Conservation is an important organizational focus for zoos and aquariums. Organizational identity theory predicts a relationship between what is central to organizations, such as their mission statements, and their strategic activities. Based on this theory, we tested how organizational missions relate to their conservation strategies and practices. Tax forms and websites provided data from 173 zoos and 38 aquariums in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in North America. We analyzed conservation mission strength, organizational characteristics, and project features with dependent variables representing the depth of organizational conservation commitments: amount of grants zoos funded, number of partner organizations, and number of projects per zoo. On tax forms, the average amount of total

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Most modern threats to biodiversity are due to human actions. Conservation psychology models provide tools to strategically change human behaviors to reduce these threats; however, behavior change theories have yet to be fully incorporated into conservation strategic planning techniques. The public that may be interested in a conservation issue are often untapped resources to expand a conservation organization's limited reach. Increased public participation could fill a gap between an organization's objectives and the scope of what is feasible for limited staff or budget. This study presents an expanded framework for biodiversity conservation strategic planning using conservation behaviors. Some conservation organizations, such as zoos and aquariums, have access to extensive audiences that could be mobilized to take-action to directly reduce threats to biodiversity or indirectly support others' efforts. To test our expanded planning framework, we evaluated the current status of conservation behavior change techniques used by zoos, which are increasingly identifying as conservation organizations. We used the framework to measure whether zoos are providing conservation behavior opportunities to their audiences of millions. The framework consisting of 12 behaviors nested within five categories includes behaviors in the public and private spheres. We tested the framework using content analyses of 211 zoo's websites across North America, sampled from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The methods elicited 2,187 conservation projects for the sample, only 32% of which provided any form of conservation behavior change opportunities to the zoo audiences. We present the range and frequency of conservation behavior strategies in zoos, revealing their current strengths as conservation organizations and opportunities for improved audience activation. The results demonstrate the value of integrating the conservation behavior change framework into biodiversity conservation strategic planning for conservation

Summary Organizations can expand their impact through strategic partnerships. We used social network analysis to compare two network theories in order to determine whether zoos’ conservation partnerships form networks that reflect collaborative social movements or business-style competition. Data from 234 zoos revealed a conservation network involving 1679 organizations with 3018 partnerships. The network had 40 subgroups: 1 large network, 6 small networks and 33 disconnected zoos. Social network analysis metrics revealed an incohesive and low-density network. Zoos are more likely to behave competitively like businesses with limited partnerships to protect resources, rather than behaving as collaborative social movement organizations partnering to further the cause of conservation across their communities. Content analyses of organizational activities revealed that 62% of zoos’ partners display different skills and roles in conservation projects, while 38% participated in the same activities as zoos. These novel findings about zoos behaving as competitive institutions inform opportunities for better collaboration in order to expand organizations’ conservation impact.