EAZA21+ is an internal campaign for EAZA Members, launched on 21 September 2021 for two years. It is helping us discover the opportunities that come with the new Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework in which modern zoos and aquariums and organisations like EAZA have an important role to play.

What is it about?

In 2021, EAZA Members confirmed their high ambitions by adopting EAZA’s new vision statement: “Progressive zoos and aquariums saving species together with you.”

This ambition integrates the EAZA community in the global puzzle of biodiversity conservation. This puzzle is already difficult to navigate – and now its pieces are changing, with the post-2020 biodiversity framework. This new framework will be adopted at the CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) summit in Kunming in May 2022, as a last-minute push to stop the decline of biodiversity and to restore harmony between people and nature by 2050.

Previous strategies to stop biodiversity loss have failed to reach their global targets. The post-2020 plan promises to be different: it addresses not only the biological problem but also its social and economic causes and aspects. It also aligns all other relevant actions so that they support the common goal: the global conventions (CBD, CITES, CMS) and regional initiatives such as EU’s tools for environmental protection (EU Biodiversity Strategy, Natura 2000, LIFE funds). These are different international biodiversity frameworks, in which key stakeholders such as the IUCN have been working on the implementation.

If this post-2020 plan is to succeed, everyone will need to contribute: all citizens and all sectors of the economy and society, and this includes modern zoos and aquariums as well as NGOs like EAZA. In this campaign, we want to define the role of our community in the new big global puzzle.

What does this mean for you?

From all the pieces of the post-2020 puzzle, we have picked three that are the most relevant to the work of EAZA and its Members: 

• Conservation education. EAZA Members receive more than 140 million visits every year. What is our role in empowering the public to appreciate biodiversity and to make their lifestyles more sustainable? Which best practices can we build on to strengthen this role further?
• Species conservation. How can we match our potential in this field with the goals of the framework, with species action plans and with available funding sources?
• Wildlife trade. What is our role in ensuring that wildlife is only traded and used legally, sustainably and ethically?

The campaign will give us the opportunity and space to explore these topics together and discuss some principal questions:

• What are the post-2020 objectives, globally and for Europe, in each of the three areas? Which of these objectives are relevant for us?
• What are our strengths and responsibilities in these topics, as individual Members and as EAZA?
• What are we already doing, what more can we do? How can we learn from each other?

At the end of the campaign, you – the staff in EAZA Membership – should have many practical ideas for implementation in the coming years and decades, so that you can profit from the opportunities of the global and European frameworks and goals. This will allow the EAZA community to make the biggest possible contribution to the ultimate goal of “saving species together”.

What will the campaign look like?

Unlike the previous campaigns, EAZA21+ doesn’t focus on a public-facing element. It is internal and its activities will take place among and for EAZA Members, with external experts joining the dialogue.

The main activities will be webinars and workshops, virtual and face-to-face. They will be relevant to many colleagues, whether you are in charge of zoo and aquarium management, conservation, collection planning, education, research, communications, PR, marketing or other areas!

At the end of the campaign, the outcomes of all these meetings and discussions will be captured in toolkits and tutorials that you will be able to use in your daily work for conservation.

To download your two-page guide to EAZA21+, click on the available versions: English, German or Italian! 

Why EAZA21+?

The name was chosen because the campaign:

• begins in 2021,
• follows 20 years of EAZA conservation campaigns,
• will give EAZA Members tools for addressing the challenges of the 21st century.