WORLD ASSOCIATION OF ZOOS AND AQUARIUMS - UNITED FOR CONSERVATION - Building a Future for Wildlife The World Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Strategy WAZA EXECUTIVE OFFICE, BERNE, SWITZERLAND, 2005 Editor: Peter J. S. Olney Layout and Design: Peter Dollinger Publisher: WAZA Executive Office 3012 Bern, Switzerland phone: ++41-31-300 20 30 fax: ++41-31-300 20 31 email: [email protected] [email protected] web site: http://www.waza.org Print: Stämpfli AG Graphic Arts Firm Bern, Switzerland Citation: WAZA (2005): Building a Future for Wildlife - The World Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Strategy. © WAZA 2005 ISBN 3-033-00427-X Cover photograph: Sponsors: Zoo-bred Przewalski’s mares WAZA wishes to thank the (Equus przewalskii) being released following members who to the Gobi B National Park, have financially supported Mongolia, in summer 2004 the printing of this edition: (WAZA Project Nr. 03002), for details see www.waza.org © Christian Walzer, International Takhi Group European Association of Zoo and Wildlife Veterinarians 3 GENERAL Table of Contents General Table of Contents 3 Foreword 4 Preface 5 The Strategy Introduction 7 Chapter 1 – Integrating Conservation 11 Chapter 2 – Conservation of Wild Populations 14 Chapter 3 – Science and Research 20 Chapter 4 – Population Management 28 Chapter 5 – Education and Training 35 Chapter 6 – Communication: Marketing and Public Relations 42 Chapter 7 – Partnerships and Politics 48 Chapter 8 – Sustainability 55 Chapter 9 – Ethics and Animal Welfare 59 Appendices Appendix I – Acronyms and Websites 65 Appendix 2 – Glossary of Terms 67 Appendix 3 - Acknowledgements 69 Appendix 4 - Illustrations 72 WZACS 2005 GENERAL 4 Foreword I congratulate the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and its partners on completing the important task of preparing this World Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Strategy (WZACS). It is a timely document that refines the previous thinking of the 1993 World Zoo Conservation Strategy and brings ex situ institutions into the mainstream of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. This Strategy provides a common philosophy for zoos and aquari- ums across the globe and defines the standards and policies with which you hope to achieve your conservation goals. Your first Strategy was published in a time of great hope - the days of Rio and the beginnings of the Convention on Biological Diversity - and was guided by IUCN’s own World Conservation Strategy. Since that time, the situation for the environment has not improved and the world’s attention is focusing on economics and security. In this context, the critical role of zoos and aquariums within conservation is more important than ever. Zoos and aquariums are in a unique position: that of provid- ing conservation in a genuinely integrated way. For the young people of the world’s cities, zoos and aquariums are often the first contact with nature and so you are the incubator of the conservationists of tomorrow. The research you con- duct is vital to our understanding of the components of biodiversity and their in- teractions. The public awareness campaigns and communication programmes you oversee are critical in making the general public understand both the utilitarian and the aesthetic importance of nature. Your efforts to build capacity, and transfer technology to colleagues in other parts of the world, will ensure the longer term contribution of zoos and aquariums to biodiversity conservation, while also foster- ing a spirit of collaboration and cooperation much needed in our troubled world. Finally, the financial support that you gather for conservation in the field will demonstrate the commitment of urban populations to maintaining the wild areas of the Earth. Our future is uncertain. However, as WAZA uses this Strategy to mobilize and enthuse the more than 600 million visitors that come to your facilities each year, your role in helping to conserve our planet’s biodiversity is assured. A significant number of WAZA members are also IUCN Members and this document provides a blueprint for their contribution to implementing IUCN’s Programme and Vi- sion of ‘a just world that values and conserves nature’. As partners in conservation, IUCN welcomes the World Zoo and Aquarium Con- servation Strategy and wishes you all success in implementing it. Achim Steiner Director General, IUCN – The World Conservation Union WZACS 2005 5 GENERAL Preface The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), then known as the In- ternational Union of the Directors of Zoological Gardens, produced its first con- servation strategy in 1993. This ground-breaking document articulated a vision of the role of zoos and aquariums in conservation for the next 10 years; it was the first time that the world zoo and aquarium community had attempted such an ex- ercise. The document was the result of international collaboration by many emi- nent professionals, was translated into many languages, and has been the conserva- tion guide for zoos and aquariums ever since. In 2002, in preparation for the 10th anniversary of the original strategy, a small but important meeting was held. Ulie Seal, then Chairman of the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG) of IUCN, now sadly deceased, Bill Conway, then Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Bert de Boer, Coordinator of the 1993 strategy and Gunther Nogge, Director of the Cologne Zoo, met to dis- cuss the structure of a new strategic document that would build on the success of the original, but also demonstrate other ways in which zoos and aquariums could successfully support conservation activities. This document is the fruit of their deliberation and an enormous amount of work by a large number of people since that initial meeting. When CBSG and WAZA met for their joint annual meetings in Vienna in August 2002, workshops were held to determine what the contents of a new strategy should be and how it should be structured. Chapter coordinators were appointed and a wide selection of collaborators identified for each chapter. Under the auspices of the WAZA Conservation Committee, chaired by Jo Gipps, the two-year process of creating, reading, editing, rewriting, changing and improving each chapter led to the formal adoption of the new draft strategy at the WAZA annual meeting in Taipei in No- vember 2004. All those who have had input into this document are listed in Appendix 3, in al- phabetical order. This list includes members of WAZA Council, WAZA Conser- vation Committee, the authors of each chapter and all those who collaborated and commented on them, attendees at CBSG and WAZA workshops, and a large number of individuals who have commented on parts, or the whole, of the docu- ment over the last two years. The list is long, full of familiar names of profession- als from within and outside the zoo community, and hugely international; we thank them all, most sincerely. Their contributions have made this document what we hope it is: a truly international conservation strategy for the zoos and aquariums of the world for the next five to ten years. A few individuals deserve special mention: the World Zoo and Aquarium Conser- vation Strategy Core Group consisted of both of us, Miranda Stevenson, Peter Olney, Onnie Byers, Peter Dollinger, Chris West, Bert de Boer and Mark Reed (their affiliations are contained in Appendix 3). Miranda Stevenson coordinated WZACS 2005 GENERAL 6 the whole project with extreme care and good humour and Peter Olney edited the document, to his usual impeccable standard. Our thanks go to Peter Dollinger, the WAZA Executive Director, for his hard work and expertise in collation, layout and design of the document. We are most grateful to the core group for their time, energy and devotion to the project and to our colleagues from CBSG whose support was invaluable. The 1993 strategy consisted of a Foundation Document and an Executive Sum- mary. This new strategy will also include a Resource Manual (currently in prepa- ration) which will be used by individual zoos and aquariums, by regional zoo asso- ciations, and by WAZA itself, to develop Action Plans to enable each to imple- ment the strategy. This strategy is for all members of the world zoo and aquarium community, not just the members of WAZA. It is also a document that, we hope, will enable that community to articulate, for a more general audience, where it sees its conserva- tion priorities lie in the future. As the Director General of IUCN states in his foreword, there is no doubt that zoos and aquariums have a vital role to play in the conservation of the biodiversity of our planet. We hope that this document describes how zoos and aquariums around the world can indeed play their part successfully and we commend it to you. Ed McAlister Jo Gipps President of WAZA Chair, WAZA Conservation Committee WZACS 2005 7 INTRODUCTION Introduction ‘Today more and more of us live in cities and lose any real connection with wild animals and plants.’ (David Attenborough, 2004) There are two quite simple reasons for having a World Zoo and Aquarium Con- Box 1 servation Strategy (WZACS). Zoo professionals worldwide would benefit from a cohesive document that provides a common set of goals. At the same time many What is WAZA? people who are active in the fields of environmentalism and conservation, or who are merely concerned observers, with worries and questions about conservation WAZA’S MISSION AND OBJECTIVES and animal welfare, want to know whether they should support zoos. Thus a WZACS has at least to provide answers to fundamental questions whilst setting WAZA, the World Association of Zoos and out best practice for the zoos and aquariums of the world. Why do zoos and Aquariums, is a global organization which aquariums exist? What is their unifying philosophy and purpose? What is their unifies the principles and practices of over vision and relevance in a world faced with unprecedented challenges as the needs 1,000 zoos and aquariums, which receive over of humans and animals and plants seem to compete? How can they have a meas- 600 million visitors annually, and sets standards urable influence on conservation in the wild? In short, what is the benefit of hav- for increasing achievement of conservation.