The annual international conference of the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA) ended on October 2 in Albufeira (Portugal). 919 participants from 71 countries, 102 Zoos took part in it. The Association of Zoos of Ukraine (AZU) was represented by Mykolaiv Zoo and Kharkiv Zoo.
Volodymyr Topchii, president of the AZU, director of the Mykolaiv Zoo, addressed the conference participants. In his speech, he informed his colleagues about the activities of Zoos — members of the AZU in wartime.
After returning to Ukraine, Volodymyr Topchyi made a brief summary of his participation in the conference for the AZU website.

“A few days have already passed since the EAZA — the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria Annual Conference 2022, which was held in Albufeira, Portugal, ended.
First of all, I want to express my deep gratitude to the EAZA office for the moral and financial support of my participation in this European forum, to the chairman Endre Papp and the executive director Myfanwy Griffith.
The conference was prepared and held at a very high level. It was attended by 919 participants from 71 countries, 102 Zoo institutions. Mykolaiv Zoo and Kharkiv Zoo took part in the Conference from the Association of Zoos of Ukraine (AZU). I want to note that there were no russian Zoos.
During the grand opening of the Conference, I, as the president of AZU, was given the opportunity to speak about the current state of affairs in Ukraine, in particular about Ukrainian Zoos. After the end of my speech, 900 people of the Conference participants greeted Ukraine with a standing ovation.
In addition, I had 2 more speeches at the meeting of the National Associations Committee and at the meeting of the Membership Committee.
During the Conference, there were numerous meetings with colleagues from different Zoos, with the chairman of EAZA, Endre Papp, with the executive director of EAZA, Myfanwy Griffith, with the mentor of Mykolaiv Zoo, Douglas Richardson. With the director of Prague Zoo, Miroslav Bobek, Mykolaiv Zoo signed a Memorandum of cooperation between Prague Zoo and Mykolaiv Zoo.
Many colleagues in communication expressed their support for Ukraine in the war with russia.
The visit at the park Zoomarine (with a unique experience of working with dolphins) was fascinating.
After the Conference, we continued our work at Lisbon Zoo. On the way back I also visited Chisinau Zoo
In my opinion, this trip was very important. We managed to convey to the Zoo community in Europe the difficult situation of Ukraine, which is associated with the aggression of russia and the vision of Ukrainian Zoos regarding membership in EAZA of russian Zoos.
I express my deep gratitude to the EAZA office for the moral and financial support of my participation in this pan-European Zoo forum”.

The text of the speech of the President of ASU is available at the link.