The LEAD Photo Gallery stocks over 700 photographs classified by key issues and by geographical region.

Photos from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Near East are available to download with an average resolution (maximum length of 600 pixels) in JPEG format to be freely used for educational or other non-commercial purposes. Please make sure that you give proper credit to the Photographer and the LEAD Photo Gallery indicating the name of the photographer and the web address in the credits. If you need the photo for printing and mass distribution please write to indicating the purpose of the publication. You can also request a higher quality photograph. Photos cannot be placed on a website different from the LEAD Photo Gallery and they cannot not be sold for any purpose.

Easy to search:
Find photographs through a free text search engine and get detailed information for each shot. You can also browse by selected keywords through our selection of photo galleries (Wildlife & birdlife galleries, Deforestation, Domestic animal diversity...)

Send E-cards:
Free and friendly way to share the information with your colleagues, by sending customized Electronic cards trough your email. Thanks to a friendly interface, they all can be sent by email to your friends and family, with 4 different models of electronic E-card (ECARD).

It is difficult to capture livestock, environment and development interactions in one shot. If you have such a photo, please share it with us. If you wish to contribute with your own photos, please send a message to

We would like to take this opportunity to thanks the FAO photo library and all the authors that contribute to the lead photo gallery, particularly Daniel Cornelis, Aurélie Binot, Federica Chiozza, Sophie Treinen, Enrique Murgueitio, Raúl Velásquez, Rogerio M. Mauricio, Peter Roeder, Nikolaus Schareika, Don Peden, Kai Sonder, Alessandro Carra, and all the members of the LEAD platforms.