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World Zoos of Europe and the Middle East

Stay updated on what IZE members in Africa are doing to promote conservation efforts in their areas. Learn about education programs, browse the list of IZE members and their regions, and find contact information for the Regional Representative.

What happened the last year in Europe regarding the zoo educators? Zoos in many different countries were busy with their conservation education work and attending many regional meetings! Here you will find a few updates on European zoos.

EZE (European Zoo Educators) Conference

From 28th. February till the 1st of March 2009, the 20th EZE Conference took place in Cologne, Germany. Nearly 150 Participants were a part of the largest Conference so far. In addition to providing a forum for many interesting presentations about programs and projects, the aim of the conference was to work together on a new EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) Conservation Education Strategy, following the approval of the 2008 new EAZA Education Standards. As Dr Lesley Dickie, Executive Director of EAZA, said:

“Some will ask ‘Why a conservation education strategy for EAZA?” EAZA does not need a conservation education strategy, not if it is simply a nice looking document that sits on a shelf. Not if it’s an exercise to keep us busy, that makes us feel that we are progressive.

But we do need it if it provides a visionary look at the future of education in EAZA member zoos, if it stimulates discussion of where are going, and most of all if its accompanied by a rigorous, and hopefully bold, action plan with clear and measurable targets, then yes, we need, and should have, a conservation education strategy to help us connect people and wildlife.”

After many hours of work from a lot of people, the final draft is almost complete and hopefully the Strategy will be ready for approval this year.

You find all the presentations of the Conference under: http://www.vzp.de/eze.html

The EAZA Education Standards can be found under: http://www.eaza.net/about/Pages/Key%20Documents.aspx

The next EZE-Conference will take place in Valencia, Spain, in 2011.

Work of the EAZA Education Committee

The EAZA Education Committee was created to focus on educational programs, activities and interpretive communication in EAZA member institutions. The objective of the Committee is to stimulate and assist EAZA members in meeting the demands of the World Zoo & Aquarium Conservation Strategy as well as the EAZA Education Standards. In general, this means that zoo visitors should be informed and educated in an interesting and exciting way. This will hopefully further their love for nature and awareness of the need for nature conservation and sustainable solutions to the global environmental changes.

In 2008 and 2009, a new organizational structure was introduced. The Committee is now organized into different Working and Advisory groups. With this structure, the Committee aims to improve the implementation of actions – as more Zoo Educators will be integrated into the different. At the moment, some of the members of the Committee are working hard to get the EAZA Conservation Education Strategy into form (see above). Here is one example out of the work from the different Groups: The Visitor Studies Working Group aims to establish a Visitor Study training course for zoo educators – the first step will be a seminar at the end of the next EZE-Conference. Secondly they hope to establish a database with visitor studies which will be published on the EAZA, possibly in 2010 as work is underway.

EAZA Conservation Campaigns

In 2000 EAZA started with an important activity: organising annual conservation campaigns. These campaigns aim to increase the cooperation between EAZA and important conservation organizations, to raise awareness in the broad public and to raise money for conservation projects. Conservation organisations have been involved in financing parts of the different campaigns but have also helped in the preparation and running of the campaigns. Other conservation organisations were funded with money that was collected during the EAZA campaigns. Many European zoo educators worked hard - and still are - to organize these campaigns and reach many of their visitors with their programs and ideas.

The current Campaign started in 2008/2009 and was extended to 2009/2010. The European Carnivore Campaign (www.carnivorecampaign.eu) has so far raised at least 200’000 Euro and also raised awareness in many forms. For special efforts, EAZA awards grants to their participating members’ zoos. In the field of education, Zoo Zagreb has been awarded in September 2009 with the Special Campaign Awareness Award for its wide range of creative activities for children.

Europe Membership List

The IZE Membership List is updated quarterly.

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