CODE 4 NATURE 2026 - Solutions for a Sustainable World
A Coding Challenge
Welcome to CODE 4 NATURE 2026 — a national innovation challenge where technology meets sustainability, empowering innovators to develop solutions that strengthen environmental, social, institutional, and economic resilience for a better future. In a world shaped by climate uncertainty, biodiversity loss, and growing pressure on natural resources, the challenge seeks bold digital solutions that can help communities better understand, protect, and restore their ecosystems.
Building on the success of previous editions, this year’s challenge places a stronger emphasis on actionable, community-centric innovations that strengthen climate resilience, improve natural resource governance, and support informed decision-making at the grassroots level, supporting villages, local institutions, and ecosystems through data, technology, and collaboration.
Who Can Participate?
We encourage diverse teams of participants to develop solutions to address specific challenges faced by stakeholders in sustainably managing and conserving natural resources. With the increasing accessibility to open data, data analysis and visualisation tools, AI tools as well as app development platforms for non-programmers, the sky is the limit for people without coding experience to participate and develop solutions.
Whether an experienced programmer, a designer or an illustrator, or just starting out with a love for nature, this challenge offers a unique opportunity to create real change through technology. Those working on the ground to tackle some of these issues through NGOs or as individuals are also encouraged to make use of this opportunity to leverage their unique perspectives to solving problems. Code4Nature 2026 provides a great opportunity to form diverse, interdisciplinary teams to participate in this challenge.
💡 Indicative Themes
Participants are invited to create solutions around indicative themes like climate resilience, water security, land, forest & biodiversity restoration and local governance.
📋 Participation Details
Team Size
2–4 (interdisciplinary & diverse teams)
Eligibility
Indian citizens (18+ years)
Challenge Duration
1 September – 15 October, 2026
Format
Solution + Summary Submission
🏆 Prizes
🥇 1st Prize
₹ 1,00,000
🥈 2nd Prize
₹ 50,000
🥉 3rd Prize
₹ 25,000
- E-certificates for all final submissions
- Internship/volunteer opportunities at FES
- Winning solutions featured on indiaobservatory.org.in
⏰ Tentative Timeline
Registration: 01 August - 20 August 2026
Shortlisting: 26 August 2026
Challenge Period: 1st September – 15 October, 2026
Final Submission: 15 October, 2026
Results Announcement: 20 November 2026
📌 Evaluation Criteria
- Relevance, innovation, and feasibility
- Scalability, sustainability, automation, and user-friendliness
- Preference for reliance on Open data, FOSS tools & documented code
- Gender and diversity inclusion
🎯 Why Join?
- Strengthen agency of local communities
- Drive real impact on environmental issues
- Learn from and collaborate with experts
- Win exciting prizes and recognition
- Be part of India's eco-tech movement
🚀 Ready to Make an Impact?
Join developers across India to code for a greener, more sustainable future.
Register Now →
Licensing and Attribution
Entries submitted for the challenge including code, datasets, multimedia content etc. need to be licensed under a CC-BY-NC or CC-BY license. Selected outputs/tools may be used, modified or improved upon by the Foundation for Ecological Security at its discretion subject to licensing conditions. FES will not monetise the product in anyway, but would provide the product/tools for public use hosted on the India Observatory Platform. Participants must clearly document the source and licensing terms and conditions of any external data or code that they utilise in creating the project. Participants must ensure that submissions are not copies of already existing products but are original works.
Contact Us:
For enquiries and sponsorship opportunities, please contact
CODE4NATURE@fes.org.in
Welcome to CODE 4 NATURE 2026 — a national innovation challenge where technology meets sustainability, empowering innovators to develop solutions that strengthen environmental, social, institutional, and economic resilience for a better future. In a world shaped by climate uncertainty, biodiversity loss, and growing pressure on natural resources, the challenge seeks bold digital solutions that can help communities better understand, protect, and restore their ecosystems.
Building on the success of previous editions, this year’s challenge places a stronger emphasis on actionable, community-centric innovations that strengthen climate resilience, improve natural resource governance, and support informed decision-making at the grassroots level, supporting villages, local institutions, and ecosystems through data, technology, and collaboration.
Who Can Participate?
We encourage diverse teams of participants to develop solutions to address specific challenges faced by stakeholders in sustainably managing and conserving natural resources. With the increasing accessibility to open data, data analysis and visualisation tools, AI tools as well as app development platforms for non-programmers, the sky is the limit for people without coding experience to participate and develop solutions.
Whether an experienced programmer, a designer or an illustrator, or just starting out with a love for nature, this challenge offers a unique opportunity to create real change through technology. Those working on the ground to tackle some of these issues through NGOs or as individuals are also encouraged to make use of this opportunity to leverage their unique perspectives to solving problems. Code4Nature 2026 provides a great opportunity to form diverse, interdisciplinary teams to participate in this challenge.
💡 Indicative Themes
Participants are invited to create solutions around indicative themes like climate resilience, water security, land, forest & biodiversity restoration and local governance.
📋 Participation Details
🏆 Prizes
₹ 1,00,000
₹ 50,000
₹ 25,000
- E-certificates for all final submissions
- Internship/volunteer opportunities at FES
- Winning solutions featured on indiaobservatory.org.in
⏰ Tentative Timeline
📌 Evaluation Criteria
- Relevance, innovation, and feasibility
- Scalability, sustainability, automation, and user-friendliness
- Preference for reliance on Open data, FOSS tools & documented code
- Gender and diversity inclusion
🎯 Why Join?
- Strengthen agency of local communities
- Drive real impact on environmental issues
- Learn from and collaborate with experts
- Win exciting prizes and recognition
- Be part of India's eco-tech movement
Join developers across India to code for a greener, more sustainable future.
Register Now →Licensing and Attribution
Entries submitted for the challenge including code, datasets, multimedia content etc. need to be licensed under a CC-BY-NC or CC-BY license. Selected outputs/tools may be used, modified or improved upon by the Foundation for Ecological Security at its discretion subject to licensing conditions. FES will not monetise the product in anyway, but would provide the product/tools for public use hosted on the India Observatory Platform. Participants must clearly document the source and licensing terms and conditions of any external data or code that they utilise in creating the project. Participants must ensure that submissions are not copies of already existing products but are original works.
Contact Us:
For enquiries and sponsorship opportunities, please contact
CODE4NATURE@fes.org.in
