As ZA’s David Walsh and Eric Miller prepare to attend the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) 74th annual meeting to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina during the first week of November, we look forward to learning more about these two exciting developments from WAZA to more deeply engage the international zoo and aquarium community in global conservation (congratulations to the Indianapolis Zoo and new ZA client!) and achieve WAZA’s animal welfare goal:

1.      First Global Center for Species Survival Created at Zoo 
The first Global Center for Species Survival (GCSS) has been created in a groundbreaking partnership between the Indianapolis Zoo and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC). The GCSS, set to open in 2020, will be located at the Indianapolis Zoo and has been made possible through a US$4 million start-up grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.

2.      PAAZA Working Towards WAZA 2023 Welfare Goal 
The Pan-African Association of Zoos and Aquaria (PAAZA) is providing support to all African animal facilities that would like to evolve practices and infrastructures, and is encouraging PAAZA members to strive towards the WAZA 2023 Animal Welfare goal. The goal states that by 2023:

• WAZA national and regional associations must have an animal welfare evaluation process in place and such a process must include specific elements approved by WAZA.

• All WAZA institutional members must be compliant with this process.

PAAZA has recently launched a website dedicated to documenting the journey of African zoos and aquariums as they work to continuously evolve their animal welfare standards and programs. 

David will be speaking on ‘New Strategies to Raise Revenue’. He will be joined by John Frawley of the Minnesota Zoo and Cameron Kerr at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia to explore innovative ways to ensure financial sustainability to support zoos’ and aquariums’ conservation missions. They will discuss ideas to look beyond non-traditional avenues to increase income; reach new audiences and markets; and add new events and programming to improve the bottom-line.

We look forward to renewing old friendships and making new ones in Argentina, and of course sharing our learnings with you upon our return.