the Asaad Adel Serhal Wildlife Photography Award was launched in 2021, in honour of the responsible hunter and anti poaching activists. This annual award was created with the aim of rewarding photographers who put their creativity to good use in raising awareness on Wildlife protection.
Photographic art, with its immediate and universal language, represents a formidable vehicle for raising awareness. It reinforces, in a virtuous way, the process of awareness on major environmental issues, such as biodiversity, climate and the ocean.
Wildlife photographers can encourage us to change, to innovate, to invent sustainable solutions in order to better rethink our lives and our economies.
The photographs – almost 13 images participated in the 3rd edition of the competition in 2023 – are carefully selected by a jury of renowned professional photographers for their technical and aesthetic excellence but also, and above all, for the relevance and strength of their message.
On Friday, August 25 2023, the Middle East Sustainable Hunting Center – MESHC – and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon celebrated the conclusion of the Assaad Adel Serhal Wildlife Photography Prize 2023– AASWPP, which was launched in cooperation with local and international partners, as an alternative activity for responsible hunters outside the hunting season.
Assad Serhal is the member of the Gusi Peace Prize board of Trustees 2023, the MIDORI Prize Winner for Biodiversity, the year 2018. Decorated by the minister of the environment with the “ Silver Lebanese Order of Merit Medal “, offered to Assad by The President of Lebanon, in the year 2019. He was awarded BirdLife Member of Honour from HIH Princess Takamado and was also awarded the IUCN Honorary Membership Award at the council meeting of the World Conservation Congress 2020.
The Assaad Adel Serhal Wildlife Photography Award – 2023– is funded by by the Hans Wilford Foundation (HWF) and promoted by the Middle East Sustainable Hunting Center – MESHC and Dar Shayban for Culture and Art.
The Winners
Michel Sawan | Winner of the Committee’s award | The location is a beach in northern Lebanon
Tsolag Hergelian | Winner of the Committee’s Award | The Location is in Anjar, Bekaa
Jean-Claude Berber |Winner of the first place | Audience voting | The location is in Jbeil, Mount Lebanon
Hadil Hamieh |Winner of the second place | Audience voting
Maroun Bou Raffoul |Winner of the third place| Audience voting | The location is in North Bekaa
Emil Boustani
Rabih Youssef
Grace Arfan
Jawad Al-Amin
Tony Bejjani
Wassim El Khatib
Gabi Nader
Maya Touma
THE JURY
The 2023 Judges
Our prestigious jury select the shortlisted and winning images.
1- Assad Serhal |Director General of the Society for the Protection of Nature (SPNL)
2- Ghassan Ramadan Jaradi | Eco-Ornithologist and Executive Director of The Lebanon National Rare Birds Committee
3- Fouad Itani | Co-Founder of the Association for Bird Conservation in Lebanon
4- Andre Bechara | SNOW and Eco tourism coordinator of Society for Protection of the Nature in Lebanon (SPNL)
5- Adonis Khatib | Head of the MESHC and field coordinator for responsible hunting at (SPNL)
6- Mona Sayegh | Visual artist
7- Soha Tehomi | Head of Gravity advisors
