The William Brown Conservation Award competition

About the award

The William Brown Conservation Award is a competition open to schools with children and young people aged between eight and 16. Children and young people can get involved through a school group taking part in the competition.

William Brown was a longstanding member of the Friends of the Zoo who had a passion for both education and conservation. We are delighted to partner with Friends of the Zoo to create this award to honour William's memory and his longstanding support for conservation.

Local and global wildlife is increasingly under threat. It is our responsibility to play an active and vital conservation role to ensure the future survival of species and habitats. You can help to conserve native wildlife in your local environment.

How to take part

Participants should:

1. Choose an aspect of local native wildlife: this could be a single animal species, a local habitat you love exploring, or a species of tree or other plant that appeals to you.
2. Tell us what you know and have discovered about your choice, and its conservation status. You can do this through posters, drawings, paintings, videos or a short piece of writing between 100 and 500 words.
3. Let us know what actions you have taken to protect your chosen species or habitat. This could be anything from planting wild flowers for bees and bats, cleaning up a polluted habitat, to joining a local red squirrel group.
4. Let as many people know what you have found out and done to help native wildlife and encourage others to do the same. You could communicate this through a school assembly, local press, social media or any other way. 

For more information about how to take part you can contact our education team by calling 028 9077 6277 extension 204 or 228, or email [email protected].

Prizes

• First prize: £250
• Second prize: £100

Important information

• The competition opens on Friday 22 November 2024.
• Entries close at 4pm on Friday 11 April 2025.
• Shortlisting will start on Monday 14 of April 2025. Shortlisting will be carried out by our zoo education team and Friends of the Zoo.
• All winners will be announced on our website and on social media on Wednesday 28 of May.

How to enter

You can enter the competition and submit entries by emailing [email protected].

You can also send us hard copies of your work by post to Belfast Zoo, Antrim Road, Belfast, BT36 7PN, or delivering them in person.

If you enter hard copies, you should include:

• your name
• school name
• school address
• postcode 
• phone number
• email address

William Brown Award entry terms and conditions

• The competition is open to children and young people aged eight to 16 only.
• Submissions must cover the topic of native species conservation.
• Submissions must follow guidelines and will be judged on appropriateness of topic; depth of exploration, presentation, conservation action, and communication with others.
• Submissions should have input from the children and proof of their work (submissions with work from teachers and facilitators alone will not be accepted).
• Inventories of all work that is submitted will be sent to you. You must check this before shortlisting starts.
• We will do all we can to take reasonable care of the entries you send in, but we cannot accept responsibility if we do not receive them (whether you have proof of posting or not), or for any loss or damage.
• Proof of electronic submission is not proof of receipt by Belfast Zoo.
• Belfast Zoo retains the right to free reproduction and exhibition of all entries. By entering, you grant permission for us to publish the work for an indefinite period in any media chosen and on web and social media communications. No commercial payment will be made by Belfast Zoo or Belfast City Council for the use of your entries.
• Submissions unfortunately cannot be returned to you.
• Entrants must be the sole author and owner of copyright for all submissions entered.
• All photos entered must be labelled with your name and category.
• If submitting an entry with an individual pictured, photographers must seek permission from anyone recognisable (or the parent or guardian of minors pictured).
• Belfast Zoo reserves the right to decide which submissions or parts of submissions are used for marketing or promotional resources.
• All entrants agree, by entering, that they will take part in related publicity and to the use of their name for the purpose of advertising, promotion and publicity of the competition without additional compensation.
• By entering, entrants will be deemed to have agreed to these terms and conditions.
• Belfast Zoo reserves the right to take age into consideration. Submitters will be judged on how well they have done for their age.
• A panel of judges will choose the winners. The decision is final, and no discussion will be entered into.
• No Belfast Zoo employees or contracted companies or partners may enter the competition.
• By entering, entrants will be deemed to have agreed to these terms and conditions.
• Proof of age or ID may be asked to be provided by finalists.

Data protection

Information is processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. We will not disclose your information to a third party except where it is necessary for us to comply with the law and provide this service. Read our full privacy policy.