Barrows Conservation Lectures

The Zoo is temporarily closed. While there have been no known cases of exposure to COVID-19 at the Zoo, the health and safety of our staff, volunteers, guests, community and animals is our top priority.

In response to the gathering restrictions ordered by Governor DeWine, the Cincinnati Zoo will be canceling or postponing any large events of 100+ people. This includes Barrows Conservation Lecture Series. More info here.

Since 1993, the Barrows Lecture Series has brought a slate of esteemed naturalists and scientists to Cincinnati to address wildlife issues and global conservation efforts. For over 25 years, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden has presented its Wildlife Conservation Award to one of its Barrows Conservation Lecture Series speakers.

The Barrows Conservation Lecture Series is made possible by the ongoing support of the family of Winifred & Emil Barrows.

2020 Dates & Speakers

Wednesday, March 11: Dr. Gary Nabhan, Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Lands & Communities
Postponed – Wednesday, April 1: Dr. Olivia Carril, To Bee or Not to Bee: Documenting bee declines in dynamic landscapes
Postponed – Tuesday, April 14: Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, The Wild Solution to Climate Change: Climate Change and the Living Planet (Cincinnati Zoo Wildlife Conservation Award)
Postposed – Wednesday, May 6: Dr. Peter Dann, Ask not what penguins can do for us but what we can do for penguins: A story about the recovery of the world’s largest colony of the world’s smallest penguin.

March 11: Dr. Gary Nabhan

Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Lands & Communities

Gary Nabhan is an ethnobiologist, nature writer, and world expert on the people, plants and wildlife of the Sonoran Desert. A recipient of a MacArthur “genius award,” Nabhan was honored by Utne Reader in 2011 as one of several visionaries whose work is making the world a better place in which to live. In his career Gary has served as Science Director at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum and Professor of Biology at the University of Arizona. Dr. Nabhan is the author of more than 20 books, including his most recent, Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Lands & Communities, which he will sign following his presentation.

April 1: Dr. Olivia Carril – postponed

To Bee or Not to Bee: Documenting bee declines in dynamic landscapes

Dr. Olivia Carril has been studying native bees and the plants they visit for over 20 years. Recent evidence has hinted at a possible decline in native bee species in North America, but with over 4,000 bee species occurring here, quantifying these declines and elucidating which bees are most effected has proved challenging for researchers. Olivia has been involved in several long term bee monitoring projects throughout western North America which harbors nearly three-quarters of the bee species found in the U.S; many of these areas have never been sampled for bees. Her work focuses on the drivers of their diversity and the causes and consequences of decline, even as new species are discovered. Olivia will discuss our current understanding of native bee populations and their health, the challenges researchers are working to overcome, and the importance of their ecosystem services.

April 14: Dr. Thomas Lovejoy – postponed

The Wild Solution to Climate Change: Climate Change and the Living Planet

Dr. Thomas Lovejoy will present, “The Wild Solution to Climate Change: Climate Change and the Living Planet.” Tom Lovejoy has played a leadership role in global conservation for more than 50 years. Dr. Lovejoy is best known for his seminal research in the forests of Peru, which helped launch the “Save the Rainforest” movement, and in 1980, he coined the terms biological diversity and biodiversity. Tom has served as Executive Vice President of the World Wildlife Fund, Chief Biodiversity Advisor to the World Bank and President of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. Today, Tom is a Senior Fellow at the UN Foundation, as well as University Professor at George Mason University. It is a great honor to present Dr. Tom Lovejoy with the 2020 Cincinnati Zoo Wildlife Conservation Award.

Wednesday, May 6: Dr. Peter Dann – postponed

Ask not what penguins can do for us but what we can do for penguins: A story about the recovery of the world’s largest colony of the world’s smallest penguin.

Dr. Peter Dann is Research Director at Phillip Island Nature Parks (not-for-profit conservation organisation) which carries out investigations of the Island’s significant populations of Little Penguins, Short-tailed Shearwaters, Hooded Plovers, Australian Fur seals and the Island’s threatened species. He has published over 180 papers and book chapters and edited a book on penguin ecology and management. His main research interests are population regulation, demography, climate change, foraging ecology, mitigation of anthropogenic threats to seabirds, ecology of islands and the conservation of threatened species. He has a life-long commitment to science-based wildlife management and threatened species conservation and is a Board member of the World Seabird Union and co-chair of the scientific committee for the World Seabird Conference in Hobart in 2020.

CZBG’s Wildlife Conservation Award

The year 2019 marks the 27th anniversary of the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s Wildlife Conservation Award. Each year, the Zoo invites several of the world’s leading conservationists and scientists to participate in this series and presents its annual Wildlife Conservation Award to one of the speakers. The list of internationally known conservationists who have been honored with this award is impressive. Click the button below to see Wildlife Conservation Award recipients:

Cincinnati Zoo Wildlife Conservation Award Recipients

1993 – Dame Jane Goodall

1995 – Roger Tory Peterson

1997 – Russ Mittermeier

1999 – Ted Turner

2001 – Peter Raven

2003 – George Schaller

2006 – Dr. David Western

2008 – Robert Kennedy

2010 – Alan Rabinowitz

2013 – John Kamanga

2015 – Tico McNutt

2017 – Dr. Craig Packer

2019 – Mike Fay

1994 – E. O. Wilson

1996 – Birute Galdikas

1998 – Richard Leakey

2000 – Laurie Marker and Cathryn Hilker

2002 – Wangari Mathaai

2005 – Cynthia Moss

2007 – Dr. Mark Plotkin

2009 – Iain Douglas-Hamilton

2012 – Sharon Matola

2014 – John Ruthven

2016 – Suzana Padua, Ph.D & Claudio Padua, Ph.D

2018 – Dr. Amy Dickman

2020 – Dr. Thomas Lovejoy

Chinese (Simplified)