With this letter we are happy to announce that Wikimedia Ukraine is officially starting international coordination of Wiki Loves Earth!

We encourage you, if it is not done yet, to add your country to the list on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2014#Participating_countries

We would like you to draw your attention to the following issues:

1) Dates you would like Wiki Loves Earth to take place. As far as we can see, the best timing for most countries will be either 15 April - 15 May or 1 - 31 May, but we are happy to discuss your suggestion - please comment on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2014#Dates

2) Funding. If you are willing to organise Wiki Loves Earth in your country, please by aware that Wikimedia Ukraine will not be able to provide national prizes for your countries (except souvenirs). You may want to look for local sponsors or apply for a grant - in this case, we will be able to support your request, but still you have to write it yourself :)

3) Criteria. We want to be clear what kind of photos we want to get. Obviously, this will include wide views of natural sites, but we have to decide whether we want to include or not representative biotopes [species most specific to the natural site]. Please comment on this at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2014#Scope

4) Prizes. We want to know what prizes you expect to get in the international part. We expect to have the same budget as for Wiki Loves Monuments 2013 - around 5000 US$. Last year there was one Wikimania scolarship (we want to have one this year as well, BUT we have to come with the result by late June to make it possible) and photography-related vouchers (should be something available in most, if not all, participating countries). If you have any ideas, please leave your feedback on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2014#Prizes

On our side, the international team will be happy to help you with the following:

1) technical coordination. Most of tools that were used for Wiki Loves Monuments last year will be adapted for Wiki Loves Earth

2) support with list conversion. If you have lists of natural monuments in any machine-readable format, we should be able to help you converting them into a wiki format. If you have no idea where to find lists of natural monuments, please contact us, but we do not guarantee we will be able to do it.

3) supporting your grant requests - it's up to you to write them, but we can provide help with them

4) providing souvenirs - e.g. calendars, postcards with best photos after the contest

Please do not hesitate to write to this mailing list if you need any help or advice.

Best regards,

Mykola Kozlenko (aka NickK)

for WLE international team