Photographer Ole Jorgen Liodden won the prestigious award

Konkurransen Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 received 48.000 images from professional photographers and serious amateurs from 93 land.

Father of five from "Eagle's Nest" in Small Aadal won the category "Animals in their Environment" with a photo from Svalbard by a polar bear on an ice floe.

For 48. Once the year's best nature images named this week in what many call nature photography “Oscar.” Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year is among the most prestigious of its kind, and has traditionally large Norwegian participation.

In this year's edition went Ole Jørgen Liodden the top in the category Animals in Their Environment with photo Living on Thin Ice. The picture shows a polar bear on an ice floe and was taken during an expedition he led to Svalbard.

The bear went up on an ice floe and all voted, Bear tracks, pose to bear, floes and island in the background. I have been 15 times to Svalbard and dreamed of a situation like this, then it's funny that it happens, tells Liodden to foto.no.
On the website of the competition Liodden says that two weeks after the picture was taken had melted the ice around Svalbard, which was unusually early compared to previous years.

I hope the image also gets people to think about an environment that is disappearing faster than most of us think and to understand the murky future most polar bears have in store, with ever thinner ice or no ice at all, he says.
Liodden received two awards also last year's competition.

Here is the review from the competition webpage;

Ole Jørgen Liodden (Norway) – Living on thin ice
Ole had photographed polar bears more than a hundred times before around the islands of Svalbard, northern Norway, but on this particular summer evening, everything came together to sum up the bear and its ice environment. ‘The landscape, the shape of the ice floe, the shape of the bear and the footprints were just perfect,'Says Be. Drifting ice is normal for midsummer in the region. But, says Be, two weeks later, all the ice around Svalbard had melted, much earlier than in previous years. ‘I hope the picture also makes people think about an environment that is disappearing faster than most of us realise and appreciate the scary future most polar bears are facing, with ever-thinner ice or no ice at all.’