Zoo Boise has been named Best Municipal Leadership for Sustainability 2025 by International Explorer, an award that points at the funding model the zoo has been running since 2007.
The zoo announced the recognition on April 2, 2026. The award cites the way conservation funding is built into the business rather than bolted on. A portion of every admission, membership, purchase and new project at Zoo Boise goes toward protecting animals in the wild.
The model behind the award
The idea started small. Zoo Boise added 25 cents to the price of admission in 2007 and sent it to field conservation. The surcharge has since risen to a dollar per visit, and the fund has now passed $4 million.
What that buys is specific. In 2025 the fund paid for Forest Guardians monitoring red pandas across 109 community forests in eastern Nepal, snare removal and sloth bear habitat restoration in southern India through Wildlife SOS, and satellite tracking of penguin feeding grounds with the Global Penguin Society. It also supports the Snow Leopard Trust, which has been a Zoo Boise partner since 2009.
Closer to home, the money funds habitat restoration in the Boise Foothills, where crews planted more than 5,400 plants and over 100 pounds of seed during 2025.
A model other zoos have copied
Zoo Boise says the approach it started in Boise is now being replicated by zoos and aquariums elsewhere, which is the substance of what International Explorer recognized. Building the contribution into the ticket price rather than asking for donations at the exit means the fund raises a predictable amount every year, regardless of how generous any given visitor is feeling.
Zoo Boise is a division of Boise Parks and Recreation. More detail on the fund and its current partners is in our report on where the money has gone.
