The Vivarium Magazine

    In 1987, the American Federation of Herpetoculturists (AFH) published the Vivarium, the first internationally distributed color magazine on the keeping and breeding of amphibians and reptiles.

In the US, for most of the 90s the Vivarium could be found in major bookstores and pet stores next to tropical fish magazines, giving amphibians and reptiles a public exposure that had never existed before.

The Vivarium addressed a variety of issues from care to vivarium design, and from legislative issues to values and philosophical topics associated with the interface of humans and herps.

Changes in society, culture and the hobby itself eventually led to the AFH closing its doors and the end of the Vivarium in 2000.

Twenty some years later, many of the issues that confronted us back then remain, and novel ones threaten the future of what for many is an advocation. More than ever, there is a need to be unified not only national but internationally to correct what is wrong, to educate for the better, to evolve, and to set standards that will allow humankind to continue to be enriched by engagement with amphibians and reptiles against a background of decreasing interest in nature, biodiversity loss, and planetary crisis.

For that I have placed my hope in the Responsible Herpetoculture Foundation (RHF) and the Responsible Herpetoculture Journal 

Philippe de Vosjoli,

Former President of AFH,

Honorable President of RHF