open access

https://doi.org/10.14943/jfhhs.19.15

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/91159

The Educational Role of the Zoo : from Laws, Strategies, and Standards

英語

2024-02

北海道大学文学研究院

Journal of the Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences

19

15-21

In recent years, education, especially conservation education has become a crucial part of zoo laws, standards, and strategies, showing the importance of the educational role of zoos and aquariums. Whilst several articles have analyzed the international regulatory framework and national legislation of zoos in some countries, no studies have been found that focus on regulations concerning education. This paper is a literature review that mainly compares and discusses the definitions and descriptions of ‘zoo’, ‘education’, and ‘conservation education’ given by the following four typical laws, strategies, and standards that mention the educational role of zoos and aquariums: Social Change for Conservation: EU Zoos Directive (1999), South Korea: Act on the Management of Zoos and Aquariums (2016), The World Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Education Strategy (2020), EAZA Conservation Education Standards (2023). As the result shows, although most of the zoo licensing laws seemed to put more emphasis on physical requirements for zoos, the educational role of zoos and aquariums is addressed by zoo associations with scientific strategies, effective approaches, and good practice examples provided. Besides, zoos are considered to be one variety of museums in Japan, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), and the International Council of Museums (ICOM), which is discussed in Chapter 3, also suggests that education is one of the most important roles of zoos.

紀要論文

Version of Record

2437-0177