Zurich Zoo joins the #unitedforbiodiversity alliance

Zurich Zoo joins the #unitedforbiodiversity alliance. United in one voice with like-minded organizations around the world, the zoo wants to campaign to protect and conserve biodiversity.

The #UnitedforBiodiversity Alliance was launched last year by the EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevicius, on the occasion of Species Protection Day. The aim is to create awareness of the importance of conserving biodiversity.

At this year’s United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity (CoP15) in Kunming, China, a global agreement on nature protection and restoration will be passed.

This should be similar to the Paris Agreement on Climate Protection. In light of this important conference, the goal of #UnitedforBiodiversity is to give nature conservation a stronger voice, actively promote global biodiversity and halt its gradual loss. According to scientific estimates, there are about a million species that are currently threatened with extinction.

As an official member of the alliance, the Zurich Zoo is an ambassador for biodiversity conservation and protection. Many other organizations participate in this mission such as national parks, museums of science and natural history, zoos, aquariums, and botanical gardens as well as with several research institutions.

More than 250 organizations from 49 countries around the world have already joined the campaign. With #UnitedforBiodiversity, the European Commission encourages organizations to bring attention to the scale of the biodiversity crisis in its exhibitions, nature conservation projects and educational programs.

Through long-term nature conservation projects such as Lewa (Kenya), Kaeng Krachan National Park (Thailand) and Masoala National Park (Madagascar), Zurich Zoo supports and promotes countless species. In addition to supporting biodiversity through habitat protection, the Zurich Zoo is also particularly committed to individual species.

Among other things, the Australian nature conservation project Ark is reintroducing previously exterminated marsupial species into their traditional Australian habitats. In Colombia, the zoo supports projects to measure and respond to species loss in amphibians. It also raises endangered species of frogs on site so that they can be released back into the wild.

Zurich Zoo is also committed to Switzerland’s biodiversity. Among other things, the zoo and its partner the Bat Conservation Foundation have installed hundreds of bat boxes that provide shelter for the animals and thus counteract the decline in population.