An Important Opportunity for Zoo and Aquarium Education

By Tom Naiman
Bronx Zoo/Wildlife Conservation Society

Changing Priorities for Zoo and Aquarium Education

Much of the work of zoo and aquarium educators and the wider environmental education community in the 20^th Century concerned building awareness.  For zoo educators, early on, the focus was the names, characteristics and home ranges of wildlife species.  Subsequently, as zoos grew to see themselves as conservation organizations and conservation scientists shifted their own work from single species to communities and habitats, zoo educators began to focus on wildlife ecology, the interrelatedness of organisms and conservation. 

Now, in the early years of the 21^st Century, zoo and aquarium educators must shift our efforts once again.  We must face the reality that ours is a world in which widespread awareness is not enough to turn back the ever-rising tide of environmental destruction and species extinction.  If we are to contribute directly to conservation, zoo and aquarium educators must motivate our audiences to action.  Those we contact who are already aware may be easier to move.  But as our challenges increase, our techniques improve and our public becomes more diverse, we must reach new audiences and new constituencies; and for these groups, we do not have the luxury of gradualism. We must build awareness through action, using all of our powers of motivation, persuasion and evaluation in order to ensure that our work of today has impact into tomorrow.

 The World Zoo Conservation Strategy and Education for Sustainable Development

The new World Zoo & Aquarium Conservation Strategy, completed by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums in 2004 (with significant input from IZE), reflects this new urgency.  Chapter 3, “Education and Training for Conservation,” states,

 “In the 21^st Century, it is important to develop [the educational role of zoos] so as to have an active and direct impact upon people’s attitudes and behaviour.  In this way, awareness will be converted into action that has positive benefits for wildlife, people and conservation.” (WAZA, In Press)

 The new conservation strategy identifies “education for sustainability” as a key ingredient in this approach.  In fact, it defines “conservation education” as a combination of “the principles of environmental education and education for sustainability.”  The WAZA strategy goes on to assert:

 “Working together, zoos and aquariums have the potential to be extremely important agents of change in creating a sustainable future and ensuring the conservation of species and habitats on a global scale.” (WAZA, In Press)

 One of the ways in which the strategy envisions zoos and aquariums as agents of change is through their own behaviors and the examples they set for others. 

 “All zoos should work [toward] common sustainable principles, and in practice should be neutral to the environment through sustainable operations.  All zoos should provide an example to visitors as to how they can “green” their lifestyles.” (WAZA, In Press)

What are Zoo Educators Doing In Terms of Education for Sustainability?

While the strategic thinkers at IZE and WAZA have clearly embraced the notion that education for sustainability is a priority for zoo education, there has not yet been a trickle-down effect on the education programs offered by most institutions.  An informal survey suggests that many zoos and aquariums worldwide offer little, if anything, to their public that is intended to promote direct conservation action or even the most minimal lifestyle changes.  If integrated into zoo education programs, education for sustainability has the potential to lead our field into a new era of education for action.

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

The timing could not be better for zoo educators to embrace the notion of moving our audiences to a new understanding of how they can contribute to a sustainable world.   In 2002, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 2005-2014 as the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.  The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was chosen to lead the global effort to build awareness and implement action in conjunction with the UN initiative.  UNESCO has identified 10 key themes for the decade, one of which is “Environmental Education and Protection.” (UNESCO, 2003)

There are several good reasons for zoos and aquariums to participate in the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.  For one, the UN initiative has the potential to draw attention and funds to our programs.  It also provides the opportunity for zoo and aquarium educators to inform and collaborate with a community of organizations and educators whom, by and large, we have not worked with before.  Most important, participation in this event has the potential to shift our emphasis in ways that force assessment of how accurately our programs reflect our mission and whether we are producing measurable impacts that lead to behavioral changes in our constituencies.

Another important reason for zoo and aquarium involvement is that while the emphasis on Education for Sustainable Development has been growing within the larger education and development communities, the prominence given to conservation and environmental protection has diminished in favor of poverty alleviation and other issues that focus more overtly on human living conditions.  In a recent editorial in Oryx, Steven E. Sanderson and Kent H. Redford asserted,

“In fact, biodiversity has all but disappeared from the global dialogue on sustainable development.” (Sanderson & Redford, 2003)

Through the huge audiences they reach, zoo and aquarium educators have the ability to be strong advocates for giving biodiversity and conservation their due within the larger agenda of education for sustainable development.  Through our exhibits and our diverse means of communicating with our audiences, we can be powerful and persuasive voices for the links between biodiversity protection and human well-being.

Today, Tomorrow, Forever

 One effort to address how zoos and aquariums should participate in the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development will begin in November, 2004.  The Bronx Zoo will host a two-day conference entitled Today, Tomorrow, Forever: The Role Living Institutions  Can Play in the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. At this two-day gathering, to be held November 4-5, educators from zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens and nature centers will come together to discuss how and why our community should be involved in the UN initiative.  The specific goals of the Bronx Zoo event are:

1. To identify the existing educational activities of our institutions that already fit within the domain of education for sustainable development
2. To define how our institutional missions accord with the goals of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and to identify advantages and/or disadvantages of our community’s participation
3. To devise education strategies living institutions may pursue to advance the goals of sustainability education.
4. To create a set of recommendations- to be delivered to UNESCO, participating institutions, and all accredited zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens in North America- that will define how and why our community should participate in the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.
5. To forge new collaborative links between aquariums, botanical gardens, nature centers and zoos in order to form a community to ensure that biodiversity remains vital to the larger sustainability agenda.

More information about this conference can be found on the Bronx Zoo’s web site at:    http://bronxzoo.com/bz-education/2338355

IZE and the UN Decade

IZE has the potential to build awareness of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development among zoos and aquariums around the world.  The workshop that will be held at the 2004 IZE conference in Hong Kong will be a first step in this direction.  Following the Today, Tomorrow, Forever conference in November, 2004, the Bronx Zoo will make the results available to interested zoo and aquarium educators worldwide.

References

Sanderson, S. & Redford, K. (2003) Contested relationships between biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation. Oryx, 37(4), 389-390.

 UNESCO (2003) United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development: Framework for a Draft International Implementation Scheme.

 World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (In Press) Chapter 3:  Education and Training for Conservation. World Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Strategy.

 E-mail: tnaiman@wcs.org

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