The 1st International Online Conference on Zoological and Botanical Gardens
The 1st International Online Conference on Zoological and Botanical Gardens
Event's Timezone: Central European Time
4 August 2026
1 September 2026
27 November 2026
Zoo Animals Welfare, Zoo Animals Behaviour, Zoo Animals Health, Biodiversity Conservation, Botanical Gardens, Sustainability, Arboretum, Ex Situ Conservation
The IOCZBG 2026 is Now OPEN for Abstract Submission and Registration.
Instructions for authors are available online.
Submit your abstracts HERE.
For any inquiries, please contact us at ioczbg2026@mdpi.com.
Welcome from the Chair
Dear colleagues,
It is our pleasure to invite you to join the 1st International Online Conference on Zoological and Botanical Gardens (IOCZBG 2026). The conference is organized by the MDPI open access Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens (ISSN 2673-5636, Impact Factor: 1.4) and will be held online from 2 to 4 December 2026.
The agenda of the conference includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:
S1: Zoo Animals Welfare
S2: Zoo Animals Behaviour
S3: Zoo Animals Health
S4: Biodiversity Conservation at Botanical Gardens
S5: Collections in Botanical Gardens, Arboretum and Museums
S6: Botanical Gardens Sustainability
IOCZBG 2026 will enable you to share and discuss your most recent research findings, with the active engagement of the audience in question-and-answer sessions that will take place online without any registration fee.
The conference committee will review the submitted abstracts. Following the conference, outstanding contributions will be invited to be submitted as a full-length paper for publication in JZBG with a 50% discount on the publication fee.
We hope you will join us, present your work at IOCZBG 2026, and be part of this exciting online event.
Best regards,
Conference Chair
Prof. Dr. Kevin Cianfaglione, Université Catholique de Lille, France
Follow the conference organizer on Social Media
Event Chair
Faculté de Gestion, Economie et Science (FGES), Université Catholique de Lille, Lille, France
Session Chairs
Prof. Dr. Mariana Panayotova-Pencheva
Institute of Experimental Morphology, Pathology and Anthropology with Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
Dr. Mariana Panayotova-Pencheva graduated from Trakia University, Bulgaria, with a master's degree in veterinary medicine in 1995. That same year, she began working as a researcher at the Institute of Experimental Pathology and Parasitology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and obtained her PhD in veterinary medicine (specialty: Parasitology and invasive diseases of animals and humans) in 2009. She is currently an associate professor at the Institute of Experimental Morphology, Pathology, and Anthropology with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She has many years of experience as a lecturer in parasitology and wildlife diseases at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Forestry, Sofia. Her research focuses on veterinary parasitology, mainly helminthology, pulmonary parasites, parasitic zoonoses, and wildlife parasitoses.
veterinary parasitology; parasitic diseases; parasitic zoonoses; wildlife parasitoses
Prof. Dr. Marko S. Saboljevic
Institute of Botany and Botanical Garden, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
Marko Sabovljević (1974) is a biologist specializing in bryophytes, with research spanning both fundamental and applied aspects. He received his PhD from the University of Bonn (Germany) and is currently teaching at universities in Serbia, Slovakia, and Uzbekistan. He also serves as a guest lecturer at several other European universities, focusing on bryophyte biology. He has published over 600 research papers and pioneered a conservation physiology approach to bryophytes. Actively involved in bryophyte conservation initiatives across Europe, he maintains a living in vitro collection of more than 300 bryophyte species from all over the world at the Belgrade Botanical Garden. Nearly 60% of these species are globally or regionally threatened.
bryophytes; bryophyte biology; conservation biology; conservation ecology and conservation physiology of plants; ex situ; plant ecology
Professor Gianni Bedini
Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Gianni Bedini is Full Professor of Systematic Botany at the University of Pisa (Italy), where he also serves as Head of the Bachelor’s Degree Programme in Natural and Environmental Sciences. His research focuses on plant biodiversity conservation, with particular emphasis on ex situ conservation, seed banking, and the development of botanical databases. He has been closely involved with botanical gardens for most of his career: from 1988 to 2015 he served as Curator and later Scientific Director of the Pisa Botanical Garden and Museum. He contributed to the establishment of the Italian network of seed banks for plant conservation (RIBES), serving as its first President, and collaborated with the Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, on protocols for seed collection and ex situ conservation. He has also coordinated activities on botanical gardens within the Italian Botanical Society and represented Italy in the European Botanic Gardens Consortium. He is currently President of the Tuscan Society of Natural Sciences, member of the Scientific Committee of the Apuan Alps Regional Park, Associate Editor of the Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens, and an aggregate member of the Accademia dei Georgofili.
botanic gardens; ex situ conservation; biodiversity informatics; plant chromosome number evolution; orbicules
Event Committee
Dr Ivana Trbojević conducts research in algology, focusing on charophytes, with particular emphasis on their taxonomy, ecology, biogeography, phylogeny, species protection, and habitat conservation. She studies charophyte diversity primarily in small, shallow freshwater ecosystems, both within vegetation and in the diaspore bank in sediment. As the reproductive structures of charophytes are significantly present in the diaspore bank and remain viable for extended periods, her research aims to assess the potential for revitalising charophyte diversity and restoring disturbed habitats. She is currently curating the BEOU charophyte collection at the Institute of Botany and the botanical garden "Jevremovac", together with colleague Milica Petrovic Djuric.
Macrophytes; charophytes; aquatic plants; periphyton; algal species; small water habitat protection
Invited Speakers
Wildlife Conservation Society, New York, USA,
University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
Harnessing Conservation for Global Health Security
Dr Chris Walzer is the Executive Director of Health at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York. He is a board-certified wildlife veterinarian, tenured professor of Conservation Medicine at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria. Chris has an internationally recognized diverse One Health expertise, working on the human-livestock-wildlife interfaces, in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Environment and Health, Conservation, One Health, Infectious Disease
Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, Jamnagar, Gujarat, India,
Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort, South Africa
Feast, Fast and Physiology: Rethinking Digestive Health in Captive Large Carnivores
Prof. Adrian S.W. Tordiffe is a specialist wildlife veterinarian with a PhD in biochemistry and a research focus on carnivore nutrition, metabolism and digestive physiology. He is currently based in Gujarat, India, where he works as a senior veterinary consultant at the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (Vantara), contributing to the clinical management and conservation of large carnivores and other wildlife species. He previously served as Associate Professor in Veterinary Pharmacology at the University of Pretoria and as Director of the Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital. During his academic career he supervised numerous MSc and PhD students working in wildlife health, physiology and conservation medicine. Prof. Tordiffe’s research has focused particularly on the physiology and health of captive carnivores, especially cheetahs, with an emphasis on metabolic disease, gastrointestinal health and nutritional management. In 2018 he founded WildCat Nutrition (Pty) Ltd, a company dedicated to developing specialised nutritional supplements and feeding strategies for captive carnivores. His work aims to integrate veterinary medicine, physiology and evolutionary nutrition to improve the health, welfare and management of large carnivores in zoological institutions and conservation programmes.
Wildlife veterinary medicine, Cheetah physiology, Captive carnivore nutrition, Gastrointestinal disease in carnivores, Metabolomics in wildlife, Amino acid metabolism, Carnivore anaesthesia, Feeding ecology, Conservation medicine
Registration
The registration for IOCZBG 2026 will be free of charge and includes attendance to all conference sessions.
If you are registering several people under the same registration, please do not use the same email address for each person, but their individual university email addresses. Thank you for your understanding.
Please note that the submission and registration are two separate parts. Only scholars who registered can receive a link to access the conference live streaming. The deadline for registration is 27 November 2026.
Instructions for Authors
IOCZBG 2026 will accept abstracts only. The accepted abstracts will be available online on Sciforum.net during and after the conference.
1. Deadline for abstract submission: 4 August 2026.
2. Abstract acceptance notification: 1 September 2026.
Please note:
An abstract acceptance email only confirms that your abstract has been accepted. Oral or poster presentation invitations are determined separately by the conference chairs, and you will receive an additional email with the presentation result.
If you do not have an account, please register at www.sciforum.net. After logging in, submit your abstract using the “Submit Abstract” button on the conference homepage. No template is required.
Abstract Requirements
1. Types of Submissions
- Accepted: Original research abstracts; systematic reviews or meta-analyses abstracts (must comply with PRISMA 2020).
- Not accepted: Narrative, scoping, comparative, perspective, opinion, or essay-style reviews.
2. Content Requirements
- Length: 200–300 words.
- Structure: Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusions.
- Language: Clear, publication-ready English.
- Originality: Must be original and unpublished; previously published abstracts will not be considered.
3. Authorship
- The submitting author must ensure all co-authors approve the content.
- Authors may submit multiple abstracts, but only one abstract per author may be selected for an oral presentation.
Presentation Requirements
1. Each abstract must designate one presenter. To change the presenter, please contact us after you receive the oral/poster presentation invitation.
2. Only live presentations are accepted.
3. Presenters who do not attend the live session will not be eligible for awards or presentation certificates.
The slot for the oral presentation is 15 mins. We advise that your presentation lasts for a maximum of 12 mins, leaving at least 3 mins for the Q&A session.
Authors are encouraged to prepare presentations using PowerPoint or equivalent software for online display alongside their abstract. If provided, slides will be presented directly on the conference website via the Sciforum.net slide viewer and should be prepared in the same format as a traditional conference presentation of research results. All slides must be converted to PDF format prior to submission to ensure accurate online display.
Each presentation should:
- Communicate the research question or objective, methodology, key results, and scientific novelty;
- Use a clear and logical structure, typically Introduction-Methods-Results&Discussion structure (IMRaD) or a field-appropriate alternative;
- Emphasize the relevance of the work;
- Support key findings with clear figures or tables where appropriate;
- Conclude with a critical interpretation of the results and their impact.
Posters should be designed to allow independent understanding of the research and clearly present the essential elements of the study.
Each poster should include:
- Title, authors, affiliations, and contact details (clearly displayed at the top);
- Brief introduction outlining the research objective;
- Concise methodology summary;
- Main results, supported by clear, well-labeled figures or tables where appropriate;
- Short conclusion summarizing key findings and their relevance.
Technical specifications:
Dimensions (cm): 84.1 × 118.9 (A0 - portrait)
Resolution:300 dpi
Pixel size (portrait, 300 dpi):9933 × 14043 px
Minimum font size:≥24
The poster template can be downloaded HERE. We will reach out to you closer to the dates of the conference with more information.
Note: The uploaded poster may be used as provided and serves as a reference. However, as long as the technical specifications are followed, scholars are welcome to use any poster template of their choice.
Authors selected for this format will have their work featured in the IOCZBG 2026's poster gallery section.
To be eligible for the Best Poster Award, a poster in PDF file format must be uploaded to the submission system by the deadline specified in the presentation type notification email. This format does not require a scheduled live presentation.
We will reach out to you closer to the dates of the conference with more information.
It is the author's responsibility to identify and declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of clinical research. If there is no conflict, please state "The authors declare no conflicts of interest." This should be conveyed in a separate "Conflict of Interest" statement preceding the "Acknowledgments" and "References" sections at the end of the manuscript. Any financial support for the study must be fully disclosed in the "Acknowledgments" section.
MDPI, the publisher of the Sciforum.net platform, is an open access publisher. We believe authors should retain the copyright to their scholarly works. Hence, by submitting an abstract to this conference, you retain the copyright to the work, but you grant MDPI the non-exclusive right to publish this abstract online on the Sciforum.net platform. This means you can easily submit your full paper (with the abstract) to any scientific journal at a later stage and transfer the copyright to its publisher if required.
Publication Opportunity
1. Journal of Zoological and Botanic Gardens Journal Publication
Participants in this conference are cordially invited to contribute a full manuscript to the conference's Special Issue (to be updated), published in Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens (ISSN 2673-5636, Impact Factor: 1.4), with a 50% discount on the publication fee. Please note, if you have IOAP/association discounts, conference discounts will be combined with IOAP/association discounts. Conference discounts cannot be combined with reviewer vouchers. All submitted papers will undergo MDPI’s standard peer-review procedure. The abstracts should be cited and noted on the first page of the paper.
2. Proceeding Paper Publication
All accepted abstracts will be published in the conference report of the 1st International Online Conference on Zoological and Botanical Gardens in the Biology and Life Sciences Forum (ISSN: 2673-9976); authors of accepted abstracts are highly encouraged to submit an extended proceeding paper (ideally 4-8 pages in length) for free, please submit it to the same journal after the conference.
Proceeding paper submission deadline: 18 January 2027. (45 days after the conference)
Please click HERE to submit your proceeding paper to the Biology and Life Sciences Forum, and be sure to disclose the conference information in your cover letter or mention the conference name in your submission.
IOCZBG2026_proceeding_paper-template.dot
Event Awards
To acknowledge the support of the conference's esteemed authors and recognize their outstanding scientific accomplishments, we are pleased to announce the establishment of the Best Oral Presentation Awards and Best Poster Awards.
The Awards
Number of Awards Available: 6
1. Best Oral Presentation Award
Eligibility: Open to all authors selected as oral speakers who have delivered their presentation. Failure to present, delegation of the presentation to another person, or use of AI-generated voice or similar substitutes will result in disqualification.
Criteria: Evaluation considers scientific rigor (clear, literature-supported research question or hypothesis, appropriate methodology, robust analysis and critical discussion of the results), IMRaD/field-appropriate structure, clarity of presented data (clear, well-labeled figures and tables), presentation skills and audience engagement, demonstrated scientific novelty and impact.
Prize: An award of CHF 200 and a certificate in recognition of your outstanding contribution.
2. Best Poster Award
Eligibility: Open to all authors who have presented their work through posters. Failure to present, delegation of the presentation to another person, or use of AI-generated voice or similar substitutes will result in disqualification.
Criteria: Evaluation considers scientific rigor (clear, literature-supported research question or hypothesis, appropriate methodology, robust analysis, and critical discussion of the results), IMRaD/field-appropriate structure enabling independent understanding, clarity of presented data (clear, well-labeled figures and tables), presentation skills (if orally presented), demonstrated scientific novelty and impact.
Prize: An award of CHF 200 and a certificate in recognition of your outstanding contribution.
Winner Announcement: The award winners will be evaluated and selected by the scientific committee after the conference. Results will be announced on the website and all winners will be individually contacted via email.
Sponsors and Partners
The 1st International Online Conference on Zoological and Botanical Gardens 2026 is expected to attract leading experts, researchers, and strategic thinkers from world-class institutions. The real-world applications of their work are relevant in fields across ecology, education, sustainable development, and global conservation efforts.
Partnering with us offers a unique opportunity to enhance your organization’s visibility by connecting with a diverse, influential, and global audience!
Connect with our Partnerships and Marketing representative at: ioczgb2026@mdpi.com
For information regarding sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, please click here.
Organizers
Media Partners
Conference Secretariat
Ms. Olivia Wong
Ms. Coco Hou
Email: ioczbg2026@mdpi.com
For inquiries regarding submissions and sponsorship opportunities, please feel free to contact us.
