EAZA's history

EAZA was established in 1992. Its foundations, however, were laid down in the previous decade, when several experts from European zoos volunteered their time, innovative thoughts and relentless efforts into creating a framework that would make it possible to manage zoo animal populations jointly, across institutions and across borders.  

That framework – today known as EAZA Ex situ Programmes (EEPs) – was set up in 1985 during a meeting held at Antwerp Zoo among zoo directors from: Antwerp, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Cologne, Mulhouse, Copenhagen and Helsinki. Later the same year, 26 zoos from nine countries met in Cologne to set up the first 19 EEPs, choosing the iconic black rhino (mother and calf) as the EEP emblem. 

Whilst EEPs started as voluntary cooperation without an organisation behind them, European zoos joined forces in 1988 to establish the European Community Association of Zoos and Aquaria, ECAZA.   

An EEP Committee was created to oversee the system, backed by an EEP coordinators’ manual and first population management software. Taxon Advisory Groups (TAGs) were set up in 1990, and an EEP Executive Office was established in Amsterdam. From 1991 onwards, EEP coordinators published their annual reports in the EEP Yearbook which became an important source of guidance for each zoo’s own species plan. 

By 1992, the fall of the Iron Curtain made it possible to transform ECAZA, together with the EEP system, into a truly all-European zoo organisation: European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, EAZA. Uniting zoos around a formalised EEP mechanism was one important reason behind the association’s birth.  

Giving the zoo community a joint voice in European policymaking was another. In the mid-1980’s, the European Union (then still European Communities) began talking about the need for EU-wide zoo legislation, in response to activist campaigns. The newly formed EAZA became an active partner in these conversations.  

The efforts culminated in 1999 with the adoption of the EU Zoos Directive, which remains the umbrella law for all zoo licensing schemes across the EU, with the aim of strengthening the role of zoos in the conservation of biodiversity. The history of EAZA is thus closely interlinked with that of the Zoos Directive.