There is great excitement at Citizen Conservation: Our conservation breeding programme is among the nominees in the “Products” competition of the 19th German Sustainability Award.
The award recognises pioneering products, services and systems that effectively drive sustainable transformation and set an example in their respective fields. Citizen Conservation has been nominated in the transformation field “Nature”.
More space for species conservation
The biodiversity crisis presents species conservation with an enormous challenge. For a growing number of threatened animal species, conservation breeding in human care plays an important role alongside the protection of their natural habitats. Yet the capacities available for this work are limited.
This is exactly where Citizen Conservation comes in. Our coordinated conservation breeding programme brings together zoos, private keepers, schools and other institutions in a shared network. In this way, we systematically mobilise additional keeping capacities and existing expertise within civil society for species conservation.
Many individual holdings thus become part of a shared network for threatened animal species – coordinated, scientifically supported and designed to grow.
A Demonic poison frog moves into its new home – one of many holdings within the Citizen Conservation network.
From 20 to 500 holdings
As part of our application, we documented how this network has developed since its launch in an additional impact report. Citizen Conservation started its first year with five species, 119 animals and 20 holdings. Today, the programme comprises 38 threatened animal species, with 5,736 animals across 501 holdings. Around 300 private keepers and institutions are now involved.
We are therefore delighted by the nomination for the German Sustainability Award not only as recognition of our work. It also brings greater visibility to an approach that combines institutional species conservation with the commitment and capacities of many people and organisations.
And that means the joy of this nomination is shared by everyone who makes Citizen Conservation possible: our shareholders, supporters and partners, and above all the many people and institutions within the network who contribute to the conservation of threatened species.
What happens next?
The finalists for the German Sustainability Award Products will be selected from among the nominees in the next stage. The winners will be honoured in Düsseldorf on 3 December 2026.
We are excited to see how far Citizen Conservation will go – and for now, we are simply delighted to have been nominated!