N.C. Zoo Keepers Honored for Rain Forest Conservation

The Center for Ecosystem Survival presented its 2005 Conservation Prize to the staffs of the Zoo and Zoo Society in recognition of their “….leadership role in saving precious biological diversity and for creating a conservation partnership…to save tropical rain forest habitats.

The Center originally planned to present the award at the American Assocation of Zoo Keepers' national conference, which was scheduled to meet last week in New Orleans. The conference was cancelled in the wake of the disaster brought on by Hurricane Katrina. N.C. Zoo Director Dr. David Jones received the award via mail today.

Since 1992, the N.C. Zoo’s 15-member Assocation of Zoo Keepers chapter has sponsored two conservation parking meters inside the Zoo that invite visitors to contribute pocket change to rain forest protection. Over the past 13 years, the meters have garnered more than $22,680. The Center for Ecosystem Survival has invested all of these funds in projects that protect habitats in Costa Rica's Guanacaste Conservation Area and Piedras Blancas National Park.

Based in San Francisco, the Center created its annual Conservation Prize as a way to “honor zoos, aquariums and individuals who have exhibited an ‘above and beyond’ contribution for saving wildlife and wild places in nature.” 

In a letter to N.C. Zoo Director Dr. David Jones announcing the award, the Center's Director Norman Gershenz stated that the Zoo and Zoo Society have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to conservation that reaches beyond the borders of the zoo—linking the public with the wild by offering ways for people to preserve biological processes that contribute to the survival of species and to their threatened homes.