Can you take a photograph which will communicate to exhibition visitors the essential natural characteristics of your area, and the importance of looking after it – particularly as we face up to climate change ?

If so you are in line to win £3,750 as our national winner, or one of the other prizes in the £10,000 prize pot.

Your pictures can show good things or bad, be beautiful, funny or shocking. The important thing is that you communicate your vision of caring for the natural world, and the impact of human behaviour on the health of the planet.

Photographs will be judged in two subject categories:

* local landscape and wildlife
* people having an impact on where we live

Each entry should have a short caption (no more than 20 words) which describes what the image means to you, and you may enter up to two images for each subject category. Pictures will be judged on artistic merit and the power of the image to communicate to the viewer.

The best images will be displayed at an exhibition at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens in April 2010, when judging will take place, and prizes awarded.

What sort of pictures ?

We are looking for beautifully observed, well composed pictures which are more than just a snapshot. Remember that a good picture is worth 1,000 words … You can interpret the categories as imaginatively as you like. For example the landscape and wildlife category could be townscape with weeds if you wish. And people having an impact on where we live could be people picking up litter, clearing paths and rivers, or learning how to lay hedges and build dry stone walls. Or recycling: one of the easiest ways to have an impact on the environment is recycling aluminium drinks cans, empty aerosols and clean foil, which is 20 times more energy and carbon efficient than making them from virgin metal.