Farah Ajami Peralta is executive director at the Zoológico de Barranquilla (Barranquilla Zoo) in Colombia. She promotes the zoo’s foundation and its biodiversity and conservation mission. She is in charge of the administration of the Zoológico de Barranquilla, which has an annual budget of $2 million and focuses on threatened species and ecosystems of the Caribbean region of Colombia.
Ajami oversees and directs the organisation’s operations, including strategic planning, fundraising, public relations, animal care, administration and human resources. She supervises six department leaders in biology and conservation, education, marketing and communications, veterinary, and administration and finance.
The zoo was recently accredited by the Latin American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums (ALPZA). In 2022, Colombia’s Administrative Department of Science, Technology and Innovation recognised the Barranquilla Zoo as a science center. This will allow the zoo to become a catalyst for science, technology and innovation.
“2022 is an especially symbolic year to receive this certification, since it marks the 70th anniversary of the creation of the zoo, which has national and international leadership and trajectory in education, research and biodiversity conservation, with national and international allies,” said the Zoológico de Barranquilla.
“This seal of excellence is the result of the quality work of the group of collaborators and the constant support of the allies of this educational and environmental space, with a history of almost seventy years, and wide national and international recognition. Citizen science in Barranquilla began at the zoo and we hope to continue taking it to the communities of the Caribbean region, through our education, research and conservation projects,” said Ajami.