Monday 19th December. Palais des Congrès, Montreal, Canada. COP15 has just announced a new UN Biodiversity Agreement. The aim is to protect 30% of Earth’s lands, oceans, coastal areas, inland waters, reduce by $500 billion annual harmful government subsidies and cut food waste in half by 2030.
Tuesday 20th December. A day after the landmark agreement was announced we’re visiting the Bioparc in Bellevue, Geneva. We were fortunate to be given a guided tour by Tobias Blaha, the park’s director, and Nelly Bettens. It is early morning and the first visitors are just appearing. A stone’s throw from the United Nations, Bioparc welcomes visitors from all corners of the world who come to see over 250 animals, a third of which are endangered.
“How does biodiversity conservation work at the park and how does the park’s team share their expertise?” I ask. Tobias replies: “Cooperation is essential when it comes to biodiversity protection, and the more the better”. Tobias shared his knowledge about animal protection while on a biodiversity project in Baku, Azerbaijan and he also built on his experience on another experience-sharing mission in Côte d’Ivoire. Closer to home, the Bioparc’s vast array of projects include its Business to Biodiversity programme, collaboration with international bodies such as IUCN and CITES, and work within the Federal Office for Veterinary Affairs.
On site, Tobias runs us through the park’s holistic approach to sustainability: the fruit and vegetables for animal feed are sourced from food that otherwise would go to waste, the site is equipped with a compost toilet and even the jigsaws in the gift shop are made from sustainable materials. Tobias also shares some great news with us: the Bioparc is moving soon, and its new home in Thônex will be far more sustainable and allow the site to grow. The n ew site will mainly consist of interactive trails that will allow the park to welcome up to 235k visitors annually.
The Bioparc is definitely full of awareness-raising, education and research: in an unusual role reversal, schoolchildren who’ve been to the park on a school trip return with their grandparents to show them around, there’s an exhibition on the illegal trade of wildlife and animal products (the third most frequent illegal trade after human trafficking and drug trafficking), as well as groundbreaking research, for example research into the emotions with Professor Brosch from The University of Geneva, and pioneering research on new species, such as Nelly’s master thesis on West African crocodiles.
As we walk around, Nelly explains that the keepers are storytellers and the animals are ambassadors. All of the park’s animals have been rescued or re-homed and keepers tell the stories the animals can’t. Visitors experience their visit in a transformative way via immersive trails that allow people to interact with animals by touching them, feeding them, feeling them perch on their shoulder. “We want people to feel an emotional connection,” Nelly explains.
We wander through the enclosures and get to know the park’s inhabitants. The parrots are as curious about us as we are about them (be careful where you step!) and they nibble gently from our hands. The little boy watching from outside the enclosure almost pins himself to it, before his mum finally peels him away. The Lemurs are a world apart: they remind me of a big gang of relatives, running and jumping and playing.
“Acting for nature is ultimately about protecting ourselves too” —
What’s the ethos behind this approach, I ask? As Tobias sums up, “You only act for what you love, and only love what you know”. Knowledge is at the heart of what the team at Bioparc is striving to achieve. The ethos behind their work is based on the firm belief that getting to know animals through interaction will encourage us to protect them and fight for biodiversity. A visit to Bioparc is real-life marketing for biodiversity.
But more needs to be done. First and foremost, Tobias highlights that we need long-term thinking and long-term solutions. “Climate change and biodiversity go hand in hand,” says Tobias, as he reminds us that even a 1-1.5% temperature increase would have a devastating impact on species such as Meercats, who would be faced with zero water in their natural habitat, and thus be at risk of extinction.
“Global issues call for global solutions,” Tobias recalls. The Bioparc team is putting their all into raising awareness, but Tobias urges us to do more as individuals and in terms of global governance. “We have to avoid creating problems in the first place (overconsumption, generating emissions, destroying habitats), then reduce our use of natural resources. We need to break the spiral of silence by cooperation and discussions,” he cautions. As for the Kunming-Montreal treaty? First, agreements must be legally binding, which the Montreal treaty is not. Second, application and compliance must be strictly monitored to avoid greenwashing and ensure full accountability.
As the Covid19 crisis so clearly demonstrated when it swept through the world, zoonoses don’t recognise human borders, nor does biodiversity loss. We need to make laws that align with nature, not the opposite. At the end of the day, as Tobias sums up “acting for nature is ultimately about protecting ourselves too.” This is what we have to bear if we want to ensure the survival of our species and the rest of the natural world. The Bioparc is a real case study which goes to show that each of us can do our bit to protect biodiversity in our increasingly fragile world.
