The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of zoos and aquariums in the areas of conservation, education, science, and recreation. AZA represents more than 235 facilities in the United States and overseas, which collectively draw more than 200 million visitors every year. AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums meet the highest standards in animal care and welfare and provide a fun, safe, and educational family experience. In addition, they dedicate millions of dollars annually to support scientific research, conservation, and education programs (via aza.org). 

AZA has an amazing, detailed website that overviews all aspects, programs, and affiliates of the AZA community. Below are a few highlighted pieces with links to follow to the website. 

AZA was founded in 1924, and has been accrediting Zoos and Aquariums since 1974. The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk has been an accredited facility since 2012. 

As indicated above, AZA is known to have the highest standards in all categories. An Accredited Zoo or Aquarium meets / exceeds these high standards. Interested facilities must complete an extremely detailed application that includes all policies, procedure, incidents, personnel, etc. This lengthy application takes months to complete, then review of the application takes another 6 months. After that period is over, in-person inspections are completed by a designated accreditation committee that is comprised of different individuals from other institutions representing different departments. The visits are in depth and the committee looks at just about everything. They conduct random interviews of staff, assess animal welfare and animal care practices, exhibits, programs, etc. 

After all is complete the committee writes a comprehensive review of the Institution that is submitted to the AZA Accreditation Commission where they go through all of the submitted documents, ask questions to the institution rep present, and debate within the commission whether or not the institution should be accredited or not. 

This lengthy process must be done initially, then every 5 years in order to stay an accredited facility. The reapplication process ensures that best practices are continuing to be followed to ensure the highest quality practices, especially in animal welfare. There are currently 237 accredited institutions. 

AZA has an amazing array of programs that thrive on in situ and ex situ partnerships. These programs range from education topics to field conservation work. We have highlighted some programs below. Aza.org contains information about all aza programs and initiatives. For many of these programs the experts that join each program are chosen by the program chairs based on an application process. 

AZA SAFE: Saving Animals From Extinction focuses the collective expertise within AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums and leverages their massive audiences to save species. A collective group of experts for a specific species across AZA facilities come together to create a plan to utilize key partnerships with both internal and external organizations with objectives focused on public/local community engagement, species recovery plans.

Species Survival Plans are a focused effort on populations in human care that reside within AZA. Each species has a Studbook Keeper who manages all the individuals in the AZA population and works with other experts to recommend breeding pairs with the focus on maintaining genetic diversity. It is highly unlikely that the animals within human care in the SSPs are ever to be reintroduced to the wild. AZA does have successful reintroduction programs that are separate from SSPs. 

When specific individual animals are recommended for breeding, the two institutions housing each individual work together to transport animals to each other. 

Similar to SAFE, TAGs are expert groups focused on larger taxon groups such as bears and ungulates. These groups work together with adjacent SSP and SAFE programs that have an animal within their taxon group. Here is an example of the work they do (Ungulate TAG: http://www.azaungulates.org) 

Similarly, to the other AZA programs, each committee is comprised of experts across the AZA field in each category. The term per committee member generally lasts 3 years to ensure that there is a rotation of experts. The committees work together on trending issues, topics, and projects. Below is a list of the main committees: