Author: Constanze Mager (Burgers’ Zoo, Arnhem, The Netherlands)
Campaign wise, the last few weeks can be characterized as the crucial weeks to get zoos on board on national level. My lecture about the campaign during the Dutch zoo employee meeting (150 attendees, mostly zoo keepers) was rather successful. Of course, often the keepers are not the ones who decide whether a zoo join in a campaign. But if they see the conservation need to do so, they can urge the biologists, educators or even director of their zoo to do so!
The week after, we’ve had our national zoo-marketeer-meeting and our national zoo-educators-meeting. Very important gatherings to get more zoos signing up. I hope me marketing colleague and I could convince more zoos to participate. Not only, because the Asian songbirds do indeed need our help! But also because it makes a rather weak statement, if in a joint conservation campaign by EAZA zoos, less than half of the member zoos participate although you only thing you have to pledge for is to do at least one topic related activity in two years’ time!
The education experts under the lead of Lucia from Cologne Zoo also try to keep the EAZA education committee well informed, up-dated and involved. Those people all need to do in their country the same as I try to do in the Netherlands… and then the Silent Forest Campaign will be a great success, with many participants and vibrant activities! Let’s go for it, together!