These award-winning images powerfully capture the state of the climate and nature in 2023

The bacterial decimation of olive trees and the way oak leaves adapt when they're under attack are just two of the subjects covered by prize-winning images in this year's Earth Photo competition.

There were more than 1,400 entries for the international award for images that 'tell compelling stories about our planet', created by Forestry England, the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and visual arts consultancy Parker Harris.

Photojournalist Michal Siarek was awarded the Earth Photo 2023 prize in June for capturing on camera the dramatic evacuation of big cats from war-torn Ukraine to Poland.

The shortlisted images are now on show in London at the Earth Photo exhibition until 23 August, as well as five Forestry England sites around the UK until 28 January.

In December, they tour to the Lishui International Photography Festival in China.

Earth Photo’s objective is to "reveal the narratives behind the pictures, encouraging conversations about our world, its peoples, environments, and the changing climate".

Here are a few of the winners...

Photojournalist Michal Siarek was awarded the Earth Photo 2023 prize for documenting the evacuation of big cats from Ukraine to Poznań Zoo in Poland.

The rescue operation was initiated by Natalia Popova, a former equestrian champion, who turned her horse-riding centre outside Kiev into an asylum for animals and later co-organized evacuations to the zoo in Poland.

Siarek said: “Shortly after the Russian aggression, I was working as a fixer on the Polish-Ukrainian border. I overheard a rumour that an evacuation of lions and tigers from Kyiv was coming to the border.

"These were not zoo specimens but victims of black-market trade, exotic pets left behind in rubble and roaming freely on the frontlines. A hopeless cause, but two women were burning a candle at both ends to save as many as possible.”

Clare Hewitt made 24 wooden pin-hole cameras and installed them in 12 180-year-old oak trees at The Birmingham Institute to record their lives for her series Everything in the forest is the forest.

She said: “During lockdown, I called out for people living around the forest who were lonely or isolated, and shared photographic skills through monthly online workshops. Mirroring the social, supportive behaviour of oaks, we nurtured a creative network and formed friendships.”

Filippo Ferraro's series Wooden Diamonds tells the story of the olive tree epidemic in Salento, Southern Italy.

In the decade since 2013, more than 20 million trees have died in the region, due to infection from the plant bacterium Xyllela fastidiosa. Olive oil production has fallen by more than 90% - with huge economic as well as environmental impacts.

“This is the story of a local community that has lost its roots and its identity and is trying to rebuild them tree by tree, caring for a wounded landscape,” said Ferraro.

The photo Beatriz is part of Liv Milani's environmental art project Women and Trees, a collection of portraits and voices of women around the world who are standing for trees and the living Earth.

Grandmother Beatriz Cauper Garcia is a traditional healer in the Peruvian Amazon, with an extensive knowledge of medicinal plants.

Student Mae Macadam took a series of black and white photos - including Retreating Glacier - during a geography field trip to Iceland.

“The glacier is retreating rapidly, accelerated by anthropogenic climate change, revealing a vast U-shaped valley and a glacial lagoon at its base,” she said.

“I thought taking a photo here was crucial to highlight the visual impacts of global warming, as when my teacher first made this trip 30 years ago, the glacier was just at the edge of the school trip - it is now a half an hour walk away from the carpark, revealing just how drastically it has shrunk.”

Beekeeper Anna Sellen's photograph Meadow Study is part of the series Bees (and other Species), created with a group of six photographers.

It follows bees as environmental barometers, revealing gradual changes in the health of the natural world. In the UK, 97% of wildflower meadows have been lost since the 1930s.

The Earth Photo Award aims to stimulate conversations about the issues affecting our planet, and the impact that climate change is happening.

With 'Failure to mitigate climate change' seen as the biggest risk facing us over the next 10 years in the most recent edition of the World Economic Forum Global Risks report, such conversations are vital - as is action.

Indeed, 4 out of the top 5 biggest risks over the next decade were linked to the environment. As the report explains:

"Climate and environmental risks are the core focus of global risks perceptions over the next decade – and are the risks for which we are seen to be the least prepared. The lack of deep, concerted progress on climate action targets has exposed the divergence between what is scientifically necessary to achieve net zero and what is politically feasible."