As a nonprofit, San Diego Regional EDC is supported by the investment of more than 150 public agencies, companies, and organizations like San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
With these investments, EDC provides direct support, aligned with regional Inclusive Growth goals, to companies of all sizes to drive San Diego’s economic prosperity and global competitiveness. EDC sat down with San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, which shared more on its conservation efforts and collaborations in the region.
Read more about San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliances global conservation efforts happening here at home.
Meet the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA) is an international nonprofit working to become the most effective conservation organization for the world. It all begins at it’s two world-renowned conservation parks, the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park, where millions of guests each year come face to face with wildlife—making the mission, conservation work, and partnerships possible.
The Alliance’s mission is to save species worldwide, pursuing it by uniting it’s expertise in wildlife care with conservation science and a deep commitment to inspiring passion for nature. With more than 110 years of experience, SDZWA integrates wildlife health, science, and education to develop sustainable conservation strategies here at home and across the globe via Conservation Hubs in eight strategic regions.
An unusually strong intersection for conservation solutions
Sustainable conservation solutions increasingly rely upon innovative tools across multiple areas of expertise, including genomics, reproductive science, data analytics, mapping, engineering, and technology.
San Diego provides a unique intersection of these fields. With proximity to higher education institutions such as San Diego State University (SDSU), UC San Diego, and Scripps, a thriving biotech and tech sector, leading conservation organizations, and the most biodiverse county in the contiguous United States, the region offers opportunities to apply cross-sector expertise to the world’s most complicated conservation challenges.
Collaboration and conservation
The Alliance is helping to build the next generation of conservation talent through science, education, internships, and career pathways—demonstrating how expertise outside traditional conservation fields can help solve wildlife challenges globally.
Partnering with higher education
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San Diego State University: Using machine learning and sensors, SDSU and Alliance researchers are gaining new insight into rattlesnake behavior in the Safari Park’s Biodiversity Reserve, findings that may inform wildlife-friendly road planning in San Diego.
- UC San Diego’s Spatial Ecology Gateway: This supercomputing resource lets researchers, land managers, and students upload wildlife movement data and build models without a computational background. The supercomputer also runs a simulation model of Devil Facial Tumor Disease, a contagious cancer that has pushed Tasmanian devils toward extinction.
- Conservation Tech Fellowships: A year-round program specifically for San Diego-based engineering undergraduate students.
Partnering with industry: Illumina
- iConserve: The initiative aims to answer crucial questions about evolution, health, and the future of wildlife by leveraging Illumina’s expertise in genomic sequencing technology. So far, the work includes an in-depth lemur genomics study, an elephant genome atlas now underway, and early efforts to apply koala findings to global breeding plans.
Frozen Zoo: Since the 1970s, SDZWA’s Frozen Zoo has stored genetic backup of the world’s wildlife. Sequencing nearly 4,000 of its samples, representing 1,300 species, will help conservation researchers understand wildlife extinction and protect species at risk.
The Alliance is not only a cultural gem and top visitor destination but is also central to the region’s innovation ecosystem—convening global leaders in conservation and innovation, right here in San Diego.
Investing in EDC
EDC has been an important connector for the Alliance within San Diego’s broader business, innovation, and civic community. Through EDC, the Alliance has built relationships with industries, universities, and organizations that may not traditionally see themselves as part of conservation, but whose expertise can help solve complex challenges regionally and globally.
The Alliance’s CEOs, past and present, have also joined EDC’s international team, World Trade Center San Diego, on trade missions to Singapore, France, and Japan, carrying the message that San Diego’s attractions, conservation, and innovation drive impact here and across the globe.
Interested in publishing an investor spotlight? Contact our team:
Enya Castañeda
Coordinator, Investor Relations & Marketing Communications