Here are the winners of the #Forests2015 blog competition!

Anne-Gaelle Borg (L) and Nikki Chaudhary (R)
won the top blog competition prizes…

 
Our #Forests2015 blog competition received 63 entries from 32 countries. The battle was fierce, but also fun.

While we agree with “Hot Chocolate” who sung “Everyone’s a winner” back in 1978, we HAD to select a few, who were more “winning” than others.. 🙂

A first selection of five top blogs in the “Open” category, and five for the “youth” category, was done by you, the online public. The selection was based on the amount of “likes”, comments and views on each post.
The competition blogs received a total of 1,054 comments. Over 10,000 people participated in the voting.

The ten winning blogs then went to our blog jury. The jury consisted of scientists and professional communicators, a mix of both senior and young people. They selected the top blog for each category.

So, it is now my pleasure to announce the #Forests2015 winning blogs…

The winners in the “open” category

The jury prize for the top blog in the “open” category went to:

Les agriculteurs comoriens se mobilisent pour préserver leur forêt, by Anne-Gaëlle Borg in the Comoros.

Anne-Gaëlle Borg is a 25-year-old French woman. She studied communications in France and Scotland and graduated in 2012. She loves traveling. Her first international job was about teaching computing to school dropout orphans in Benin.
In 2014, Anne-Gaelle joined the NGO Dahari in the Comoros, as communications manager. Her role is to make people aware of the environmental and social situation in the Comoros, and to promote the activities implemented by Dahari to shape productive and sustainable landscapes with Comorian communities

Our other four winning blogs in the “open” category were:

• Lidereza indígena llora de rabia y lucha contra la deforestación, by Roberto Kometter in Peru.
• Carbon stock in rainforests: a buried potential, by Mieja Razafindrakoto in Madagascar.
• Revelando el universo microbiano del suelo como armonizador en bosques y grupos humanos, by Luis Villarreal-Ruiz in Mexico
• El Facebook habla de los bosques andinos, also by Roberto Kometter in Peru.

The winners in the “youth” category

The jury prize for the top blog in the “youth” category went to:

Integrating poplar based agroforestry and dairy farming by Nikki Pilania Chaudhary in India.

Nikki Pilania Chaudhary has a MSc in Business Economics and Finance, and is a farmer involved in poplar based agroforestry and modern day dairy-ing at her farm in Tanda Vijaisi (Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, India).
In the past four years she developed a huge passion for her work. Together with Gaurav, her husband, she expanded their business into a model farm which attracts a stream of visitors from all over India, who come to see their agroforestry model and dairy unit.

Our other four winning blogs in the “youth” category were:

• More money and better food security status through agroforestry in Ethiopia, by Atte Penttilä in Finland.
• Nutritionally fortified and palatable organic Harad Powder: an innovative herbal product, by Chandrashekhar Sanwal in India.
• Environmental friendly innovations to promote biodiversity, by Adnan Arshad in Pakistan.
• There is money in trees, by Maryann Wamaitha Gathekia in Kenya.

The prizes

The top blog in the “Youth” and “Open” categories will each receive a GoPro Hero4 Black edition camera, a donation by the FAO Forestry department.

The other eight winning blogs will receive one of these prizes:

• The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) donated four copies of their “Trees for Life” book, signed by Tony Simons, their Director General: a collectors’ item!
• IUFRO donated four printed copies of their latest assessment report on forests and food security. Signed by the lead author, these are collectors’ items!

A special prize for our top “Youth” blogger

As the youth were deeply involved and active at the World Forestry Congress, the Congress organizers all chipped in for a special prize:

With the cooperation of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), we are arranging for the Nikki, our top “youth” blogger, to visit their research centres in Delhi. The FAO Forestry department will fund the travel and accommodation costs up to US$1,000.

This will enable Nikki to further expand her knowledge on agroforestry and dairy farming, two topics she is passionate about. Nikki will be able to discuss directly with the lead scientists in these fields.

In name of the #Forests2015 blog competition jury, the #Forests2015 social media team and the organizers of the World Forestry Congress: Congratulations to all the winners, and all participants!