Earth love

A banded demoiselle hovers over a dandelion’s seedhead.Photo: Sven Damerow

From the Wiki Loves Earth photographic competition, we present a few winning images for this Sparkkle Moment, celebrating the fragile, improbable beauty of the Blue Planet we share. The competition theme was ‘protected areas’ – landscape conservation areas, national parks and other unique locations that make up a large proportion of the world’s natural heritage. The images are available to all (with credit) via Wikimedia Commons.

A group of people walking through Hoggar National Park, Algeria. Photo: Aboubakrhadnine

A hillside of flowers in Ukraine’s Carpathian National Park. Photo: Mykhailo Remeniuk

Blue Water Cave in the Philippines, part of the Purangi River system. Photo: Glenn Palacio

Tourist boats line the waters of Ratargul Swamp Forest – the only flooded forest in Bangladesh. Photo: Abdul Momin

The shrinking Grey Glacier in southern Chile. Photo: Pablo A. Cumillaf

Truly a rare moment captured – a gnarled juniper tree in Crimea’s Zakaznik Novyi Svit nature reserve. Behind it, the Milky Way, and a shooting star or satellite in the upper central portion of the image. Photo: Vladimir Voychuk

See all the winners at Wiki Loves Earth.