Prague - WAZA

October 2011 | Prague 21
DOC 66.3 rev
Collection
Planning in Zoos
Bert E. M. de Boer
The establishment of cooperative
breeding programmes in the 1980s
was a major breakthrough in the zoo
and aquarium community. By the
mid 1990s the science, organisational
structures and practical requirements
for the long-term management
of captive populations all were
in place, and in the years thereafter
the number of species programmes
steadily increased. Recent evaluations,
however, showed that three
decades of continuous effort resulted
in a disappointingly low number of
sustainable populations in zoo and
aquarium collections. This does not
mean that all hard work has been in
vain. Most probably the current state
of our collections would have been
disastrous if we had not invested so
much energy. What it does mean is
that we urgently need to reconsider
the future of our collections, and the
future of our institutions, as without
sustainable animal collections there
will be no future for zoos and aquariums
themselves.
Meanwhile – during the same three
decades – the world in which we live
has changed enormously. Human
population has increased by two
billions; human consumption and
overexploitation of our planet has
doubled; undisturbed wildlife areas
have drastically decreased in size;
global climate undeniably started
to change; biodiversity loss became
a realistic concern, while the full extent
of the effects of the currently already
greatly diminished ecosystems
still remains to be seen in the near
future. Altogether, it never before has
been so clear how bleak the future of
wildlife in all corners of our planet is!
When we combine these two conclusions
– the deep concern about the
future of zoo and aquarium collections,
and that about the future of
wildlife on Earth – there is only one
possible solution: we need a new
breakthrough, new elan, vision and
work power, leading to what the
first edition of the World Zoo (and
Aquarium) Conservation Strategy
(1993) called “a great mustering of all
available powers to give our Earth’s
biosphere and all its living elements
the best possible chance of survival”.
For zoos and aquariums this means
that they will have to double, triple,
or multiply their efforts to partner
up internally, as well as externally.
Internally, all zoo and aquarium
partnership structures at bilateral, national,
regional and global level need
to be reinforced and intensified. As
a result, the effectiveness of breeding
programmes, collection planning,
and other conservation activities
should substantially increase. Externally,
our most natural (and hopefully
effective) partners are conservation
organisations and authorities. In this
regard partnering should be carefully
planned. WAZA’s role is to partner
up with IUCN, WWF, World Bank and
other global organisations, in order
to help influence global conservation
policies and funding. Cooperative zoo
and aquarium species programmes
should link with conservation parks
and their governing bodies to effectuate
interactive population management
and fundraising. Individual
zoos and aquariums should partner
with any relevant local, national or
species-related conservation body to
raise specific funds as well as public
awareness. And there is a whole
range of possible partnerships in
between of these main categories.
In a recent paper in Zoo Biology William
Conway spoke of “Buying time
for wild animals with zoos”; the World
Zoo and Aquarium Conservation
Strategy worded it “Zoos should help
building a time bridge for wildlife”. We
have to admit, however, that time
is running out. Zoos and aquariums
worldwide indeed have a major role
to play, and they have enormous
potentials to help save wildlife on
our planet. But if we do not act very
rapidly to build effective global partnership
networks at all relevant levels,
we better stop using such phrases.