Overview of Activities

After nearly a year of preparation, 109 of 116 zoos participating in the US Species Survival Plan (52 zoos keeping 370 gorillas) and the European Endangered Species Programme (64 zoos keeping 425 gorillas) agreed to take part in the United Nations (UN) Year of the Gorilla (YoG) via WAZA as an official YoG partner. After the formal agreement of cooperation came into force between WAZA and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) on 3 December 2008, YoG proved to become the first internationally recognised joint conservation effort of its kind.

Numerous events in the zoo community were advertised on the YoG website and all relevant documents, including information about WAZA-branded gorilla conservation projects, were made available on the WAZA website. WAZA and the International Zoo Educators Association (IZE) produced the education manual "All About Gorillas", which is available in four languages and has been downloaded several hundred times from the WAZA website alone.

While gorilla conservation will not cease after 2009, it is adequate to present an overview of activities and of what has been achieved during this concerted international effort. This is not at all a complete review, but includes the feedback the WAZA Executive Office has received and represents a cross‑section of various activities globally. WAZA and its members can be proud of being a major player in gorilla conservation and of the support our community provided to the implementation of the gorilla campaign under the auspices of CMS.

With 2010 being the UN International Year of Biodiversity, this overarching theme will be best positioned to embrace a great variety of zoo and aquarium related topics and species, including gorillas. Amongst others, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and CMS are partnering for biodiversity conservation, and WAZA is amidst the international conservation community.

Please click on the following link to download the Overview of Activities (2 MB).