After much deliberation, Michael Dolan, age 11, from County Galway, Ireland, was chosen as the overall winner. Our final judge, photographer Tom Stoddart, said, “The high quality and diversity of the entries made judging very difficult, but also great fun!  Michael Dolan's winning image of a beach on Achill Island in Ireland stood out for its sheer beauty and simplicity.  It reminds us of what mankind will lose if we continue to destroy the world’s forests, oceans and air.”

Darren Fantom, age 12, from Derbyshire was the runner up, with his colourful photograph of a rainbow in a fountain.

With so many entries to go through, we are very grateful to the City & Guilds of London Art School for providing their professional insight to help The Prince’s Rainforests Project make the initial selection from the many entries. We would also like to thank Tom Stoddart for his time and expertise in selecting the final winners.

The winners in the five age categories are:

4-7 years: Niamh Southall, age 7, Lent Rise Primary School
8-10 years: Jessica Saunders, age 9, St Paul’s C of E Primary School
11-13 years: Michael Dolan, age 11, Scoil Ui Cheithearnaigh
14-16 years: Helen Rogers, age 14, George Heriot’s School
17-18 years:  Thomas Penfare, age 17, Sutton Grammar School for Boys

The highly commended images are:

4-7 years: Patrick Dolan, age 7
8-10 years: Jack Loosley, age 8
11-13 years: Darren Fantom, age 12
14-16 years: Thomas Arney, age 16
17-18 years: Arnaud T, age 17

Prizes:

All winners will receive a framed print of their photograph from The Prince’s Rainforests Project and the overall winner also receives 100 postcards of his winning image. The winners’ schools will receive a Sony Cyber-shot camera and a Digital Photo Printer.

In addition their photographs will be displayed in the National Geographic Store in London’s Regent Street from 22nd November to 14th December. For more information, please visit www.nglondonstore.co.uk.

ECards of the winning and highly commended images are now available here. However we were so impressed with the entries that we wanted to make more of them into eCards, so images by the following people will also be included: Christopher A, Nathaniel A, Emma B, Genevieve C, Zack C, Louisa C, Emily C, Jackson D, Tilly D, Toby E, Sarah F, Marley G, Tyler G, James H, Briana H, Pratik H, Milos N, James P, Lucia P, Freyja R, Alisha R, Chyi-Dean S, Abby T, Kameron T, Pech.

The aim of the competition

The Prince’s Rainforests Project for Schools/ Sony photography competition aimed to help raise awareness among school-aged children about the value of trees, tropical rainforests and their role in climate change.

The many powerful images submitted illustrated one of the four following themes:

1.Beauty of the rainforests
2.Rainforests in your daily life
3.What climate change means to you
4.What trees mean to you.

You can view all of the entries here.