In 2007, the Annual Conference of the Eurasian Regional Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums was hosted by Tashkent Zoo.  The Conference was held on 15 and 16 of April.  It was timed to mark the tenth anniversary of the Zoo’s transfer to the new territory.  Representatives from 40 zoos took part in the work of the Conference.  The open session, where research issues were discussed and reports on the current research projects were heard, was attended by about 40 participants.

The report of the EARAZA Presidium and Executive Office for 2006, as well as the program and proposed budget for 2007 were discussed at the closed session. 

Further on, the Presidium proposed to approve the structure of the expert group that will be dealing with the monitoring of member-zoos and with accreditation procedures.  The number of the group members was increased and the group membership was approved by the Conference.  The group consists of the representatives of 26 full EARAZA member institutions. 

Associated membership was granted to the following institutions:
- Dushanbe Zoological Park (Tadjikistan);
- Managing company “Planet Neptune” (City of St. Petersburg).

The Conference made a special decision regarding membership application of the Non-commercial Partnership Zoopark Lympopo.  An issue of the associated membership status of this institution will be further discussed after the screening procedure is accomplished.

The question of the EARAZA associated membership of the institutions listed below was postponed until the time when all the required document packages are submitted by the applicants and screening of the applicants is completed:

• Municipal Institution Cheeta City Zoo;
• Municipal Institution Ivanovo Zoological Park;
• Children Ecologic and Biological Center of the city of Omsk;
• Termez Zoo (Uzbekistan);
• Kiryat Mozkin Zoo (Israel).

The Conference decided that the activities on the collection, evaluation and editing of the information meant for the EARAZA Booklet should be continued in 2007.

EARAZA Presidium and Executive Office suggested draft formats for the EARAZA diploma that will be awarded to most active members of the EARAZA or to the persons and institutions supporting EARAZA activities.  One of the drafts was approved as the base for the format of the diploma.

A long discussion was held over the Presidium’s and Executive Office’s proposal to change the existing structure of membership, application and other fees.  Finally, the Conference decided that the existing structure of membership fees would still be used in the future, but that the membership fees would have to be paid in Euro.

It was decided by the majority of votes that the S.M. Kudryavtsev Prize should not be awarded in 2007; instead, the EARAZA will financially support the Tashkent Zoo for the excellent success in organizing and hosting of the EARAZA Annual Conference.

New Presidium had been elected and approved as follows:

• Vladimir Spitsin, Director, Moscow Zoo – Chairman;
• Vladimir Fainstein, Deputy Director, Tallinn Zoo – Vice-Chairman, responsible for scientific research;
• Alexander Barannikov, Director, Rostov Zoo – Chair of the Legislation Committee;
• Ludmila Kardashova, Director, Perm Zoo – Chair of the Committee on Finances;
• Premysl Rabas, Director, Chomutov Zoo – Chair of the Committee for International Cooperation and Education;
• Kumeck Almenbaev, Director, Almaty Zoo – Chair of the Commission of Experts;
• Albert Mudarisov, Director, Kazan Zoo – responsible for the issues of organization.

The following membership of the Auditing Committee was approved:

Ludmila Anoka, Director, Kaliningrad Zoo;
Elena Hassan, Director, Penza Zoo;
Yury Ryabov, Director, Minsk Zoo.

Problems associated with the implementation of the EARAZA conservation and research projects, and with general plans of the Association were discussed at the open session of the Conference (16.04.2007).

Vladimir Fainstein presented a report on the implementation of the EARAZA comprehensive research programs in 2006.  The report was focused on the programs with participation of significant number of the member zoos.  It was noted that implementation of some of the programs, i.e. the program on the mountain ungulates of Eurasia, is associated with organizing problems.

Activities under the project on the conservation of rare cranes of Eurasia were presented by the project manager Tatjana Kashentzeva.  A first workshop for crane curators and keepers from EARAZA zoos was held at the Breeding Station for Rare Crane Species of the Oka State Natural Reserve.  The workshop included both practical and theoretical sessions.  Such workshops on husbandry of cranes should be more often organized in future.  Siberian crane is the critical species of this conservation project.  The necessity to increase the number of holder zoos was emphasized.

Comprehensive written report on the conservation project for Steller’s Sea eagle was prepared by the project coordinator L. Kurilovich.  The Coordinator mentioned difficulties associated with the implementation of the transfer recommendations.  The failure to follow transfer recommendations hampers the creation of genetically important pairs and negatively affects the accomplishment of the aims and purposes of the program.

Lack of finances impeded such in situactivities as monitoring of the wild populations of the Steller’s Sea eagle, which particularly refers to the population of the Lower Amur.  It was noted that despite the decisions taken at the EARAZA Annual Conferences in 2005 and 2006, the project has not been financed by the EARAZA in the past two years.  The Project Coordinator stressed that the zoos that are holding the birds belonging to the EARAZA, should be inspected in the near future.  So far, successful breeding of the Steller’s Sea eagles was only achieved at Novosibirsk Zoo.

In 2006, under the research project on saving the Dahl’s Gerbil, experts from the Moscow Zoo and Yerevan Zoo organized a field expedition to the habitats of the Dahl’s Gerbils.  The expedition was funded by the Moscow Zoo.  In spite of the thorough search, no wild specimens of the Dahl’s Gerbil had been found.  According to published report, this Gerbil is currently found in its historical area in Turkey.  The Conference decided to suspend this project and to request the Moscow Zoo to try and obtain a number of specimens from Turkey.

Apart from the formal EARAZA comprehensive research projects, most of the EARAZA zoos participate in the coordinated breeding program from Amur tiger that is an independent part of the EEP for Amur tiger.  The Coordinators of this program Tanya Arzhanova and Irina Paramonova indicated that the program is facing some difficulties, with the critical problem being insufficient number of participating zoos.  Just 30 EARAZA zoos out of 46, have Amut tigers in their collections, with only 20 zoos participating in the EARAZA program.  This is certainly not enough for preserving necessary level of genetic diversity.  Uncoordinated breeding of tigers in the region in the last decade resulted in the creation of the population with quite a few related tigers.  Breeding of many EARAZA pairs is not recommended.  It should be noted that long-term, efficient effort will be needed for the creation of genetically healthy regional population of Amur tiger, which aim could only be reached if the participants of the program will follow all the recommendations of the program coordinators.

Other issues of the conservation activities of the EARAZA were also discussed.  The participants of the conference emphasized the importance of concentrating efforts on the implementation of the EARAZA research projects at a higher level.  The participants of the conference unanimously supported the proposal to give the highest priority to the EARAZA projects on the conservation of Rare Crane Species and conservation of Steller’s Sea Eagle, and to the breeding programs for Amur tiger and Far Eastern Leopard.

The participants of the conference discussed the problems facing the zoos in the area of the acquisition of rare species, including those covered by the EARAZA conservation programs.  Regional zoos have to sell animals as they need to use the profit for funding their breeding programs.  At the same time, unavailability of potential buyers is perceived as a signal for ceasing breeding.  Siberian crane was considered as a typical example.  The participants discussed a possibility of the transfers of birds on terms of breeding loan so that the offspring of those birds were used exclusively for the program purposes.

One more topic of the conference was the workshops and training seminars that have been always traditionally organized and held by the EARAZA.  There is no doubt that these workshops are very useful.  In 2007, training seminars on husbandry of invertebrates and a workshop on the most important zoo veterinary problems will be organized and held by the EARAZA.  The participants of the conference approved suggested plan of training workshops.  Suggestions for the year 2008 included training workshops on the most important EARAZA programs: Conservation of the Steller’s Sea Eagle and Breeding Programs for Amur tiger and Far Eastern Leoprd.  The EARAZA Executive Office should start the preparation of the workshops, in cooperation with the coordinators of the programs.

No new research program applications have been submitted to the EARAZA Executive Office.

EARAZA Presidium received two applications for 2007 funding of the EARAZA comprehensive research projects: the Project on the Conservation of the Rare Crane Species of Eurasia needs to finance the processes of capture and transportation of hooded cranes (from the Far East), and the Project for Steller’s Sea Eagle applied for the fund that is needed for the monitoring of the wild population of birds in the Lower Amur, and for the inspection of EARAZA zoos holding Steller’s sea eagles.  The applications were supported by the participants of the conference.