Blog: So much to do!

BIAZA CEO Dr Jo Judge looks back on the achievements of a jam-packed year and at the challenges that lie in front of us.

It is now the middle of January and as we settle into 2023, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the past year as well as look forward to the future.

Looking back, 2022 was a really important year for BIAZA and at times it felt like the first sort of normal year since the pandemic. We had our share of achievements and frustrations as we continued on our mission to bring together the best zoos and aquariums in Britain and Ireland to create a better future for the planet and its inhabitants.

Let’s take a quick look through 2022:

January – the year started knowing we had to make more progress on the issues that Brexit presents to animal transfers. Ably led by Nicky and Alex from the office, I am pleased that we have been able to build relationships with many departments (across many Governments) and over the course of the year help so many of our members with transfers.

I kick-started our blog series for 2022 calling for zoos and aquariums to up their game. The blog series has been a fantastic success and we’ve seen so many diverse subjects covered over the year from veganism to spawning reef fish, world-bank bonds to personal experiences of zoo keepers.

February – the February Board meeting saw the approval of BIAZA’s brand new strategy which is something I had been working on for a while. This sets out a new purpose for the charity and guides us in all of our actions. 

The whole world was shocked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. BIAZA contributed towards EAZA’s  support for the zoos, zoo personnel and the animals caught up in this terrible war. Efforts to support Ukraine’s zoos are ongoing and you can find out more here: Emergency appeal for Ukrainian zoos » EAZA

In happier news, February also saw us recruiting Maria to the team as our Communications and Campaigns Officer. If you’ve seen the many more videos and campaigns we have produced over 2022 you will have seen some of Maria’s excellent work.

March  -  was a month of firsts. It saw our very first Irish Public Affairs Working Group (IPAWG) established. IPAWG brings together BIAZA members in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to lobby and campaign together. The group now meets on a monthly basis and reflects our ongoing commitment to being an effective campaigning force over the Irish sea.

It also saw our first ever International Women’s Day conference, organized by Frankie and held on Zoom which was a huge success. I was pleased to be able to share my story alongside really inspirational women from across the sector.

April –saw the launch of our brand new careers guide coordinated by one of our Senior Managers, Cerian. So many people want to work in zoos and aquariums but don’t know where to start, it is a fantastic addition to our resources.

During this time, BIAZA led the sector in responding to a proposed new edition of the Modern Zoo Standards. These standards affect every zoo licence holder in Great Britain. Our consultation response stretched to nearly a hundred pages and covered everything from hazardous animal categorisation to new standards for education, conservation and research. We were pleased to see that the conservation standards included a broad range of conservation work following our discussions with the Minister. I am very proud that we were able to support many members in their consultation response, and we look forward to continuing to work with our members and the government to ensure the new standards are stringent but proportionate.  

May – This month started dramatically as BIAZA responded to a campaign against elephants in zoos. Our Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Andy, and I took on many media interviews including Andy rushing across the country to conduct TV interviews from Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm.  This is just one of many examples of where BIAZA has been involved in the media, telling anyone who will listen about why good zoos and aquariums need their support, as well as offering communications support to our members throughout the year. 

In 2022 the UK experienced its largest outbreak of avian influenza (bird flu) ever. This of course posed many challenges to our members as guardians for some of the most endangered bird species in the world. Nicky has been steering BIAZA through this extraordinary outbreak and thanks to her work BIAZA was right at the top table and has secured key exemptions and rules that are specific to zoos. I’m very proud of my team and it is testament to our expertise and lobbying work that we have been able to help our members navigate this unprecedented challenge.

In May the team expanded again as we welcomed Jeff Green as our new Finance and Admin Officer. Jeff is a really important member of the team and has been working with our Treasurer to ensure the accounts are in order.

June – It was absolutely fantastic to have our annual conference, the first one in person since the pandemic and my first ever in person, at Dublin Zoo. This was a brilliant opportunity to meet our members and stakeholders and to be really inspired by some of the work going on. I was particularly impressed by the talks on the importance of youth boards, rewilding carbon and campaigns. Dublin Zoo were undoubtedly fantastic hosts.

This conference was also a time of change as Dr Christoph Schwitzer stepped down from his position as Chair of BIAZA to be succeeded by Jamie Christon. Personally, Christoph was a great support as I settled into the role and I’m looking forward to working with Jamie as together we lead BIAZA forward.

June also saw the launch of two hugely successful BIAZA campaigns: Spotted on Site and our LGBTQ Pride campaign. At the time of writing nearly 28,000 observations of native species have been made by over 1000 observers from BIAZA member zoos and aquariums through Spotted on Site. And I think we were all really touched by the personal stories of LGBTQ colleagues, including my own colleagues, in our Pride blog series.

July -  our busy summer continued in July with the Research Conference, held at ZSL London Zoo focusing on the role of zoos and aquariums in achieving global aims. We also published the results of our annual photo competition. This year the competition deliberately celebrated species which might be overlooked, and I was pleased to see so much passion for the ‘weird and wonderful’ animals we care for, including jeweled wasps, turacos and Titicaca frogs.

'A deadly jewel' by Eleanor Thomas (Chester Zoo) - winner of the 'Weird Winged Creatures' category

July also saw BIAZA bring together members from across Ireland to urge Michael Martin, Ursula Von Der Leyen and Boris Johnson to work together on a solution to animal transfer challenges following Brexit. This campaigning was supported by every single BIAZA member on the island of Ireland and achieved mass media coverage.

I also shared my congratulations to our first cohort of BIAZA zoo animal trainers, who became the UK and Ireland’s first (hopefully of many!) ABTC accredited zoo animal trainers.  They are the start of a network of accredited animal trainers across the BIAZA membership. 

August - the BIAZA Board of Trustees met at Bristol Zoo to say goodbye to the historic site. It was such an honour to be at the site before it closed and to hear about the exciting plans for the future.

BIAZA became an official partner of World Elephant Day, this year the day saw BIAZA coordinate  68 campaigners, conservationists, elephant experts and MPs in writing to Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss (then in the midst of a leadership race) to commit to a brighter world for elephants.

BIAZA’s annual awards were officially published in August. Through these awards we celebrated the outstanding achievements of our members across a variety of activities. Gold was awarded to a range of projects, such as developing methods for monitoring penguins at West Midland Safari Park, releasing endangered turtles seized in the illegal wildlife trade and the new Galapagos Giant Tortoise house at ZSL London Zoo.

BIAZA also dived into the world of TikTok as Maria ably led training along with the Big Cat Sanctuary and the Hawk Conservancy Trust for all our members.

September - started with a bit of recognition for all the brilliant volunteers at our member zoos. 20 fantastic volunteers were awarded a coveted Zoo and Aquarium Hero Award which is an exclusive award to BIAZA.

Nicky and I attended the first post Covid EAZA conference in Portugal, which was a fantastic opportunity to meet our international colleagues in person. We, with EAZA, ran a workshop on Brexit and I presented on the hot topics affecting BIAZA members.

As part of delivering on the DEAI goals in our strategy, we published updated guidance for our members on Assistance Dogs. The guidance, written by Frankie, our Projects, Diversity and Inclusion Officer, was reviewed and approved by six UK assistance dog charities and is one of the first of what we hope will be many ways in which BIAZA will provide information and signposting on DEAI matters for our members.

This month, of course, also saw the sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. I am proud that the sector came together very quickly and professionally to recognize the Queen for her love of animals.

Over the year we were glad to be a part of many important site visits for policy makers. This included a visit of the (then) Home Secretary Priti Patel MP to Colchester Zoo, shadow zoo minister Alex Sobel to Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm and a virtual meeting of the Science Minister at Banham Zoo.

October - was a really busy month of conferences for BIAZA, with our Volunteers Managers, Bird and Records Working Groups all holding their events. I got the opportunity to meet and share knowledge and experience with even more international colleagues at the WAZA Conference, where I presented again, this time on our lobbying efforts around elephants in UK zoos.

Andy, was busy in Liverpool and Birmingham at the Labour and Conservative Party Conferences. Along with colleagues from Chester Zoo, ZSL and Merlin, BIAZA spoke with many policy makers about the excellent work of our member zoos and aquariums.

Our brand new Diversity, Equality, Access and Inclusion Working Group, set up by Frankie, held its first meeting this month and it was fantastic to see so much enthusiasm for this important area of development for the zoo sector.

October ended with our exciting brand new Vital Venoms and Practical Poisons campaign. It was great to see lots of members spreading the word about the more positive side of the interesting venomous and poisonous species we care for.

November - A highlight for me was being able to share the sentiment research conducted by Chester Zoo with our members showing the vast majority of the public supports zoos to save species and connect people and nature.

November was marked by several important conferences including our National Aquarium Conference held at The National SEA LIFE Centre Birmingham, and our Conservation Education conference hosted by Dartmoor Zoo.

Speakers and guests at ‘Communities at the Heart of Nature Recovery’, the parliamentary reception by BIAZA, Chester Zoo, RZSS and ZSL.

A really important part of our public affairs efforts was our parliamentary reception, supported by RZSS, Chester Zoo and ZSL. It was very successful, with over 30 parliamentarians attending and speeches from the Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Sarah Champion MP. This is all part of our efforts to increase political awareness of the role of modern zoos and aquariums.

December – Before we got to yuletide celebrations, I was pleased that Sarah Champion MP was elected as the interim Chair of the APPG for Zoos and Aquariums. Lobbying efforts saw this group swell to nearly 50 parliamentarians from all major parties in UK parliament. December also saw the Kept Animals Bill debated in parliament nearly a year since the Bill was last debated there. BIAZA has been working with Defra officials and others to ensure that this Bill will work for zoos and aquariums, given it includes the most significant changes to zoo legislation since the 1980s!

 Just before Christmas, BIAZA finalised a new report about the care of elephants in member zoos and safari parks, as well as their contribution to elephant conservation, research and education. This has been a mammoth undertaking led by our Elephant Task Force. We hope to share this report with you soon.

Finally, to me there’s no better way to cap off a busy 2022 than celebrating with some festive joy. Our Secret Santa saw 50 members swap gifts this year under the theme of ‘enrichment’, and it was great to see these gifts unboxed in entertaining…and sometimes unusual (Raptor Conservation), videos.

So, what can you expect from 2023?

I will be working to ensure BIAZA maintains this momentum. My priorities continue to be political campaigning on a number of issues (zoo licensing, avian influenza, animal transfers, elephant welfare and more), supporting our members to continue their development through our amazing committees and working groups, and supporting the best in animal welfare, conservation, education and research through developing and trialing our new accreditation scheme which should be launched in 2024. 

We have lots of campaigns to look forward to including new ideas such as Zoo Tales – a celebration of World Book Day, World Autism Acceptance and Creatures Unseen – a celebration of nocturnal species for Halloween. And we’ve invested in new software so you can expect more video content from BIAZA, I’m hoping to provide video updates for all our members.

We will kick start our conferences with our Conservation Conference ‘One Health’ at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo this month. I am particularly looking forward to  the BIAZA annual conference at West Midland Safari Park in June, and we look forward to seeing many of you there.

2023 will undoubtedly be a very challenging time for zoos and aquariums with the uncertainty over energy prices and the cost of living. But, with your support, passion and skills, I know we can meet those challenges head on.

By Dr Jo Judge, CEO of BIAZA

All blogs reflect the views of their author and are not a reflection of BIAZA's positions.