The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) has launched its 2026–2027 conservation campaign to raise awareness about the protection of wetlands, and our Zoo is taking part. Over the course of the year, we will organize related programs and regularly share educational content on our website and social media channels.
The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), of which our Zoo is a member, is one of the most important regional zoo organizations in the world. As part of its wide-ranging professional activities, the Association regularly organizes thematic conservation campaigns lasting one, two, or even three years. The most recent initiative was the VietnAmazing campaign, focused on Vietnam’s endangered wildlife, running from 2023 to 2025. Our Zoo also participated in that campaign, which will be familiar to regular readers of our website, as we reported on the “A Drop of Vietnam” event and some interesting species native to Vietnam.
For the 2026–2027 period, EAZA has launched a new conservation campaign titled Wetlands for Life. It is hardly surprising that the campaign focuses on wetlands, as this habitat type is among those most threatened by human activity. Wetlands provide homes for a wide variety of species, so their condition strongly affects biodiversity. In addition, human communities also depend heavily on wetlands, starting with access to drinking water.
Because wetlands play such a key role in nature’s “household,” it is not surprising that an internationally significant treaty on wetlands has existed for over fifty years. This treaty, focusing especially on wetlands as habitats for waterbirds, has been ratified by around 90% of UN member states, a total of 172 countries. The global agreement is commonly called the Ramsar Convention, named after the city of Ramsar in Iran, where the first member states signed the agreement in 1971. Hungary joined in 1979.
The Ramsar Convention clearly defines what is considered a “wetland.” The list is long because wetlands come in many forms. Wetlands include rivers, streams, brooks, lakes, marshes, swamps, peatlands, wet meadows, oases, underground waters and cave waters, river deltas, mangrove forests, tidal flats, and coastal coral reefs. Human-made sites such as fish ponds, reservoirs, flooded rice fields, and salt pans are also considered wetlands, as they provide habitats for many species. Wetlands are mostly freshwater but can also be saltwater or brackish. They may be permanently or temporarily covered by water and can be naturally formed or created by human activity.
The Wetlands for Life campaign has several goals. The Association collects donations to directly support conservation programs related to specific wetlands. Equally important is education and awareness-raising. Zoos participating in the campaign aim to introduce as many people as possible to wetlands and their characteristic species, emphasizing the importance of these habitats and the complex efforts needed to protect them. Another key goal is to involve local communities in protecting wetlands and monitoring their condition, as well as to develop collaborations between zoos and other conservation organizations working to preserve wetlands. EAZA also encourages its member zoos to improve water management in their daily operations and to take further steps to adopt environmentally friendly, water-saving technologies.
Our Zoo naturally participates in the Wetlands for Life campaign, as it concerns us in several ways. For example, we care for many species that in the wild are tied to wetlands. This includes flamingos, which are known to breed successfully in our Zoo and have been chosen by the European Association as the campaign’s “ambassador animals.” Another example is the endangered giant otters from South America, which we not only exhibit and breed successfully but have also contributed to a reintroduction program in the wild in cooperation with our Argentine partners.
Many rescued animals entering our wildlife rehabilitation center are also wetland-associated species. In some cases, we rescue eggs from flood-threatened wetland nests, incubate them, and raise the chicks before returning them to their natural habitat.
For the 2026 campaign year, we are preparing a wide range of programs and incorporating the topic of wetlands even more intensively into our zoo education work. We will also regularly post content about wetlands and their species on our website and social media platforms, so it is worth following our updates and posts.
Since 2000, EAZA has regularly organized thematic conservation campaigns. The first, the 2000–2001 Bushmeat campaign, focused on the bushmeat crisis and included educational activities as well as a petition submitted to the European Parliament. About 170 participating zoos collected a total of 1.9 million signatures. Our Zoo took part and was among the first in the number of signatures collected. The petition led the European Parliament to adopt a resolution that guided EU regulations. Beyond its conservation impact, this campaign was historically significant for democracy, as it marked the first time a large number of Hungarian citizens expressed their opinion on an EU matter, even though Hungary was not yet a member of the European Union.
In the years following the bushmeat campaign, EAZA organized additional campaigns for the protection of tigers, turtles, endangered songbirds, the wildlife of Madagascar and Southeast Asia, the preservation of Arctic habitats, and fish species threatened by the fishing industry.
