Pandas spark controversy over zoo subsidies

Antwerp Zoo fulfils a social function, takes part in research and is not profit-driven, Flanders’ tourism and heritage minister Geert Bourgeois said yesterday. Speaking on VRT radio, the minister was responding to criticism from Eric Domb, CEO of the Pairi Daiza park in Brugelette, Wallonia, about the amount of Flemish government subsidies allotted to the zoo.

Domb has engaged legal counsel in consideration of a formal complaint against the subsidies to the Royal Society for Zoology of Antwerp (KMDA), which operates Antwerp Zoo (pictured) and the Planckendael animal park in Mechelen. The subsidies, Domb claims, distort fair competition and are in breach of EU rules. His legal action would seek to have the next round of subsidies, due in 2016, withheld.

According to Bourgeois, nearly all EU member states allow subsidies for zoos. “There no precedents, and I have no knowledge of any intervention by the European Commission,” he said. According to Domb, KMDA received €97 million in government funding between 2002 and 2013, while his park only received about €10 million from Wallonia during the same period.

According to a statement issued by the KDMA yesterday, €60 million of that amount was for the renovation of the Koningin Elisabeth hall adjacent to the zoo, which they also manage. KMDA receives €2.3 million a year from the government for operating costs, the organisation said, and €3.8 million for investment in the maintenance and upkeep of the zoo as a historical monument.

Bourgeois will nevertheless, he said, also seek legal advice. In the meantime, he argued that the zoo was a non-profit, in contrast to Pairi Daiza, a company listed on the stock exchange.

The row over subsidies comes after controversy erupted when two pandas from China went to the park in Wallonia instead of to the zoo in Flanders. The pandas arrived at Pairi Daiza last month. Although the zoo made no official statements, some politicians and journalists claimed that French-speaking prime minister Elio Di Rupo had unfairly favoured Pairi Daiza, which will see an influx of visitors and income during the pandas’ 15-year stay. The federal government paid €10 million to have the pandas brought to Belgium.

“We regret Mr Domb’s comments and have never sought confrontation,” said KMDA’s director-general, Dries Herpoelaert. “It’s too bad we can’t work together in a constructive manner. We are looking forward with confidence to a future in which our parks will continue to grow. And clearly that effort is appreciated: the number of visitors in the first three months of this year was twice as high as last year. We wish Pairi Daiza success in the future.”

Photo courtesy ScaraMcDuck/Wikimedia Commons