Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Wiki Loves Earth 2025 in Serbia (ID: 22963527)

WLE 2025 Proposal feedback

Dear WLE team in Serbia,

Thank you for submitting your proposal and your intention to organise Wiki Loves Earth in 2025.

We are currently in the process of reviewing your application, but before making a final decision, we would like to clarify a few points with you.

Could you please provide more details about the Walking Tours you plan to organise — what outcomes have you observed from past tours, particularly in relation to competition? Additionally, where are the upcoming tours planned, and will they focus on areas that currently need better coverage?

We look forward to your reply. Thank you!

Best regards, OlesiaLukaniuk (WMUA) (talk) 13:43, 5 March 2025 (UTC)

@Ivan25: Referring to Olesia's comments above, I wanted to confirm that Wiki Loves Earth-related Rapid Fund proposals are being formally co-reviewed by both the Community Resources team and the WLE Organizing team supported in part by Olesia, so the feedback reflects both feedback and discussion from both of these groups. Funding decisions on these proposals are also being finalized in a cooperative manner between the WLE organizing team and the Community Resources team as a part of this process. Speaking more broadly, this collaboration is part of a broader effort to support more localized review and decisionmaking when resourcing major Wikimedia campaigns. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 17:25, 5 March 2025 (UTC)

Dear @OlesiaLukaniuk (WMUA) and @I JethroBT (WMF),

Thank you both very much for your questions. I will try to explain it all bellow.

Past photo-walking tours in the previous editions of WLE in Serbia were very successful in the term of quantity (number of photos), but also quality (good photos). Also, I would like to emphasize some statistics. In 2023 we had more than 1,500 photos collected in photo tours, and in 2024 this number reached roughly 2,000. We hope to jump over this figure in 2025.

Main goals in photo-walking tours is to gather WLE community and all interested enthusiasts (to share knowledge, ideas, experience), to collect as many photos possible, to get quality photos, to promote nature protection (together with state Conservation Institutes) and to "uncover" less covered locations.

For the upcoming WLE edition, photo-tours are still in the planning process and this usually depends on the weather conditions (in 2023 for example we had one of the rainiest and stormiest seasons, but 2024 was completely opposite with extreme temperatures for more than 30 consecutive days). One of them will be in Belgrade (some new locations are protected meanwhile), second one probably in Novi Sad, and third and fourth is still in negotiation with Nature Protection Institutes for special entrance license in some reserves (one we got in 2023, for example), but this will depend on weather conditions mainly. Idea is of course to cover less "exposed" sites.

I hope you will get the better insight in our planned tours now, and also if any further questions, let me know!

Best, Ivan25 (talk) 18:18, 5 March 2025 (UTC)