Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, Dr John Cortes, has congratulated the Director and staff of the Gibraltar Botanic Gardens and the Alameda Wildlife Conservation Park (AWCP), for achieving provisional membership of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA).

Dr Cortes commented: “Membership of BIAZA is not easy to achieve, and reflects the high standards of the AWCP, and the hard work of management and staff alike. I would like to pay tribute to all who have been involved in the project through the past twenty years, many of them volunteers in the early years, and some sadly no longer with us. The AWCP is an incredible facility which we should be proud to have in Gibraltar. It does great educational and conservation work, which this latest achievement shows is recognised at an international level.”

Dr Cortes was instrumental, as Director of the Gibraltar Botanic Gardens, in starting this project, following the confiscation by Customs back in 1997 of an illegal consignment of parrots and chimpanzees.  He led on the project until he retired from the gardens in 2011 and entered politics.