Spring 2010 - European Association of Zoos and Aquaria

more attractive to the new generation.
The majority of the core activities of
EAZA is being carried out by longstanding
EAZA members. It turns out
that new EAZA members, which are
much more commercial than the old
members, are less likely to share in
the workload of joint activities such
as breeding programmes etc. The
spirit that was behind the set up of
breeding programmes and EAZA as an
organisation is becoming rarer. Even
EAZA members with a long history
in international cooperation between
zoos, like Rotterdam Zoo, now feel
the commercial pressure, all of which
makes cooperation in the interest of
the animals and the industry in general
much more difficult. Although by
difficult, I don’t mean mean impossible!
EEPs were initiated about twenty
years ago by a very small number of zoos
which knew each other quite well and
were in fact friends, like Copenhagen,
Stuttgart, Antwerp, Amsterdam,
Budapest, Warsaw, Cologne, Paris,
London and Rotterdam, to name
a few. There was full confidence
and cooperation. When I started
coordinating EEPs and ESBs I felt it
remarkably easy to get zoos cooperating,
but over the years, although my
experience and number of contacts
increased, it turned out to be more
and more complicated to convince
institutions to follow recommendations,
which are given to enable the long term
future of a certain species. When we
at Rotterdam Zoo decided, against the
wish of the EEP, to send three gorillas
to Shanghai Zoo, although there was
a waiting list from EAZA institutions,
this had no severe consequences for
us. This indicates that the EAZA
community also notices that members
have other (more commercial) interests
too. The long term conservation
goals of an EEP conflict sometimes
with the short term commercial
goals of institutions, like for example
the continued importation of Asian
elephants from Asia, although in less
than a decade there will arise a surplus
problem within Europe.
When I joined Rotterdam Zoo last
year, we were coordinating 13 EEPs
and ESBs, plus carrying out several
other EAZA tasks. This means we, as
an ‘old fashioned zoo’ still have (too?)
much influence in the policy of EAZA.
Consequently, new EAZA members do
not feel part enough of our community,
and do not feel they are being offered
the opportunity to reflect their opinion
and knowledge and experiences in the
policy of our organisation.
SETTING THE STANDARDS
In EAZA we keep about 300 EEPs/
ESBs, and we have about the same
number of members. We also have
also well over a hundred other tasks,
like TAG Chairs, an EEP Committee,
Technical Assistance Committee,
EAZA Nutrition Group and so on.
This should mean that we could easily
set the condition that every EAZA
member should actively participate in
at least one task/position/function of
EAZA to remain a member of EAZA.
Larger zoos, like Rotterdam, should be
active in more than one position. In the
coming years we at Rotterdam are going
to give up several positions within
EAZA to make space for new members
with new ideas. Only by means of this
can the new members influence the
decision-making within EAZA and
maintain EAZA as an organisation
which is fully equipped for the new era.
Rotterdam Zoo still fully supports
the goals we have set ourselves when
EAZA was founded as ECAZA, but
we are aware that time has changed
and we should adapt. Darwin already
said 150 years ago that if you are not
able or willing to adapt to a changing
environment, you will not survive in
the long term. This not only applies to
nature, but also to our society and to
our zoos.
Let us never forget our goals
education, recreation, conservation and
scientific research, but the condition
for preaching this is our own survival in
the first place.
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