Kolmården - an emerging development actor? : A qualitative case study of employees perspectives about Kolmården as a potential development actor

Abstract: Society is facing major challenges with an ongoing mass extinction of more than one million species worldwide caused by the destruction of ecological systems, deforestation, habitat loss, the increase of invasive species, climate change, illegal wildlife tracking, poaching and poverty. Challenges in which zoos worldwide contribute with important educational programs, innovative research and conservation strategies to ease the negative impact on local communities within developing countries. This essay considers that zoos through policies of in-situ conservation do play an important role within the wider context of development aid and sustainable development. However, Kolmården does not seem to understand that their policies have a significant impact on local communities within developing countries, especially since Kolmården execute scarce controls of aid management. Research has been conducted through semi-structured interviews at Kolmården, interviewees consist of zoo pedagogies and animal caretakers. This research displays the importance of zoos and its strategies, it also tries to explain the problem Kolmården stands for by lacking an overall organization that supports zoos within the political sphere. The lack of political support, ignorance, and misconceptions harms Kolmården and the zoo community. As a result, one may argue, that Kolmården among other zoos to be stuck within the dilemma “tragedy of the commons” presented by the ecologist Garrett Hardin in (1968). However, zoos are grossly underutilized institutions with great potential to conduct global sustainable development and safeguard wildlife from becoming extinct through development aid and in-situ conservation, which is supported by Kolmården Foundation through financial donations, innovative research, educati