"Shoot the Woods," a Contest to award the most beautiful photos of Italian forests
The images submitted in the six editions of the "Shoot the PEFC Forest" contest by amateur and professional photographers tell the story of Italy, from north to south, through snapshots that capture all the wonder but also the great fragility of these ecosystems to be preserved and protected at all costs.
A valuable awareness-raising tool to celebrate not only the beauty of Italy's forests but to emphasize, through images, the increasingly urgent need to protect and enhance the forests of the entire Planet. It is with this objective that PEFC Italy (Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes), the body promoting the proper and sustainable management of forest heritage, organizes the "Shoot the PEFC Forest" photo contest every year.
This year, after six editions in which as many as 2,596 photographs were shared on Instagram, PEFC Italy wanted to revisit this journey of images and suggestions by launching the photo contest "PEFC 2023: the Best of the Best," in which the best shots submitted to the jury from 2017 to 2022 participated. To choose the best images of this 2023 edition, which aimed to select the Italian "best of," an online vote.
"With this contest, and through the photos in the competition, we would like to reiterate a clear message," explains Eleonora Mariano, head of Pefc Italy's Projects and Communications office, "we need a world in which forests and their beauty are defended and preserved for future generations."
A photo contest that is meant to be an invitation to do one's part, to feel involved, both in terms of safeguarding forests and in terms of combating climate change, the effects of which are becoming more evident and catastrophic every day. This is why PEFC invites people to "be" in the forest, to take care of the forest heritage, protecting it and not leaving it to its own devices, but managing forestry activities in a sustainable and conscious way. Buying a product of forestry origin with the PEFC label guarantees the consumer a product from a sustainably managed forest, just as obtaining certification for one's own forest allows forest owners to certify themselves according to PEFC's Italian standards but also to sell their certified products in the rest of the world, thus sharing in the development of an increasingly traced, virtuous and sustainable forest-wood-paper supply chain.
