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Presidential Quarterly Update

By IZE President Chris Peters

October 2002

Rotterdam Zoo, Netherlands
c.peters@rotterdamzoo.nl

Dear Colleagues:

At the IZE board meeting in Vienna in August 2002 I officially assumed my duties as IZE President-Elect. Just to clarify, until I assume my position as President in 2004, I will function as IZE’s Vice President. Annette Berkovits from the Wildlife Conservation Society continues to serve as IZE President until 2004 at which time she will remain on the Executive Board in the position of Immediate Past President. It will be an honor and a challenge for me to serve you all as President-Elect. Together we can continue to promote IZE as a global organization for zoo and reserve educators dedicated to nature conservation.

During the board meeting mentioned above, some others also assumed new duties and I would like to congratulate and welcome the following new board members:

• Secretary: Stephen Woollard (Bristol Gardens, UK)
• Journal Editor: Stephen McKeown (Chester Zoo, UK)
• Regional Representative/ Latin America: Maria Martinez Arizmendi (Guadalajara Zoo, Mexico)
• Regional Editor/Europe/Africa & Middle East: Martin Serafini (Royal ZoologicalSociety of Scotland)
• Regional Editor/Australia/Asia/New Zealand: Melissa de Britt (Taronga Zoo)
• 2004 Conference Host: Suzanne Gendron (Ocean Park Hong Kong)
• During the board meetings World Association of Zoo and Aquariums reaffirmed that IZE is the official education arm of WAZA.
• Lars Lunding Anderson, chair of the WAZA Education Committee and Director of the Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark, has been invited to join the IZE board as an ex-officio member.

WAZA has their conferences scheduled several years in advance. In 2004, when IZE meets in Hong Kong, WAZA will be in Taipei immediately beforehand. There is, therefore, the possibility of an ‘education panel’ at the WAZA meetings to enhance the links between IZE and WAZA (and between educators and directors). This idea has not yet been approved by WAZA, but we will start working on this initiative soon.

Another very important issue is the complete rewrite of the outdated World Zoo Conservation Strategy (WZCS). It is proposed that during the next WAZA meeting in Costa Rica (Nov. 2003) the new, rewritten WZCS be presented. As agreed, it is very important for education to be fully integrated into the new document. Jo Gipps (Director, Bristol Zoo, UK) is the new chair of the WAZA Conservation Committee leading the rewrite of WZCS and has stated that "educators should and must be involved". IZE executive board members Stephen Woollard and Stephen McKeown, along with Tom Naiman of the Wildlife Conservation Society - Bronx Zoo, New York; USA) will represent IZE and work to ensure that the new WZCS has education integrated throughout. IZE is also looking forward to additional input from Australian educators as well as all IZE members.

At the IZE Conference in Vienna, eleven sponsored educators from the developing countries of Cameroon, Colombia, Congo, Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, & Vietnam provided worthwhile contributions through their papers and informal discussions. Together with substantial support from IZE, the funding to make these grants possible also came from organizations such as the Chester Zoo, Bristol Zoo, Allwetter Zoo, Frankfurt Zoo, Apenheul, Ouwehand Zoo, Rotterdam Zoo, Amersfoort Zoo, Copenhagen Zoo and the Bronx Zoo (Wildlife Conservation Society). My thanks to all who contributed to this worthwhile effort.

I should like to end this first edition of the President-Elect’s quarterly column by stressing how important it is for everyone to be an active member of our organization.

Chris Peters
IZE President-Elect