Join the Conservation Centers for Species Survival as we protect vulnerable species through our Partnership for Species program. With your donation, you will support our expansive network of Conservation Centers and Partners working together to create sustainable and healthy ex-situ populations. Together, we can ensure these species have a future through innovative research and collaboration in North America and across the globe. Make a lasting impact - donate today to help preserve our planet's biodiversity and stop the extinction crisis.
Why the need for a dedicated program?
For decades, the main focus of conservation breeding programs in North America has been the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Species Survival Plans (SSPs). Member zoos have worked together to manage over 500 species with a goal to maintain self-sustaining populations in North America. Unfortunately, hoofstock programs have still been declining in the zoo community, challenged by a loss of dedicated space, restricted reproduction and a general decline in institutional interest. The Conservation Centers for Species Survival (C2S2) established the Source Population Alliance (SPA) over a decade ago to help address this issue by connecting private landowners and AZA institutions who dedicate their unique resources to creating sustainable populations of wildlife.
In early 2023, the AZA Taxon Advisory Groups completed an assessment of all SSP programs, which resulted in a large number of programs losing their SSP status, leaving these species without a management plan, risking hard earned conservation gains, and compromising the sustainability of the species for the future.
In early 2023, the AZA Taxon Advisory Groups completed an assessment of all SSP programs, which resulted in a large number of programs losing their SSP status, leaving these species without a management plan, risking hard earned conservation gains, and compromising the sustainability of the species for the future.
The Partnership for Species Solution
To address this challenge, the Conservation Centers For Species Survival is establishing a consortium framework called Partnership for Species (PFS) to manage these species immediately. This innovative program will be governed by C2S2 with the objective to build large, sustainable (genetically diverse and demographically varied) ex situ populations in North America for hoofstock species that were recently downgraded from SSP status.
The Partnership for Species will launch with 18 species. The focus species for the first round of population planning will be – Roan antelope, Sable antelope, Slender-horned gazelles, and Fringe-eared oryx. As the program grows, the next cohort of target species population planning will be selected from the following species: Giant eland, Lowland nyala, Greater kudu, Sitatunga, Wildebeest, common waterbuck, Nile lechwe, Southern gerenuk, Bontebok, Gemsbok, Arabian oryx, Cape buffalo, Somali wild ass, and Persian onager.
The common goal of the Partnership for Species, as inherited from the objectives of the SPA, is to achieve population sustainability via
1) implementation of alternate animal management practices and scientific research, 2) improve awareness amongst the public, and
3) returning populations to their native habitat. C2S2 will apply its decades of institutional knowledge and experience to ensuring the cooperative management of species no longer under SSP status to promote their conservation in human care and support future reintroduction efforts.
The common goal of the Partnership for Species, as inherited from the objectives of the SPA, is to achieve population sustainability via
1) implementation of alternate animal management practices and scientific research, 2) improve awareness amongst the public, and
3) returning populations to their native habitat. C2S2 will apply its decades of institutional knowledge and experience to ensuring the cooperative management of species no longer under SSP status to promote their conservation in human care and support future reintroduction efforts.
Conservation Value
The value to species of the Partnership For Species is rooted in a North American effort but is global in reach. By bringing together private landowners, Conservation Centers, and zoos, each with an existing group (herd) of hoofstock, The Partnership For Species plays a much needed role within the conservation ecosystem of creating large ‘metapopulations’ of species that might otherwise continue to be diminished in their home range. These metapopulations serve as a resource for potential reintroduction projects, and an insurance population against extinction.
By participating in the Partnership For Species, members are contributing to producing more funds for conservation, management, scientific research, and population sustainability and to improving awareness of the unique conservation value of these species.
By participating in the Partnership For Species, members are contributing to producing more funds for conservation, management, scientific research, and population sustainability and to improving awareness of the unique conservation value of these species.
Teams & Advisors
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