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Mission and Ethics

Conservation, Integrity and Excellence in Photography.

Our Values

The principles that guide WEPA include Conservation, Integrity and Excellence in Photography.

Any photographer who wants to become a member of WEPA, must demonstrate these values through his photography. His/hers works should help protect biodiversity and natural ecosystems integrity. He/she must adhere to moral and ethical principles, to act in order to establish standards in nature conservation and be a model for others.

 

Ethical Principles

Members and participants in the projects of the Association must comply and maintain the highest ethical standards in their actions and behavior in the natural environment.

For this we adopted a set of basic principles, as follows:

  1. Integrity – Our work is genuine, honest and focused on the idea of conserving natural ecosystems.
  2. Respect – We believe in respect and professional behavior in front of the subjects of photos, as well as in relation with the people with whom we are interacting.
  3. Professionalism – our individual behavior reflects the image and integrity of the Association as well as its impact and credibility.

Those who violate these principles will be excluded from the Association.

Based on the three principles we have adopted the following policies:

Behaviour in Nature

Association advocates for minimizing the impact in the areas and on the subjects of photographs taken by members of the Association:

  1. Integrity of the subject or his health is more important than anything else, including the capture itself. The basic element is maintaining a safe working distances, informed and responsible to the topic.
  2. Minimizing our impact on nature, in the area where we photograph – without leaving behind any traces – any waste must be removed from the area in which we worked.
  3. The rules and legislation in each area in which we photograph must be observed.
  4. Partners in the field of nature conservation should be treated with respect and professionalism.

 

Use of Captive Animals

In some cases, shooting of captive animals can be a rare source of images that can be used for the specific purpose of preservation of species. The use of captive animals for taking pictures should be governed by the following rules:

  1. Integrity of the subject or his health is more important than anything else, including the capture itself.
  2. Any person or institution that exploits animals should not be supported or engaged in projects of the Association.
  3. The images of captive animals will be presented accurately and as captive animals and will never be presented as animals in the wild.

 

Digital Manipulation of Images

 

We believe that the digital manipulation of the images must not alter the content and not distort the event presented. Creative manipulation is accepted, provided that the end user is notified about the image being digitally manipulated.