creating links between zoos and conservation in the wild

Zoos Go Wild was developed by Jens Sigsgaard and Nan Swannie and was launched to the 400 members of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria in September 2000, at their annual conference.  

About Zoos Go Wild - contents: 

Overall Aim
Is to assist zoos to develop closer links with and support conservation projects in the wild.

The specific purpose of this initial project
Is to be a pivotal resource in the development of effective links and support between zoos within the European Zoo Community and conservation projects in the wild, in the biodiversity hot spots of South America.

Why is “Zoos Go Wild” needed?
Conservation in the wild (in-situ) needs support. New European Zoo Legislation makes it mandatory for zoos to support conservation in the wild, biodiversity research and improve their education provision. Many Small to medium sized collections are panicking about how they are to achieve this from 2002, when it will come into force.

By providing zoos with the information and resources required to make effective links with in-situ conservation organisations, we will help them improve the conservation outputs of both.

Why South America?
We have chosen to run the pilot for this project in South America as:

1. The region contains many of the global Biodiversity hotspots most in need of conservation

2. In-situ conservation there is particularly under supported by European Zoos

3. It is relatively politically stable, so there is a real potential to make positive changes now – BEFORE it’s too late

4. We have good contacts there

Timetable
We visited, worked with and described 42 of the 51 projects registered with us.

All the projects we visited were in Colombia (17), Ecuador (17), Peru (2) or Bolivia (10), the others registered with us were from Brazil (4) and Argentina (1). 

 We left at the end of May 2001 and were away for 10 months. We are now back in Europe, are currently writing up and promoting the work we have done and preparing Resource packs for European Zoos.

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TV 2/ JTV – our Television Sponsors
During our planning meeting in Denmark, we received a professional digital camera from TV 2 - Nord, (Danish regional TV) and training on how to use it! We sent back a monthly report to JTV who edited it and included the footage in a 4minute piece in one of TV2 - Nord's animal programmes.  

Now we are back, we are able to use all footage taken to produce short promotion videos for each of the projects we visited.  These will be used to promote the projects to the zoos and then the zoos can use them to promote the projects to their visitors.

Resource Materials for Zoos and Schools
We are now producing a set of resource materials that will assist zoos in making effective links with the projects we have described and set up communications links with. The resource packs will consist of; natural and cultural artifacts, photos, slides, posters, video and CD Roms. All of which zoos can use in education, PR and fundraising, exhibit design, research and in providing sustainable retail opportunities.

Handicrafts/ Biocomerica = Sustainable Retail Opportunities,
Helping Zoo Shops to support conservation too.
We are working with a Danish distributor to European Zoo shops to help us find, import and promote a range of sustainably produced, traditionally made, fair-traded handicrafts. 
By selling these products, zoos will be offering their visitors the chance to support conservation, by giving the producer communities a fair price for their work; work that protects their environment and helps conserve the animals in it. 
We are currently developing a catalogue which will be posted here when completed.

Schools linking projects…
Zoos, Education, Schools and Community
Our" Schools linking programme" aims to link communities around zoos to 
communities around the in-situ projects, through their local schools. 
It can involve running workshops in schools, in both communities, e-mail and 
postal communications and teacher exchanges.  
We are also preparing artifact packs for each country we visit, to be used by 
the European schools that get involved.

Funding
We raised 100% sponsorship for the data collections stage of this project – however we still require some support to ensure all the information gathered is freely available to all participating European zoos. If you can help, we would be delighted to add you to our list of supporters and promote you through our work (see “our supporters” page).

Partners
We are collaborating with and have the support of many major European Zoos. We have the backing of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) Conservation Committee and of the Federation of Zoological Gardens for Great Britain and Ireland and the Association of Danish Zoos and Aquaria. We are also exploring links with the EAZA Research Committee.

[ Our Supporters ] [ Full Proposal ]

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Last modified: september 03, 2002