A nature photography competition that has added more than one million photos to the public domain is coming to Malta.

Photographers, hobbyists and members of the general public will as of Sunday be able to submit photos taken at any of the roughly 300 protected natural sites in Malta as part of the Wiki Loves Earth local competition. 

The top 10 winning photos will receive prizes and be published by Times of Malta. They will also be submitted to the international competition, where they will compete with photographs taken from around the world.

Last year, more than 63,000 photos from across 34 countries were submitted as part of the international competition. Well over one million photos have been submitted to the competition since it was created 12 years ago. 

Wiki Loves Earth is organised by Wikipedia groups around the world to celebrate the natural environment and educate the public about flora, fauna, landscapes and underwater environments. 

Photos submitted to the competition are added to the Wikimedia Commons library of public domain photos and are widely used on Wikipedia, bringing them to a worldwide audience.  

The local competition is organised by Wikimedia Community Malta and is a sister competition of Wiki Loves Monuments, which has been taking place in Malta since 2016 and which has seen local submissions rank in the top 20 photos worldwide. 

“We hope that public education projects like Wiki Loves Earth and Wikipedia can contribute to the preservation of Malta's natural environment and encourage conservation efforts by documenting and helping people appreciate our natural heritage,” a community spokesperson said. 

Wiki Loves Earth launches in Malta on World Environment Day, Sunday, June 5, and runs for one month.  

Contestants can share as many photos as they like and the photos can have been taken at any time.

To get started, visit wikimalta.org/WLE