The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), is an organisation for the European zoo and aquarium community that links over 340 member organisations in 41 countries. EAZA membership is open to all zoos and aquaria across Europe that comply with EAZA's standards. The organisation is administered and headquartered at

Natura Artis Magistra Natura Artis Magistra (Latin for "Nature is the teacher of the arts"), commonly known just as Artis (), is a zoo and botanical garden in the centre of Amsterdam. It is the oldest zoo in the Netherlands and fifth oldest zoo in the world. In addit ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The mission of the association is to promote cooperation for furthering regional collection planning and wildlife conservation. EAZA also promotes educational activities and advises EU lawmakers through standing committees of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

and the European Council.

EAZA Ex-situ Programme

EAZA manages the EAZA Ex-situ Programme (EEP), a population management and

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

programme. As of 2022, over 400 animal species are represented in the programme. Each EEP has a coordinator who is assisted by a species committee. The coordinator collects information on the status of all the animals kept in EAZA zoos and aquariums of the species for which they are responsible, produces a

studbook A breed registry, also known as a herdbook, studbook or register, in animal husbandry and the hobby of animal fancy, is an official list of animals within a specific breed whose parents are known. Animals are usually registered by their breeders ...

, carries out demographic and genetic analyses, produces a plan for the future management of the species and provides recommendations to participating institutions.

Thematic conservation campaigns

Every two years EAZA launches a campaign dedicated to a threatened

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

or a threatened

Environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

. The campaign's aims are to draw attention to the problem, to promote

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

awareness, raise funds for special projects and to do lobbying work in national

governments A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

and international organizations. The campaigns address EAZA members to get involved in the themes and to spread information about the importance of biodiversity and its

to the visitors.

Campaign for the Ukrainian zoos

In 2022, during the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since February 2014. Following Ukraine's Rev ...

, EAZA launched a funding campaign to save animals from Ukrainian zoos. On June 2022 EAZA had collected 1 324 884 € from over 130 institutional and 11 000 private donors, and funds have been provided to nearly 20 institutions in Ukraine.

List of EAZA member institutions

As of April 2022, EAZA has 307 Full Members, 16 Temporary Members, 24 Candidates for Membership, 48 Corporate Members and 37 Associate Members represented in 48 countries.

Full members

Temporary members

Candinates for membership

Associate members

Indirect members

These zoos and aquariums are members through an aforementioned associate organization.

Former members

References

{{Authority control Organizations established in 1992 Zoo associations