The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UNCCD is taking place now in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from August 17 to 28, 2026. Under the theme “Restoring Land. Restoring Hope,” the global summit focuses on fighting desertification, land degradation, and severe droughts, while emphasizing the sustainable management of rangelands and pastoralist communities.
The partnership between UNCCD COP17 in Mongolia and the Greenstorm Foundation aims to bring human stories to global policy discussions through visual storytelling. Organised in collaboration with the UNCCD-G20 Global Land Initiative, the 17th Greenstorm Photography Festival serves as a creative bridge between environmental policy and public awareness.
Inspiring Climate Action Through Visual Storytelling.
The Brief: Rangelands and grasslands are among the world’s most expansive yet overlooked ecosystems. Stretching across continents, they support biodiversity, pastoral livelihoods, food systems, and climate resilience. Despite their importance, many of these landscapes face degradation, invisibility, and misrepresentation.
This edition of the Greenstorm Photography Festival invites photographers to look closely at rangelands and grasslands—not just as spaces, but as living systems shaped by nature, people, and time. The theme seeks images that reveal their beauty, complexity, and relevance to our shared future
Photo Description:
The Sentinels - In December 2025, I was in Tanzania to climb Mount Meru, and spent a few days beforehand on safari. This shot of a baobab tree pair, was taken in Tarangire National Park just before sunset, not far from our camp. We, (my guide and I) were headed back after a day of game driving, around 5 p.m., when the light was still soft and the landscape quiet.
These two baobab trees stood out immediately; solid, balanced, and catching the last warmth of the day. I asked my guide to stop so I could photograph them. I’ve always been drawn to trees, but this moment felt different. There was a stillness to the place, and something about the way the light settled on them made everything feel briefly at rest. It felt like a very specific moment in time which was simple, but hard to describe. Baobabs in Tanzania are shaped by the animals around them.
Elephants rub against them and strip their bark, sometimes leaving them looking dismembered and worn down. These two show some of that damage, but they were still standing strong.
That contrast, the calm of the late afternoon, with the gentle warm light, and the marks of survival inscribed on the girth of the trees, was what stayed with me.
Under the dome in Mongolia. Third row, second image in.
BELOW: The well deserved winning image.
