By Carole Dennett
The Island’s much-loved zoo, Amazon World Zoo Park, has been awarded charity status.
Amazon World Zoo Park has been one of the Island’s favourite attractions since 1993. It is a member of both the British, Irish and European Associations of Zoos & Aquaria, and works alongside zoological parks around the world. At present, it is a member of five European studbooks, and 15 European endangered species programmes.
Amazon World is proud to adopt the charity name Amazon Rainforest Conservation Centre (charity number 1205255), reflecting its long-term commitment to protecting vital rain-forest, and its plants and animal life. Over the past decade, it has helped to save habitats for more three million species, by working to protect rain-forests in Argentina, Columbia, Ecuador, Brazil and Bolivia. It has provided funding for wild rangers, given support to tree replanting programmes, and backed conservation projects such as saving the Blue-throated Hillstar hummingbird – a species that has become very close to extinction.
Amazon World has not only aided wildlife in the Amazon Rainforest but also Belize, Guatemala, Kenya and here on the Island.
Projects range from supporting the development of a wildlife corridor for jaguar, in Belize, to working hard carrying out research for the Reddish Buff moth on the Isle of Wight.
By becoming a charity, Amazon World can now build on its dedication to support work carried out in the Amazon Rainforest, and give much-needed help to protect wild fauna and flora abroad and closer to home. They believe in protecting the natural world now while working to conserve and improve it for future generations.
