Welcome to the REEC Home Page

 

What is REEC?

REEC stands for Regional Environmental Enrichment Conferences. These meetings stem from conversations among delegates at the International Conference on Environmental Enrichment (ICEE) held in New York, in 2005. A group of us came up with the idea of forming regional committees (SHAPE—Regionals) to organize meetings in different regions of the world, with the purpose to interest people from all aspects of the animal-care industry in the discipline of environmental enrichment.

 

REEC mission

The mission of REEC meetings is to provide a venue for animal carers from smaller regions of the world to meet and discuss environmental enrichment. We aim to encourage more people to attend enrichment meetings, speak at the International conferences, and to publish their work in proceedings and the Shape of Enrichment. ICEE conferences are often only attended by zoo-based staff, we would like to try and include many of the other collections within each region such as private collection animal keepers, the laboratory industry, farming, and the companion animal sectors. Many of these organisations do not have money in their budgets to send animal management staff to International conferences but it is important that they are involved in current research, have access to information on enrichment, and share their enrichment experiences with the rest of us. We can all learn from each other as, in the end, we are all doing this to improve the welfare of our animals.

 

REEC history

To date conferences have been hosted by:

 

UK & Ireland

1^st UK & Ireland REEC: Paignton Zoo Environmental Park, Devon, UK (2006)

2^nd UK & Ireland REEC: Bristol Zoo Gardens, Bristol, UK (2008)

3^rd UK & Ireland REEC: Marwell Wildlife, Winchester, UK (2010)

4^th UK & Ireland REEC: Port Lympne and Howletts Wild Animal Parks, Aspinall Foundation, Kent, UK (2012)

5^th UK & Ireland REEC: RZSS Edinburgh Zoo, Scotland, UK (2014)

 

Australasia

1^st Australasian REEC: Zoos Victoria, Melbourne Zoo, Australia (2006)

2^nd Australasian REEC: Auckland Zoo, Auckland, New Zealand (2008)

 

Brazil

1^st Brazilian REEC: Såo Paulo University, São Paulo, Brazil (2008)

2^nd Brazilian REEC: Såo Paulo University, São Paulo, Brazil (2010)

3^rd Brazilian REEC: Såo Paulo University, São Paulo, Brazil (2012)

 

Sweden

1^st Sweden REEC: Skansen Zoo in Stockholm, Sweden (2012)

 

Past REEC Conferences  

 

Upcoming conferences

The 6^th UK & Ireland REEC will be announced soon, keep checking the website for details.

 

Conference calendar

SHAPE—Regionals

 

REEC proceedings

The proceedings, workshop and discussion notes from all REEC conferences are made available to download (free of charge) from the publications section of this website.

 

REEC Proceedings Available

REEC Proceedings guidelines

 

Contact the REEC Advisory Group