Zoo Zurich Honored With “WAZA Conservation Award“

During the 74th annual conference of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) in Buenos Aires/Argentina last week, Switzerland‘s Zoo Zurich was honored with the “WAZA Conservation Award” for its conservation project on the Masoala peninsula in Madagascar. The project, which started in 1995, is dedicated to the protection and conservation of the tropical rainforest. For this purpose, Zoo Zurich annually donates a minimum of 125,000 US-Dollars (approx. 113,000 Euros) to the Masoala National Park and supports several projects in the region for reforestation, sustainable agriculture, water supply, hygiene and education.

„We are very pleased to receive the ‘WAZA Conservation Award’. It is a great recognition of our engagement in nature and species conservation and shows that we are on the right track to achieve our goal to become a conservation centre,“ says Alex Rübel (photo), director of Zoo Zurich. The award, which was conferred to Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (2016), Monterey Bay Aquarium (2017) and Taronga Zoo (2018) in the previous years, is the most important award of the international zoo organization, recognizing the institutional engagement for nature conservation of its members. (eap)