News

On the final day of this year’s annual meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Species Survival Commission’s Conservation Planning Specialist Group (IUCN/SSC/CPSG), which took place in Berlin, Germany, on Sunday October 15, Jeremy Mallinson OBE, Director Emeritus of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, became the 13th recipient of the prestigious ‘Ulysses S. Seal Innovation in Conservation Award’.

The award was presented to him by CBSG’s Director, Dr Onnie Byers, which took place at a reception at the Berlin Zoo’s world famous aquarium. Apart from CBSG participants being present, there were many delegates attending the presentation from the annual conference of the World Association of Zoos and Aquaria (WAZA), which was about to take place in Berlin during the course of the week.

Durrell’s CEO, Dr Lesley Dickie commented “It was fantastic to be in Germany, with Jeremy to celebrate this achievement which reflects a lifelong dedication to conservation. Jeremy has always been a pioneer in his belief that zoos can and should do great things for conservation.”

Dr Byers mentioned in her introductory talk, prior to presenting Mr Mallinson with a commemorative bronze medallion, that during his 42-year career in Zoo’s and Conservation, and working at Durrell with his mentor, Gerald Durrell, that he had written over 200 papers and articles, nine books and presented papers at conferences in 20 different countries. Also, similar to Dr Ulysses Seal, he had had the ability to recognise, encourage, and network many others who shared his dedication to the future conservation of the world’s threatened and endangered species.

In Mr Mallinson’s response, he highlighted that since he joined the zoo and conservation world in 1959, that during the last 50 years or so the majority of the world zoos have evolved from being museum-like stamp collections of exotic species, to increasingly represent important centres of conservation, education and research. And he congratulated all those involved in CPSG’s global conservation planning activities and workshops, and hoped that the international zoo community would do as much as possible to continue to financially support CPSG’s invaluable work in saving threatened species from extinct.