Photography & Art Competition | Our Living Cities: Discovering Urban Biodiversity

event

Photography & Art Competition | Our Living Cities: Discovering Urban Biodiversity

05

Jul

We invite students, youth, and adults to take part in this creative competition celebrating urban biodiversity, from the birds, insects, and small ecosystems that thrive alongside us! All artworks be submitted before 15 October 2026, 11:59 PM (Macau Time).

Call for Entries!

Following our 2025 theme “Green Shields: Nature’s Defence for Our Future,” we invite you this year to look more closely into the living details of our cities.

This year’s competition celebrates urban biodiversity, hence the birds, insects, and small ecosystems that thrive alongside us. From a sparrow on a streetlight to insects in a school garden, nature is not separate from the city.

We welcome students, youth, and the public to capture and interpret the richness of biodiversity in urban spaces through photography and art.

This competition is organised by the Department of Science and Environment in collaboration with the Department of Media, Art and Technology of the University of Saint Joseph, and sponsored by the 2026 Drop by Drop Project “ Sponge City Macao: Harnessing Nature for Urban Water Solutions”.

Selected entries will be exhibited at The Venetian Macao!

Theme:

Biodiversity in the Urban Landscape

These species may not be rare, but they are our everyday neighbors, often overlooked in our daily lives. Reveal the hidden biodiversity that surrounds us and celebrate the nature that makes our urban environments vibrant and resilient.

For this competition, urban space refers specifically to human-built and human-dominated environments, including:

Streets, sidewalks, and residential areas
School campuses and courtyards
Buildings, walls, rooftops, and other structures
Playgrounds, paved areas, and urban infrastructure

Natural areas such as forests, countryside, undeveloped coastlines, or wilderness are excluded. However, small pockets of nature within built environments such as roadside trees, planter boxes, school gardens, or vegetation growing on or around structures are acceptable, as long as the setting is clearly urban.

Suggested Sub-Themes:

The lives of urban wildlife in and around our cities
Hidden wildlife in everyday spaces
How plants and animals adapt to urban environments
Urban microhabitats (home gardens, balconies, gardens, drains, walls, trees, rooftops)
The role of common species in urban ecosystems
People and urban nature

Categories:

Category 1: School Category – Artwork

Primary
Secondary

Artwork Submission Guidelines:

Eligibility: Open to all primary and secondary school students.
Max Entries: Maximum 1 submission per participant, group work allowed (max 5 persons)
Format: Physical or digital Drawing, Painting and Artwork (natural materials are accepted, eg: pressed leaf art)
Observation location: School campus

AI Policy: AI-assisted artwork is permitted only if its use is clearly declared and the core subject must be based on the student’s own sketches or field observations. Purely AI-generated images without original observational input are disqualified. Any use of AI that is not declared will also result in disqualification.

All entries must be original work
Each submission must include:
- Title
- Location
- Short caption (max 100 words)

Category 2: Open Category – Photography

Photography Submission Guidelines

Eligibility: Open to everyone
Max Entries: 2 submissions per participant
Format: Minimum 5 megapixels (JPEG/ PNG/ Tiff)
Observation location: All photos must be taken within the Greater Bay Area (GBA)
AI Policy: Any use of AI is NOT permitted
Photo Editing: Basic adjustments, such as exposure, white balance, contrast, color correction, cropping, and tone adjustments, are permitted. Significant digital manipulation, including adding, removing, or altering elements of the image, is not allowed.
Each submission must include:
- Title
- Location
- Short caption (max 100 words)

Participants are eligible for only 1 prize per category

Awards & Prizes:

Each category will include the following:

1st Prize：MOP 1,000 + Certificate
2nd Prize：MOP 800 + Certificate
3rd Prize：MOP 500 + Certificate
5 Honourable Mentions：Eco-Gift + Certificate

Special Awards

Best Urban Biodiversity Story (Based on caption)
Best Observation-Based Artwork (School Category)

Judging Criteria

Message and Storytelling	30%
Relevance to Theme	25%
Creativity and Originality	25%
Visual Impact and Technical Quality	20%

How to Submit:

School category submission click here

Open category submission click here

Online Submission: Submit your entry via the online submission form.
Physical Submission: Submit your physical artwork together with the completed online submission form.

Deadline:

All entries (including online uploads and physical submissions, where applicable) must be submitted before 15 October 2026, 11:59 PM (Macau Time).

Terms & Conditions:

Entries must be original, unpublished biodiversity works.
If any category receives fewer than five submissions, or the highest-scoring entry in that category fails to reach the evaluation threshold (70 points), the Organiser reserves the right to withhold part or all of the awards in that category.
The welfare of the subject is paramount. Entries showing evidence of animal distress, baiting, or habitat destruction will be disqualified.
Participants may be asked to provide the original metadata (EXIF data) or location details to verify that the photo was taken within the Greater Bay Area.
Personal data collected will be used solely for the administration of this competition and will not be shared with third parties without consent.
In case of repeated uploading from the same person/group, the Organizer reserves the right to accept the last upload. In case of repeated uploading of the same file/photograph from different persons/groups, the Organizer reserves the right to accept the first upload.
AI-generated elements must be declared (if applicable)
The Organizer reserves the right to disqualify any entry that is considered offensive, inappropriate, or not in line with the urban setting requirements.
Participants retain authorship but grant organizers rights for educational and promotional use (with credit)