Overview of the Mangrove Photography Awards 2025
The Mangrove Photography Awards, launched in 2015 by the Mangrove Action Project (MAP), has crowned its 2025 winners and finalists in a global call to protect mangrove ecosystems. Celebrating imagery from photographers across 125 countries, the competition blends art and science to highlight the crucial role mangroves play in climate regulation, biodiversity, and coastal protection. The winning and shortlisted photographs serve as a powerful reminder that mangroves are not only beautiful landscapes; they are dynamic, living defenses against storms, rising seas, and habitat loss.
Grand Prize Spotlight: Aerial Scene over Mangroves
The grand prize went to a British biologist-photographer based in Florida, whose stunning aerial composition captures roseate spoonbills gliding above a lemon shark that stalks mullet in shallow, mangrove-bordered waters. This high-altitude perspective blends wildlife drama with a fragile coastal boundary where land and sea meet mangroves. The image elevates an urgent conservation message: the roseate spoonbill, dependent on shallow, fish-rich lagoons, faces increasing threats from warming oceans and retreating nesting habitats.
The Shot and Its Conservation Message
Beyond its visual impact, the photograph enshrines the photographer’s commitment to wetland restoration and protection. By placing emblematic species—the roseate spoonbill and the lemon shark—in a single frame, the image underscores how mangroves sustain diverse food webs while buffering coastal communities from hazards linked to climate change.
Mangroves as Climate Champions
Mangrove forests, often called amphibious forests, store five times more carbon per area than tropical rainforest ecosystems on land. They shield more than 15 million people from flood risk and harbor an astonishing array of species, from fish and birds to crustaceans and breakout microbial communities. Yet the very features that make mangroves resilient also make them vulnerable to urbanization, aquaculture expansion, and sea‑level rise. Recent assessments warn that roughly half of the world’s mangroves could disappear by 2050 if current pressures persist.
From Image to Action
The awards emphasize how striking visuals can translate into tangible conservation action. The winning and finalist photographs act as calls to safeguard wetlands, restore damaged mangrove habitats, and support coastal communities that rely on these ecosystems for food security, livelihoods, and protection from storms.
Finalists and the Broader Message
While the grand prize captures a dramatic moment, the 2025 finalists collectively span a range of mangrove landscapes—shorelines alive with wading birds, nurseries for juvenile fish, and communities managing preservation efforts. Together, these images illuminate mangroves’ biodiversity, resilience, and essential services, inviting viewers to rethink coastal stewardship and climate resilience through photography.
About MAP and the Awards
Founded by the Mangrove Action Project (MAP), the Mangrove Photography Awards seek to engage the public in mangrove conservation through powerful storytelling. By blending artistic interpretation with ecological facts, the competition raises awareness of mangrove ecosystems’ global significance and the urgent need to protect them for future generations.
Looking Ahead
As mangroves face mounting pressures, the 2025 awards reinforce a growing movement: conservation storytelling that blends artistry with science, inspiring policy makers, communities, and individuals to act. The images not only document beauty but also bear witness to the ecological importance of mangroves and the consequences of inaction. For more context on mangrove decline, see discussions highlighting potential losses by 2050.
