EAZA is proud to announce the launch of its first Animal Welfare Forum. The Animal Welfare Forum will bring together up to 200 representatives of zoos and aquariums, welfare organisations and academic institutions for three days of workshops, presentations and other activities, discussing and highlighting an evidence-based approach to animal welfare and bridging the gap between welfare research and application.

 Conference schedule

Venue Address: De St@art (Apenheul Primate Park) 

J.C. Wilslaan 31
7313 HK Apeldoorn
the Netherlands

Click here to see a map of the location

Dear EAZA friends,

How glad we are that we finally seem to be able to host this important event and that we can actually meet each other! Fingers crossed that Mother Nature doesn’t send anymore messages and the event will go ahead as planned.

Again a very warm welcome therefore to you all from Apenheul Primate Park Foundation! We are tremendously proud to be the host of the first EAZA Animal Welfare Forum. It was the vision of our founding fathers in the early ‘70’s to create a park from the perspective of animals, especially primates, where people are merely guests. Our animals are free roaming or housed on islands, with natural boundaries where possible. As humans we are guests in their world and this has led to a unique park with over 18 free roaming primate species and another 17 other primate species on islands, in a lush, green environment.

We love nature and hope that a visit to our park increases the love of nature and animals in particular within our guests. A mission maybe even more relevant today, then when our park was founded. Given the fact that we house and take care of animals to fulfil our mission, we want to be a frontrunner when it comes to animal welfare.

The way we look at animals and their well-being is not static. It develops in time and is becoming a more important topic to the general public. Zoos are experts on this matter and have a lot of expertise with regards to animal husbandry, their behaviour and physical and psychological needs and well-being. And many of us also work with renowned institutes and universities to enhance our knowledge and that of others on this matter. This gives us the opportunity to be on the forefront in the discussion on animal welfare and become a reference point on this important topic.

We hope that this first EAZA Animal Welfare Forum will be the start of a joint and continues welfare program in zoos and other institutions. A start of the metaphoric bridge we need to build to combine the knowledge of scientific institutions with the practical experience of zoos. All this so we can work together to continually improve animal welfare, in as well as outside our parks.

In Apenheul we have looked jealously at our monkey grooming each other the past year and a half. They show us every day how important socializing is for us primates. So apart from sharing knowledge,  we would like to which you a lot of ‘grooming’ each other as well during the event!

Roel Welsing

Managing Director 
Apenheul Foundation

Conference theme: Bridging the Gap: Bringing together animal welfare research and application, to improve evidence-based animal welfare best practice

With new advances in animal welfare research and understanding, it is important that we are able to employ this science in our collections to ensure we are doing everything we can to promote positive animal welfare. The first session is solely dedicated to this theme with a direct focus on animal welfare assessment.

The plenary speakers listed below have been confirmed. Please click here to open the visual introduction of the confirmed speakers. 

Please click here to open the final programme. For an overview of the session abstracts follow this link