Zoos and aquariums around the world have a crucial role to play in helping people understand how they can protect animals and their natural habitats, new research from the University of Warwick, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and Chester Zoo has found.
Dr Eric Jensen, from Warwick’s Department of Sociology, says it is the most compelling evidence to date of the influence of such attractions, which attract more than 700 million visits across the globe every year.
The findings of the study, which is the biggest of its kind ever conducted, involving 5,661 respondents at 26 zoos and aquariums, in 19 different countries, have been published on 14 March in the journal Conservation Biology(first published online on 22 August 2014).
Dr Jensen, who is an internationally recognised expert on public engagement with wildlife, explained: “Zoos and aquariums are in a unique position to contribute to the goal of raising understanding of biodiversity conservation. Indeed the majority have an institutional and, in some cases, legal commitment to public education. But because these establishments tend to be viewed as providers of entertainment by the public, it has been unclear to what extent zoos’ educational messages are effective and, as there has been no previous global evaluation of their impact, it has been impossible to assess their importance on this scale — until now.”
The survey’s findings are based on the largest and most international study of zoo and aquarium visitors ever conducted worldwide. This large-scale impact evaluation study was conducted using a pre– and post-visit repeated-measures survey design to evaluate biodiversity understanding and knowledge of actions to help protect biodiversity in zoo and aquarium visitors. The study found that visiting a zoo or aquarium has a measurable positive impact on people’s biodiversity knowledge.
The study’s main findings:
- Aggregate biodiversity understanding and knowledge of actions to help protect biodiversity both significantly increased over the course of zoo and aquarium visits.
- There was an increase from pre-visit (69.8%) to post-visit (75.1%) in respondents demonstrating at least some positive evidence of biodiversity understanding.
- Similarly, there was an increase from pre-visit (50.5%) to post-visit (58.8%) in respondents that could identify a pro-biodiversity action that could be achieved at an individual level.
“For the first time, there is strong evidence that many people leave these attractions not just with greater awareness but also a better understanding of biodiversity and conservation,” added Dr Jensen.
“But the challenge for zoos and aquariums now is how to use these findings to directly improve the conservation of biodiversity, because it’s important to remember that an increase in knowledge does not necessarily lead to a change in behaviour. The next equally important step should be to build on this knowledge to promote pro-conservation behaviour and social change.”
What Zoos Do:
(Source: WAZA WorldZooAqua YouTube channel)
Dr Markus Gusset, WAZA’s Chief Conservation Officer, concluded: “The United Nations has a target that everyone should be aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably by 2020 at the latest. Our findings highlight that zoos and aquariums have an extremely important role to play if this goal is to be reached and if we are to eventually reverse the loss of biodiversity on the planet.”
(Source: University of Warwick press release (EN, ES), 16.03.2015; WAZA press release, 19.03.2015)
