"Living with other animals"
"Tomorrow, what relationship with other animals?"
"Biodiversity education and conservation: the role of zoos"
-The purpose of my intervention is to talk about the role of zoos
in public education and biodiversity preservation.
The context is the decline of biodiversity,
due to deforestation, habitat fragmentation,
overexploitation of biological resources,
the introduction of exotic species, urbanization, environmental pollutants,
and global warming.
Solutions to preserve biodiversity are first of all in situ:
identifying problems, legislating, regulating,
protecting habitats, restoring them,
through nature reserves, which can be international biosphere reserves,
or national parks and nature reserves.
For a number of species, however, threats are difficult to control,
especially when it comes to habitat loss.
And it is often impossible to ensure the survival of these species
without alternative measures,
and this brings us to ex-situ conservation.
The Convention on Biological Diversity defines ex-situ conservation
as the conservation of components of biological diversity
outside their natural habitats.
Ex-situ conservation,
depending on the conservation status of the species,
may see its objectives defined in the short, medium, or long term.
It consists of conservatory or propagation breeding,
repopulation or reintroduction,
gene banks, and research applied to conservation.
For some species,
decimated by hunting or by overexploitation,
provided that threats are controlled, reintroduction programs
can be considered.
Emblematic species that have been reintroduced
include the Arabian oryx, the golden lion tamarin,
and Przewalski's horse.
However, when in-situ measures have failed,
and no reintroduction is possible,
the only chance of survival for these species
lies in captive breeding plans.
That is where zoos come in,
with 1 200 of them worldwide,
and 700 million visitors per year.
These zoos are structured in regional associations.
In Europe, this association is called EAZA,
European Association of Zoos and Aquaria.
It was founded in 1988,
and declared of utility for the conservation of biodiversity
in 1993, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN.
The World Zoo Conservation Strategy,
published in 1993,
defines three main missions for zoos,
education, which is the priority,
conservation,
and research.
These three missions are also defined at the legislative level,
first by Directive 22 of 1999,
then by the Decree of 25 March 2004,
which sets the general operating rules and characteristics
of zoos and zoological facilities.
The objectives of these cooperative breeding programs
are to maintain in captive populations the maximum genetic diversity
that exists in wild populations.
The goal is to conserve 90 percent of the genetic diversity
over a period of 100 years.
This is possible with populations
between 250 and 500 individuals.
These programs operate with a coordinator,
whose first mission is to establish the stud book,
the herd book,
to inventory all specimens in captivity,
to inventory all ascendants,
up to the wild ancestors, called founders,
and to establish the relationships between all these individuals.
This will then be used to analyze the demographic
and genetic structure of the population,
to formulate breeding recommendations and care guidelines,
to prescribe pairings and exchanges between zoos,
and to establish a long-term management plan
with a target population size
that will be defined according to the desired genetic diversity.
How do these breeding programs work?
Imagine a wild population,
from which we will extract a certain number of individuals,
called founders.
Geneticists recommend that we extract 50 at random,
knowing that statistically,
these individuals will represent 99 percent
of the genetic diversity of the original population.
Then we are going to breed these individuals,
making sure to maximize the representation of each founder,
until we reach a stabilized phase,
between 250 and 500 individuals,
which we will maintain for as long as possible,
with a final goal
of a minimum of 90 percent of this genetic variability
over a period of 100 years.
A total of 402 species are concerned by these ex-situ conservation programs.
These programs are carried out thanks to 355 zoos in Europe,
across 44 countries.
60 percent of them concern mammals, and 31 percent concern birds.
Another main mission associated with biodiversity conservation
is applied research.
Research applied to conservation can take different forms.
I chose to talk about the one related to animal welfare,
animal welfare being today one of the priorities
in European zoos.
These studies are designed to evaluate and improve well-being,
through different methods
related to environmental and behavioral enrichment.
This enrichment may be structural, social, dietary, sensory, cognitive,
and applied through trainings, medical at first,
but now mostly intended to reinforce the bond between man and animal.
The fundamental mission of zoos is environmental education,
and, more specifically, trying to reconnect city dwellers with nature,
knowing that studies in 2016
have shown that, in this early 21st century,
we are somewhat disconnected from nature, particularly in cities.
To answer the questions of the educational message
conveyed in zoos,
I co-supervised a thesis by Agathe Colléony, in 2016,
with a number of questions such as: "What nature do visitors perceive?",
"Do zoos reconnect city-dwellers to nature?",
and "Do zoos raise awareness about biodiversity conservation?".
We found a number of answers.
For example, zoo visitors are more concerned about biodiversity
than visitors of urban parks.
However, a single visit to the zoo does not reconnect to nature,
but regular visitors are more connected to biodiversity
than others.
A visit to the zoo does not seem to change the connection to nature,
as this connection seems to be the result of a complex process
in which the experience of nature as a child
has a major impact.
Visiting the zoo appears to be a founding event of childhood.
The urban zoo could therefore be a substitute
for this nature experience.
It would give the zoo a very important educational responsibility.
The visit could increase interest in biodiversity,
zoos therefore seem to have a strong potential