Allies for Wildlife: Zoos for World Civet Day!

Next in our Allies for Wildlife blog series, Cerys Deakin (The Civet Project Foundation) on working alongside zoos across the UK raise vital awareness of civet coffee on World Civet Day:

The Viverridae family is an ancient family of Feliformia that includes civets, binturong and genets. One of the largest threats they face comes from civet coffee, coffee that has been partially digested by civets and binturong. To raise awareness of the welfare and conservation costs of this bizarre and infamous brew, this year’s World Civet Day theme was coffee.

But what is the truth behind civet coffee?

Civet coffee, whilst advertised as a unique luxury, is proven to be structurally similar to coffee beans digested by humans and is not actually as rare as it is suggested to be. Research has consistently shown that most, if not all, wild civet coffee is in fact from caged animals and there is no authentication process to identify whether civet coffee being sold is from a wild or caged civet.

The Civet Project Foundation, established in 2019, is the leading charity for viverrid conservation, research and outreach, and has been  working tirelessly to tackle the civet coffee industry. Civet coffee impacts many species including Common palm civets, Masked palm civets, Binturong, and even Owston’s civets who don’t eat coffee but do get trafficked through civet coffee farms. This year, The Civet Project Foundation brought together 25 zoos at the BIAZA Viverrid Workshop, each pledging to Reverse the Red for Owston’s civet and Binturong. World Civet Day is just one of the ways to work towards this pledge, by raising awareness about the harms caused by civet coffee tourism and consumerism.

We were delighted to see some fantastic celebrations across UK zoos. Hamerton Zoo Park hosted a whole weekend packed full of events and fundraisers all in support of World Civet Day and The Civet Project Foundation. Newquay Zoo also hosted excellent visitor events including the very popular ‘create your poop’ civet themed game. Dudley Zoo and Drusillas Park collaboratively donated £5000 to become key partners of the Civet One Health Programme, a programme designed to bring together ex-situ and in-situ conservation to promote more sustainable methods for the future in Vietnam. Drusillas also donated a further 50% of coffee sale profits from the day. 

The Civet Project is working hard to stop the promotion and sale of civet coffee and civet coffee attractions. When planning travel, tourists largely rely on online review sites to make their itinerary and find recommendations for activities.

Tripadvisor, being the leading tourism review site, receives over 460 million site visitors per month, all looking to plan their dream trip. Unfortunately, a Civet Project investigation found that there were over 350 civet coffee attractions listed on their site, often not appropriately labelled in accordance with their welfare policy. Following the launch of the Civet Project’s Industry Leaders Report, Tripadvisor pledged to amend or remove any listings that were in breach of their policy. However, 8 months later and still 300 civet coffee attractions are listed on their website.

This is why World Civet Day’s theme of civet coffee awareness was so vital, and zoos across the UK played a fundamental role in engaging their visitors and supporters with key consumer based conservation messaging. Together, in celebrating World Civet Day 2025, zoos and organisations around the world reached a whopping 400,000 people - successfully raising the profile of civets and binturong.

With even bigger and more ambitious plans for World Civet Day 2026, the Civet Project Foundation is keen to continue to grow its connections with BIAZA collections. If your collection is interested in getting involved in Civet Project Foundation initiatives email [email protected] to see how you can show your support and make a difference for civets, binturong and genets globally.