Press release

VIENNA, 13 February 2007 - The Spanish OSCE Chairmanship today announced a photo contest under the theme "Land and water, protecting our fragile environment".

The main prize for a single photo (or series) will be an Canon EOS-30D camera kit. Several runners-up will receive cash prizes of $500 each.

Entry forms and rules for the Photo Contest are available on this page or can be downloaded from: http://www.osce.org/item/23220.html

There is no entrance fee, and the contest is open to all photographers, professional and amateur, living and working in the OSCE region.

The photographs should reflect on environmental issues relating to land and water within one of the 56 OSCE participating States and should have been taken after the year 2000.

OSCE staff members are not eligible to participate in the contest.

Both single images and series (not more than 8 photographs per series) can be entered.

The deadline for submitting photographs is 31 March 2007.

The judging will take place at the end of April, and the winner will be announced at the end of May during the 15th OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum in Prague, where an exhibition of the winning images will be displayed.

This year, the topic of the Forum will be "Key challenges to ensure environmental security and sustainable development in the OSCE area: Land degradation, soil contamination and water management".