BIOTROP declared Abd Aziz Mohd Yaras from Malaysia and Wilgi Sandes Hendarpan from Indonesia as the first prize winners for its 4th Biodiversity Conservation Photo Competition for the general and student category, respectively. They bested 433 contestants from 7 countries who joined the competition this year.

The Centre’s photo competition this year had “People and Biodiversity” as the theme. It was aimed to promote the various important economic, sociocultural, and environmental uses of the region’s rich biodiversity on people’s lives.

For the first time, the Centre opened two categories for the competition, namely:  general category (i.e., above 17 years old) and student category (i.e., 13 – 17 years old).  The Centre also solicited the participation of the general public to select the Most Favorite Photo through Facebook.

The complete list of winners and their countries of origin and photo titles are as follows: 

General Category:
First Prize: Abd Aziz Mohd Yaras, Malaysia, “This is what we inherited?”
Second Prize: Ari Hidayat, Indonesia, Indonesia, “Between fishermen and birds”
Third Prize: Kyaw Kyaw Winn, Myanmar, “Drinking water”

Student category:
First Prize: Wilgi Sandes Hendarpan,  Indonesia, “Competition for Sustenance”
Second Prize:  Ziamel Abbygaile M. Zacarias, Philippines,  “A day in the life of fisherman”
Third Prize:  Muhamad Rahvi Hazwandy,  Indonesia,  “Field”

The winner for the Most Favorite Photo was Ari Raharjo from Indonesia for his photo titled “Forest and Agriculture”.

The winning photos were judged based on four main criteria, i.e. the relevancy with the theme, originality, image quality (technique, concept, photo content, composition, lighting and other aspects of aesthetics) as well as creativity.

BIOTROP’s annual photo competition is among the 15 special initiatives under its 9th Five-Year Development Plan (2012-2017). The competition generally aims to usher greater public awareness and support to biodiversity conservation efforts in Southeast Asia.

For General Category:

First prize winner: “This is what we inherited?” by Abd Aziz Mohd Yaras

Second prize winner: “Between fishermen and birds” by Ari Hidayat

Third prize winner: “Drinking water” by Kyaw Kyaw Winn

For Student Category:

First prize winner: “Competition for Sustenance” by Wilgi Sandes Hendarpan


Second prize winner: “A day in the life of fisherman” by Ziamel Abbygaile M. Zacarias


Third prize winner: “Field” by Muhamad Rahvi Hazwandy

For Favorite Photo Category:

The winner: “Forest and Agriculture” by Ari Raharjo