Volume 2, No. 18. September 27, 2002
Trade Show Reports
Continental
cohesion
With 208 accredited member associations, the American Zoo and Aquarium Association’s
constituency covers the spectrum in size, age, focus, endowment and even mission.
Indeed, most have only one thing in common: “American.”
With that in mind, Tony Vecchio, director of the Oregon Zoo in Portland, and
Margo McKnight, executive director of the Brevard Zoo in Melbourne, Florida,
are championing a conservation campaign that could be embraced by all AZA member
organizations because it would focus strictly on North America. “If we
could get everybody to wrap their arms around a North America project, we could
be huge in North America,” McKnight said.
With just this idea the duo made a huge impact of their own at the AZA’s
annual meeting in Fort Worth this month (THE LOOP August
23 and September
13). Their session “Can 135 million people really make a difference?
A conservation vision for zoos!” drew about 275 people, stellar numbers
for a seminar that took place on the conference’s last day after all of
the major events had concluded and many of the 1,700 attendees had repaired
for home. A 90-minute after-session workshop spilled over into a larger meeting
room with a standing-room-only crowd of more than 100.
Vecchio, who moderated the session, argued that zoos and aquariums need to change
the focus of their conservation messages. “One, we need to be more concerned
with getting (people) thinking more with their hearts and more caring about
conservation and less concerned about dumping tons of factual information on
them. Two, we have to be able to identify with the message, which means local
issues will be more important. Three, it’s time for us to be more positive
in our vision, less reactionary; less trying to solve environmental problems
and more proactive in creating a vision about what we want the world to look
like.”
The session presented The Wildlands Project and Megatransect North America,
the former a group of conservation biologists providing ecological design expertise
to grassroots groups trying to rebuild America’s wilderness. The organization
can provide the kind of alliance that would help AZA members focus on specific
needs in their areas.
“Personally I’m coming to the conclusion that people can’t identify
with these faraway places we are always talking about,” Vecchio said. “Here
at the Oregon Zoo we’re adding more local focus and still doing the faraway
stuff, and people seem more excited about turtle reintroductions here in Oregon
than penguins in South America.”
That
said, Vecchio and McKnight are not advocating a fundamental shift in current
conservation efforts in Africa, Southeast Asia and South America. Those programs
should continue with support from AZA institutions already involved in those
efforts. Meanwhile, a North America focus would provide a glue that all member
institutions, regardless of size and type, can stick to. “Even if you’re
a zoo without a lot of money, you can be part of the education about saving
local habitats,” McKnight said. Wildlands currently does not address marine
systems, the initiative would find such an angle to include aquariums, Vecchio
said.
One thing that is a bit revolutionary in Vecchio's and McKnight's vision is
their method of formulating the campaign. Their back-to-back sessions were intended
to present the grand scheme to the general membership, then hear feedback and
ideas from anyone interested in jumping aboard. “It’s better to listen
to members’ ideas first and use those ideas to create a vision,” Vecchio
said. “I think we’ve all experienced too much of other people coming
up with ideas and trying to sell us on them. It’s a hard sell. It’s
going to be the animal people and educators and marketers and public relations
specialists who will make this work. We wanted to hear from them to see if it’s
possible, and if it is possible, how will it work.”
That dialogue continues. Based on the inputs, a steering committee will be formed
and a listserve created to continue developing a formal, nationwide, AZA-all-inclusive
conservation campaign. For more information on The Wildlands Project, visit
www.wildlandsproject.org.
To get involved in developing the campaign, e-mail McKnight, margo@brevardzoo.org.
For a complete list of AZA's annual award winners and newly accredited institutions, click here.
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