Blog: Driving nature conservation through competition

Good zoos and aquariums must be at the forefront of nature conservation here in the UK and Ireland say BIAZA’s Maria Carbin & Andy Hall...

BIAZA member zoos and aquariums are making a tangible difference to the nature on their doorstep and this work couldn’t come at a more pressing time. The British Isles are full of animal lovers, and yet England has been cited as one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. That’s why BIAZA members must double their efforts to turn the tide on this disparity.

The new UK Government has just announced a review of their Environmental Improvement Plans giving zoos and aquariums an opportunity to share their expertise and push government to unlock their potential for native species restoration.

Here at BIAZA we are providing a platform for our members to showcase their work through two special competitions...

The Great British Wildlife Restoration Awards pit native species project against each other in a friendly way to earn the votes of the UK’s MPs and Lords. This competition was first launched last year and we were very pleased that over 60 parliamentarians got involved supporting projects such as Colchester Zoo’s estuarine moth restoration, the hedgehog hospital at Shepreth Wildlife Park and Sea Life Weymouth’s seahorse monitoring.

The whole point of the Great British Wildlife Restoration is to send a clear signal to our politicians – our zoos and aquariums are at the forefront of native species conservation but a lot more needs to be done.

The second iteration of this competition has just opened and we hope to once again showcase the depth and breadth of native species conservation projects taking place. BIAZA members can enter their project for the Great British Wildlife Restoration Awards 2024 here.

But that’s not the only exciting event from BIAZA. Our Spotted on Site project has been running for over two years, incorporating citizen science whilst highlighting the diversity of species on BIAZA members’ sites. Zoos and Aquariums signed up to Spotted on Site have been encouraging staff, visitors, and volunteers to take pictures of the native wildlife they see on their visit, and through the app/website iNaturalist, upload them online and count towards the zoo or aquarium’s total species. Plants, fungi, rare insects, birds, mammals and many more are being spotted and tallied – with an impressive 68,000 total observations made so far.

The UK’s largest zoo by acreage, Whipsnade Zoo, has been holding the ‘most observations’ spot for some time. Fortunately, this project is more than a competition – it’s a showcase of how zoos/aquariums provide and survey important green spaces which harbour native wildlife, and are not just havens for exotic species.

BIAZA are giving the project an autumnal boost by holding a Bioblitz from 14 – 20 October. This will have its own separate leaderboard, though all observations still contribute to the Spotted on Site umbrella project total.

It’ll be interesting to see which zoo/aquarium gathers the most observations over the course of the week (last time BIAZA ran a Bioblitz back in spring 2023, Dudley Zoo and Gardens managed to catalogue an incredible 1,046 species in four days!)

To the BIAZA members who are signed up to SoS, get ready to uncover and log some October species! To BIAZA members not signed up, you can still join by downloading the setup guide here.

We are so proud to be part of an association, a community of zoos and aquariums, that is doing so much for our native species. Together, including through friendly competition, we are confident we can go even further.

- Maria Carbin & Andy Hall, The BIAZA comms team