We are building upon our commitments as a 21st century zoo with the launch of a new conservation strategy, which is a five-year roadmap outlining the necessary steps to achieve a series of ambitious conservation projects, helping to protect the world’s rarest animals.
Our actions, throughout this strategy, will be guided by three key values;
👨🏽⚕️ HEALTH
We will act for the benefit of individual, population, community or ecosystem health.
❤️ HEART
We will be led by passion and heart. Our actions are fundamentally routed in ‘doing what is right to do.’
🙏 PARTNERSHIP
Our actions will be collaborative, utilising expertise from within the organisation and further afield.
Our mission is;
- “To inspire and excite people in the natural world, in the history and geology of the site on Castle Hill, and to encourage and promote a better understanding of and support for the conservation of nature and our heritage.”
We will achieve our mission through committing fully to a series of goals, objectives and actions relevant to five focus areas:
- 🐾OUR SPECIES Captive species for the benefit of in-situ & ex-situ conservation.
- 🧑🏻🤝🧑🏿OUR COMMUNITY Community programming that promotes engagement and wellbeing.
- 💡OUR KNOWLEDGE Education programming, capacity building/training and research.
- 🏰 OUR PAST Celebrating the rich history and heritage of the site and surrounding areas.
- 🌱OUR FUTURE Ensuring sustainable operation and responsible consumption throughout our site.
We’ve already begun working towards these goals…
We’ve created new and exciting education activities and workshops for the 18,000 learners that attend each year on school visits, as well as strengthening our partnership with local colleges and universities. We’re in the planning stage for a new visitor engagement and education centre which will enable us to welcome more learners on site.
Our native species management plan is currently in development, which will help ensure our site is the best possible home for native wildlife.
And we’re ever-growing our contributions to overseas conservation projects who are helping create a sustainable future for wildlife in their native areas.
Last year alone was the largest financial commitment to field conservation we’ve ever made, donating approx.. £50,000 to in-situ projects across the globe.
So where in the world are we supporting…
