three parameters (in descending order of importance):

- disclosure of the task, topic;

- creativity and creative approach;

- the quality of performance, skill of the photographer.

By decision of the organizing committee the participant who will take the first place will be awarded with a hard disk with memory of 500 gigabytes, the participant who will take 2nd place will get a flash memory card of 32 GB and third place will be awarded with a stylish umbrella. The remaining participants will receive commemorative certificates of participation in the contest.

According to the evaluations, the first place got Shavkat Yuldashev from Tashkent, the second place won Farangiz Atabaeva also from Tashkent and third place was given to Uigun Rakhimov from Djizzakh. Congratulations!!!
The winners were notified and on 22 May at a seminar on biodiversity we are waiting for our heroes to reward them for their interest in the topic of biodiversity, a new look and developed abilities. The photos of the winners will be posted later. Please stay tuned for updates.
The team of the GEF SGP in Uzbekistan, UNDP and the State Committee is grateful for the help, support and interest in the joint initiative to all panel members for the active participation in assessing the competition and to Andrey Maleev in particular, for his leading role in the organization and holding of the contest.