Master Planning of Zoos - Central Zoo Authority

Technical Session IV
Education goals should be integral to:
} Planning collections – Designing exhibits
} Developing conservation programmes
} Planning visitor services
Educational role is to:
} Interpret living collections
} Inspire & enable people from all walks of life to act positively for
conservation
} Explain human impact on wildlife in both local and global contexts
WZCS Recommendations
• Ensure that education is a central part of their raison d’être
• All zoo associations should develop an education policy
• Provide a coordinated approach to education - both formal and informal
• Dedicated to expanding the educational impact of zoos and aquariums
worldwide
Its dual mission is to:
} Improve zoo education programmes
} Provide members with access to the latest thinking, techniques &
information in conservation education
Conservation Education
• The need to change mindsets in visitors about conservation
• Conservation messages are shifting from endangerment & captive
breeding to the importance of saving habitat
• Zoos are looking toward more commitment to in-situ conservation & the
educational message should reflect this important shift
The Message
• Currently the predominant messages from zoos emphasize habitat
destruction, pollution, over hunting and introduced species - all important
but all secondary causes
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Conservation Education: The Method
• All venues at our institutions can be educational
• Exhibits create the strongest impressions for the majority of visitors to zoos.
• What messages do they take away?
• What actions do these ideas foster?
• How can graphic and interpretive presentations improve the experience by
debunking myths and enhancing understanding?
• What place do other techniques such as theater have on our grounds?