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🌎 Encouraging youth to take personal action to nurture and protect the environment 💚 Meet our new 2026 International Young Eco-Hero Award Winners! 🏆🌿

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We are thrilled to announce our 2026 International Young Eco-Hero Award Winners! 🌍🏆✨

Meet 16 extraordinary conservation leaders, ages 10 to 16, representing 9 countries across 5 continents. From protecting marine life and restoring fragile coastlines to advancing sustainable agriculture and conserving water, these inspiring youth are tackling some of our planet’s most pressing environmental challenges. 🌿🌊

Join us in celebrating their passion, innovation, and unwavering commitment to a greener future!

👉 Discover all of our 2026 Eco-Heroes and read their stories at https://actionfornature.org/eco-hero-awards/2026-winners (link in bio)

#EcoHeroes #ActionForNature #YoungEcoHeroes #YouthLeadership #Conservation

Nithya Tammana, Age 11, USA — Dr. Mary Griffin-Jones Special Award | Save Drop

Spencer Hitchen, Age 15, Australia — Shimon Schwarzschild Special Award | Save Sunrise Glossies

Harley Fatahillah Yodhaloka Sunoto, Age 14, Indonesia — 1st Place | Mangrove Warrior

Lily Valentina Niederhofer, Age 11, Portugal — 2nd Place | Octopus Defender

Hao-Han Wu “Hank”, Age 13, Taiwan — 2nd Place | No Butts Alliance

Neha Blunt, Age 13, USA — 3rd Place | Water Saver

Juan Sebastian Avila Perez, Age 14, Colombia — 3rd Place | Alas de Inclusion/Birds of Inclusion

Noah Beshto, Age 10, Ukraine — Honorable Mention | Wildlife Advocacy

Amaira Kapoor, Age 16, India — 1st Place | Project Vaayu

Hala Sharafeddine, Age 16, Lebanon — 2nd Place | Code for Earth

Jack Aronian, Age 16, USA — 2nd Place | H5N1 Prevention

Gunisha Kaur, Age 16, India — 3rd Place | Buzzing Blooms

Arjun Jain, Age 16, USA — 3rd Place | HydroBlossom

Terry Yu, Age 16, USA — 3rd Place | Students for a Greener Future

Abhiveer Gulati, Age 16, India — Honorable Mention | Clean Air Campaign

Stella Hong, Age 16, USA — Honorable Mention | HydroHarvest by @actionfornature

Our Action For Nature 2026 International Young Eco-Hero Award Winners are proving that you don’t have to wait until to solve environmental problems! 🌍✨

From building sustainable cooling systems to rehabilitating wildlife and teaching climate coding, these inspiring youth are shifting the narrative from climate anxiety to climate innovation. Every action for nature counts! 🌿

Meet all of our winners and get inspired: https://actionfornature.org/eco-hero-awards/2026-winners

#EcoHeroes #ActionForNature #YouthLeadership #ClimateInnovation #YoungEcoHeroes by @actionfornature

Loch Ness is about to welcome a new monster! This beastie is not to be trifled with: it has razor-sharp teeth and can easily knock down a fully-grown tree. 🌳 🦫

Beavers were last sighted in the area around Scotland’s most famous lake between 1526 and 1527. Now, literally 500 years later, these key ecosystem engineers will be reintroduced to the local environment.

Following extensive community consultation, NatureScot has granted an official release license to the conservation charities Trees for Life and the Beaver Trust. Over the next three years, these organizations will carefully relocate up to 15 beaver family groups into the River Ness catchment, with the first releases scheduled to begin within weeks.

As a vital keystone species and master builders, beavers naturally restore wetlands and create thriving habitats for fish, amphibians, and birds by constructing dams and lodges. Additionally, their activity moderates water flow, which helps prevent downstream flooding and builds climate resilience.

#WildlifeWednesday #Conservation #Rewilding #LochNess #Beavers by @actionfornature

Congratulations to our Ambassador Lily, who took second place in the 2026 International Young Eco-Hero Awards. Run by Action For Nature, the awards recognise environmental achievements by young people aged 8 to 16.

Lily started campaigning against octopus farming at nine. Her work helped push Nueva Pescanova to drop its plans for an octopus farm, which the company announced this summer.

She now speaks publicly about octopus welfare and co-leads our Hero Kids programme, encouraging other young people to take action for the ocean.

We’re so proud to stand with Lily as she keeps inspiring more people to take action and protect what we love 🩵 by @actionfornature

Out of 26,000 entries, Imre Potyó’s “Hidden Worlds” won the 2026 European Wildlife Photographer of the Year by capturing lesser horseshoe bats hibernating inside a Hungarian mine. 📸🦇

Just in time for Bat Week, the long-exposure shot highlights a unique micro-habitat where glowing pin mould thrives on the guano of bats that occasionally wake to hunt during winter. ❄️

Potyó safely captured this fragile ecosystem during a controlled bat count after 13 years of documenting the species. 💚

Swipe to see more stunning, award-winning photos, including an elephant picking flowers and two bulls peacefully grazing in a meadow! 🌼🐘

#WildlifeWednesday #BatWeek #WildlifePhotography #LesserHorseshoeBat #NaturePhotography

“Playing by Necessity.” Highly Commended, Underwater. In the shallow waters of the Archipiélago de Espíritu Santo National Park, Mexico, a young California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) plays with a feather. For young sea lions, a playful nature is a survival strategy. The juveniles do not yet possess the strength and endurance of adults and are unable to accompany them on deep dives or multi-day hunting expeditions. Staying close to the colony, young sea lions hone the skills they will need later in life. Mexico’s sea lions are threatened by fishing gear such as drifting ghost nets, as well as by the impacts of climate change. This makes it all the more important for young animals to grow up healthy and reach adulthood on this protected island group, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005.

Credit: Henley Spiers – United Kingdom / European Wildlife

“Evolution”
Winner, Humans and Nature
Travelling to Thailand, my hope was to see a Malayan sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) in the wild. I got my wish – though not quite the way I had imagined. A bear had taken to dropping by the visitor centre at Kaeng Krachan National Park, wandering fearlessly behind the rangers’ kitchen in search of food scraps. On this day, it climbed into the waste incinerator and fell asleep inside. And this despite having some 3,000 square kilometres of habitat at its disposal within the park – its behaviour, in other words, had nothing to do with habitat loss by @actionfornature

"Young people don't need to wait for permission or perfection to act. We can be part of the present and the action right now. Even a small, simple, half-baked idea can create massive change, and I would love to see everyone do that." – 2026 Eco-Hero Amaira Kapoor

In April 2024, North India faced a severe heatwave with temperatures nearing 50°C/122°F. While sitting in her air-conditioned classroom, 2026 Eco-Hero Amaira Kapoor realized that nearby government school students were studying in sweltering heat without proper ventilation or reliable electricity. This local observation led her to build a sustainable evaporative cooling system from used terracotta cups. Project Vaayu was born!

Learn more: https://actionfornature.org/eco-hero-winners/amaira-kapoor

#YouthLeadership #ProjectVaayu #Innovation #ClimateAction #ActionForNature by @actionfornature

Congratulations to 16-year-old innovator Amaira Kapoor for being highlighted in Education Times and securing 1st place in the 2026 Eco-Hero Awards! 💚

Through her initiative, Project Vaayu, Amaira developed a low-cost, eco-friendly cooling system to help government school students cope with extreme summer heat.

The innovative system repurposes discarded terracotta tea cups, known as kulhads, and uses an energy-efficient pump to circulate water, cooling the surrounding air naturally through evaporation.

Field testing across four primary schools has demonstrated that these sustainable units can lower classroom temperatures by 6°C to 10°C.

By reaching over 400 children with these cooling installations, Amaira is successfully tackling educational inequality and climate resilience using locally available materials.

📰 Read the full feature on Education Times: https://www.educationtimes.com/learning/16-year-old-gurugram-innovator-amaira-kapoor-builds-low-cost-cooling-unit-using-terracotta-cups-all-about-project-vaayu/articleshow/134916822.cms

#ProjectVaayu #EcoHero #EducationTimes #SustainableInnovation #ClimateAction by @actionfornature

Have you ever seen a “white hart”? 🤍🦌

This incredibly rare white red deer stag was recently spotted in the wilds of Devon during the annual rutting season. While white harts have inspired myths for centuries, the science behind their striking coats is just as fascinating.

✅ A “white hart” describes an adult male red deer with a white coat, which experts from the British Deer Society explain is usually caused by leucism, a condition where the animal lacks hair and skin pigment while keeping its normal eye and nose color.

✅ True albinism is even rarer than leucism, though localized populations can occasionally carry a strong gene for these striking color variations.

✅ These stags are extremely elusive, but they temporarily emerge from hiding during the short autumn rutting season to compete for mates and establish territory.

✅ Because these rare animals are so visually striking, wildlife conservationists strongly advise against sharing their exact locations to protect their welfare from human disturbance.

📸 Credit: Brian Johnston

#WhiteHart #RedDeer #WildlifePhotography #NaturePhotography #Wildlife by @actionfornature

"We are not just the future. We are already part of the solution. Young people bring creativity, energy, and the ability to inspire change within their very communities."

2026 Eco-Hero Gunisha Kaur shares the heart behind Buzzing Blooms and explains how small, inclusive actions create lasting hope for both nature and people.

🐝 Learn more: https://actionfornature.org/eco-hero-winners/gunisha-kaur

#YouthLeadership #EcoHero #PollinatorGardens #ClimateAction #ActionForNature by @actionfornature

Congratulations to 2026 Eco-Hero Winner Gunisha Kaur, recently highlighted by The Times of India and Mint for her groundbreaking initiative, Buzzing Blooms. 🐝🌿🌸

At 16, Gunisha is transforming underused urban spaces into chemical-free pollinator gardens designed specifically to be sensory-friendly for neurodivergent youth. Her gardens have already boosted local pollinator species richness by 155% and engaged over 8,000 community members across India and Thailand.

📰 Times of India Feature: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/science/earth/meet-gunisha-kaur-the-16-year-old-from-ludhiana-who-won-third-place-at-the-2026-international-young-eco-hero-awards-her-pollinator-gardens-increased-recorded-species-richness-by-155/articleshow/134980682.cms

📰 LiveMint Feature: https://www.livemint.com/science/news/meet-gunisha-kaur-the-16-year-old-eco-hero-creating-inclusive-gardens-for-pollinators-and-children-across-indian-cities-11792246514855.html

#EcoHero #BuzzingBlooms #YouthInAction #Biodiversity #InclusiveAction by @actionfornature

Who says you have to wait until adulthood to make a difference?

At just 16, Hala Sharafeddine is already making her mark, combining her passion for technology with a mission to create meaningful environmental change.

But what makes her journey even more interesting is how she’s helping other young girls become part of that change.

Swipe to discover the story behind this young Lebanese changemaker and her international recognition.

Follow @nextgenleb for more inspiring stories of Lebanese talents, innovators, and changemakers shaping what’s next.

#NextGEN #HalaSharafeddine #LebaneseTalent #YoungInnovators #WomenInTech by @actionfornature

For over 60 years, London’s Natural History Museum has put out an annual call to photographers across the globe to submit wildlife images that capture the beauty and complexity of nature.

The winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition — which awards prizes in nearly two dozen categories — are then invited to showcase their work in a public exhibition at the museum. Judges selected the 2026 honorees out of a record 65,403 entries from young people and adults in 121 countries and territories.

“This year’s winning photographs demonstrate the extraordinary power of wildlife photography to help us see nature differently,” museum Director Doug Gurr said in a Tuesday press release provided to Nice News, adding: “Together they remind us that every species plays a role in the complex web of life, and why understanding and protecting the natural world has never been more important.”

Scroll to see some of our favorite winning photos from this year’s contest, from a shot of an urban-adapted coyote in San Francisco to a portrait of a scorpion burrowing in India.

1. “The Meeting Place” by James Lewin | Animals in their Environment

📝 : Nice News #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography #WildlifeWednesday #Nature #Earth

“Flight of the Bumblebee” by Amelie Davis | 10 Years and Under

“Scenes from the Swamp” by Isak Pretorius | Behavior: Birds

“A Watchful Eye” by Aaron Sanders | Animal Portraits

“Labour of Love” by Oscar Whitfield | 11-14 Years

“Protective Pose” by Anton Sorokin | Behavior: Amphibians and Reptiles

“Shifting Sand” by Sitaram Raul | Behavior: Invertebrates

“Birdsong Painted in Light” by Konrad Gräeter | 15-17 Years

“Shedding Light” by Agorastos Papatsanis | Plants and Fungi

“On the Outskirts” by Loren Elliott | Photojournalist Story Award

“Escape Artistry” by Michał Michalski | Natural Artistry

“Making Morays” by Tony Wu | Under Water by @actionfornature