Putting mangrove beauty and fragility in the spotlight

We’re thrilled to share the winners of the 12th Mangrove Photography Awards, an annual initiative by Mangrove Action Project that celebrates the vital connection between people and mangrove ecosystems through powerful visual storytelling. The winners were revealed ahead of World Mangrove Day, the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem.

This year’s competition saw a record-breaking 5,258 entries from 87 countries, capturing the beauty, fragility, and ecological importance of mangroves across the globe. From glowing nightscapes to intimate portraits of wildlife and communities, the winning images spotlight both the wonder and the vulnerability of these essential coastal forests.

Winners were announced across six categories this year — Wildlife, Landscape, Underwater, Threats, People, and Conservation Stories — alongside the title of Young Mangrove Photographer of the Year.

Building on last year’s inaugural partnership with the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, the Emirates Award and Arabian Gulf Award return once again, celebrating local photographers and conservation efforts in the UAE and wider Gulf region. This year also introduces the new UNESCO Award, recognizing the growing role of mangrove storytelling in global conservation dialogue.

Judged by a panel of renowned experts passionate about conservation storytelling — including Karine Aigner, Steve Winter, Esther Horvath, Pier Nirandara, Dhritiman Mukherjee, and Morgan Heim — this year’s selection calls attention to both the everyday and the overlooked sides of mangrove conservation.

“Stories are how we come to understand, remember and learn from the world. And conservation is a story, a complicated one. Photography has the ability to help us receive and feel close to those stories no matter our language,” said judge Morgan Heim.

Mangrove Photographer of the Year 2026

Gaurav Patil, from India, has been named Mangrove Photographer of the Year 2026, for his image, ‘Tangled glow: When life meets the ruins’ (above). Patil’s 13-second UV exposure captures a ghost net glowing under ultraviolet light, tangled in a mangrove on the tide-swept shore of Nandgaon village, Maharashtra, south of Mumbai.

The image reveals a quieter conservation crisis: discarded fishing nets carried in by currents and trapped in mangroves, turning these vital coastal barriers into hidden garbage hotspots. As Smithsonian Magazine has reported, an estimated 500,000 to one million tons of fishing equipment are abandoned in the ocean every year — gear that can severely damage mangrove ecosystems, entangling marine life and choking mangrove trees.

“This photographer has put life into a subject that normally looks dull but is deeply important for conservation. Ghost nets are a real problem,” said judge Dhritiman Mukherjee.

Mangrove forests cover only about 0.1% of the Earth’s surface, “and they play a far more important role in our lives than you may think; providing crucial nurseries and habitat for wildlife, storing five times more carbon than inland forests, and protecting and sustaining millions of coastal communities,” said Founder of the Awards, Leo Thom.

While decades of decline have recently stabilised, scientists warn that up to half of the world’s mangrove ecosystems are still at risk of collapse by 2050 — a reminder of why the stories captured through this year’s lens matter more than ever.

Click here to view all the winners and finalists on the Mangrove Photography Awards site.