00:00:17: Welcome to ITB Berlin's Travel Hero podcast, the place where we explore the ideas, innovations and leaders shaping the future of global travel.

00:00:28: I'm Charlotte Lamb-Davies with Management Consultancy, a bright

00:00:32: approach.

00:00:33: I'm your host and our guest today is someone whose work sits at the intersection of tourism, conservation, education and global biodiversity.

00:00:45: It's Christoph Kiesling, who's vice president of Laurel Park.

00:00:49: And Christoph leads one of the world's most admired zoological institutions and a foundation that has become a powerhouse in species protection worldwide.

00:01:01: Christoph, very, very warm welcome to you to the podcast.

00:01:06: Thank you very much for inviting me to this important podcast.

00:01:10: I feel honored.

00:01:11: We are delighted to have you with us today, but before we dive into the detail I am very curious to know a little bit about yourself and your journey into the Laurel Park group.

00:01:24: Well, my TV is a little different than others to say it like this because I grew up in the Zoological Garden.

00:01:31: So my father he integrated Laurel Park as a Parrot Park back in in Puerto La Cruz on the Canary Islands.

00:01:41: This was the growing touristic destination on the Canary Islands and my father thought we should do a complimentary offer to hotels and for tourists.

00:01:52: So at the beginning he thought where to go and to establish which is a safari park.

00:02:00: but once he recognized after my grandfather asked him if he would be aware of the cost for big animals to be fed.

00:02:09: so he considered after the recommendation of my grandfather to make it with parrots because they live for a hundred years and they just eat a handful of seeds.

00:02:19: so the idea was born to do a parrot park.

00:02:23: once my father started on a small surface of thirteen thousand square meters with about a hundred twenty five parrots the company and the zoo grew and I was as a kid I was part of this.

00:02:39: so I could see the development of that zoo and I could be related to animals from my very young age onwards.

00:02:48: Well

00:02:48: I can even hear the birds in the background as we speak.

00:02:51: Normally we don't allow much noise on this podcast but that noise I am loving.

00:02:57: So if people can listen out for that I think that's really quite marvellous.

00:03:01: You know how did the idea to combine a zoo with a dedicated foundation for species conservation really sort of come about?

00:03:09: Tell us a little bit about that.

00:03:11: Well, there were two different approaches.

00:03:14: One approach is once you have animals and if you're responsible for these animals, you might travel to the countries where they originally came from.

00:03:24: So my father, he was invited to Brazil where there was a presentation for the Spix Mercant in Curacao at the Village Theater.

00:03:37: And the people, they explained the difficulties for the species, which was on the edge of extinction, and finally it got extinct in the wild.

00:03:45: And each time they said, we need a car, they looked at my father.

00:03:48: They said, we need an Avery, they looked at my father.

00:03:51: We need a car, they looked at my father.

00:03:53: So my father understood the importance they have to be supported monetarily.

00:04:00: On the other side, in those days, let's call it, it was the beginning of the nineties, My father visited in Switzerland the CITES office and at the CITES office the responsible director was Abdulio Menghi and he said to my father You have to to be aware that every day the question of conservation is more important.

00:04:26: and since you have the biggest parrot collection in the world Why don't you donate your parrot collection?

00:04:34: to a foundation and you dedicate to the conservation work in Sitio.

00:04:39: To explain it in Sitio means in the habitat, Exitio would be at the conservation center like at Laurel Park.

00:04:46: So my father he established a foundation which is inscripted in Spain.

00:04:52: So it's actually.

00:04:53: it's a Spanish foundation belonging to the Spanish state.

00:04:57: It's not our property but we manage the foundation and since Laurel Park is the main sponsor for the foundation because all the donations we get they go directly into conservation work and all the cost for the foundation is covered by lower part.

00:05:15: so we are a hundred percent foundation and every dollar every euro we get goes directly to benefit animals in the wild.

00:05:24: that

00:05:24: is naturally wonderful because the park emerged from a zoo and you know some might see a contradiction if you like in protecting animals while keeping them in captivity.

00:05:36: but you have alerted us or you have kind of guided us in this direction already.

00:05:41: but I mean how are things approached from your perspective?

00:05:44: because they're two sides really aren't they?

00:05:47: well first of all we wouldn't say captivity.

00:05:51: that's number one we would say in human care.

00:05:53: If you understand or if you want to look at the evolution of humankind on planet earth so you have to consider that our population grew more than one hundred percent in fifty years.

00:06:05: Fifty years ago we had four billion people on planet earth.

00:06:08: now we have eight point three billion people considering that the land size is just thirty percent of the blue planet.

00:06:16: so we know that buying the demand for space, for agriculture, for housing, for infrastructure, for humankind, nature got restricted.

00:06:27: It got reduced in an incredible speed.

00:06:31: And in that speed, nature was not able to move away from that organization.

00:06:37: That means where nature was eliminated, the species were eliminated.

00:06:42: And that led us to the sixth mass extinction.

00:06:45: So nowadays we are living the sixth mass extinction.

00:06:48: Nowadays we are losing six species per hour.

00:06:51: A hundred forty, a hundred fifty species every day extinct forever.

00:06:56: So if we wonder when was the fifth max extinction?

00:07:01: So it was sixty million years ago when the meteorites hit planet Earth and the dinosaurs got extinct.

00:07:09: And since then we were living in a biological balance, but due to the presence of humans and to the expansion, the organization of humans, there is little space left for nature and for the inhabitants, the different species, the biodiversity.

00:07:25: So if there wouldn't be zoos nowadays, who would take care of the species?

00:07:30: Where could we meet the species?

00:07:32: How could we enrich people's life and interest to dedicate their life?

00:07:39: to understand to study species and to help them exit your and incitio.

00:07:45: so the zoo and therefore education is very important.

00:07:48: therefore so many families come with the kids to the zoo to see the animals at the zoo.

00:07:54: When you come with your kids.

00:07:55: this is the beginning of opening your mind to words to different species different sizes colors and then.

00:08:04: we can create, which is the next generation of biologists, vats, scientists, or simply animal and nature lovers.

00:08:13: So the zoo is the only space where you have in a controlled environment animals, so that the science have access, the public has access, and those animals, they lead like ambassadors for this species.

00:08:28: And like this, we can make the bridge studying the species, learning about the species and transferring our knowledge to the species which are in need in the environment, in situ.

00:08:41: But I'm wondering something around the many projects that you do that rely on cooperation.

00:08:47: and how do you work with local communities to ensure that there is this meaningful and lasting impact of the work that you do?

00:08:55: Could you share that with us?

00:08:57: Yes, well, different approaches.

00:09:00: First of all, you should never send an intelligent person from your institution to the different countries.

00:09:07: What you have to do is you have to look for university, local university.

00:09:11: You have to find people which are interested at the university to supervise a project.

00:09:16: Then you look for a local NGO so that you can finance the local NGO to do the work under the supervision and collaboration with the local university.

00:09:27: And then you have the people which live on that habitat.

00:09:31: And they have their families living on that habitat.

00:09:34: And if you have one of them defending which is the species rights and interests, then you have the whole family working together.

00:09:43: And this is the way how we achieve to be with the different projects.

00:09:47: We have sixty seven projects in thirty seven countries this year.

00:09:52: We have done up to three hundred projects in the last thirty years.

00:09:56: And what is very important is we believe we can educate kids.

00:10:01: We have to sensibilize the adults.

00:10:04: We have to involve which are the local politicians so that we re-enhance which is their culture.

00:10:11: You can't ask them to stop doing something.

00:10:13: What you have to do is you have to give them money.

00:10:16: You have to give them the possibilities that they can continue with all the tradition and culture.

00:10:22: And at the same time, you start educating the kids so that they know how to combine, which is respect for the species, for the environment, and go on with the tradition and with the culture.

00:10:36: And today, for example, in Bolivia, where we teach them to do artificial feathers for their tocado, tocado is a decoration for the head when they do the dance with the machete.

00:10:48: with a big knife.

00:10:49: Since more than twenty years none of the macaques, the blue-throated macaques in Benning in the Flatland of Bolivia is being caught and the feathers ripped off for this.

00:11:01: toccato because we teach since ninety-eight at all schools, there are two hundred schools in the Benning and the Flatland to do artificial feathers.

00:11:11: So we are now in the second generation of artificial feathers within the fork.

00:11:17: within the people and we are very proud of this type of work.

00:11:21: but we can go on all the projects.

00:11:24: they have the different tasks and it's always important to understand what do the people need in their region?

00:11:32: because they don't know about the big world they know about their local cosmos and within their local cosmos.

00:11:39: you have to understand them help them and when you help them you say you have to help me.

00:11:46: Stop the frustration stop using good so far which is a plant killer chemical plant killer.

00:11:52: in combination of this you offer them something they are demanding they need it and then you have a sustainable growth together with the communities.

00:12:01: Wonderful.

00:12:01: Well, there's nothing like education.

00:12:04: This is living proof.

00:12:05: And this is obviously how you move the needle.

00:12:08: Whilst I still have you, I want to get back and talk a little bit more about Laura Park because it is one of the most visited attractions I happen to know in the Canary Islands.

00:12:18: And how significant is its role really to Tenerife as a travel destination?

00:12:25: Well, nowadays, travel destinations, they need the complimentary offer.

00:12:30: That means when we started in Port de la Cruz, or when tourism started here, it was tourism for health reasons.

00:12:37: Out of health reasons, people came over and said, well, it's actually the climate.

00:12:43: From the climate, it went to the beach and sun tourism.

00:12:46: And once we had all of this established, people were looking for more entertainment.

00:12:51: So nowadays, if you look at Orlando, Las Vegas, Macau, or if you look wherever you want to go, Paris, It is about the complimentary offer.

00:13:02: So for a destination nowadays it's very important to have this complimentary offer and not just the infrastructure for hotels, apartments and restaurants.

00:13:12: On the other side the climb on the Canary Islands which is that good is the perfect spot to have animals, exotic animals, subtropical animals.

00:13:22: So if you're very comfortable here you don't have to create the climbers so that they feel comfortable.

00:13:28: And people love nature.

00:13:31: Nowadays, most of them, they live in cities.

00:13:33: Most of them, they live far away from all these animals.

00:13:37: And it's very difficult for them to actually have a trip to Africa or have a trip to call it to South America or go on wherever on the planet.

00:13:45: It's very expensive to see animals in a nature spot, in a nature reserve.

00:13:52: So a zoological garden is very entertaining.

00:13:55: It's educational.

00:13:57: there are moments when you see the animals.

00:13:59: this is always something different.

00:14:01: it's not reproducing it's not like every day the same and this is what people love to meet nature and to have that special moment creating special memories.

00:14:11: we are a well-demanded attraction here but it's also an important cultural offer.

00:14:18: I think my next question.

00:14:21: I'm quite hopeful it's going to be a yes but I would love to know If there are any particular species that has been saved from extinction thanks to your wonderful work in the foundation?

00:14:34: Oh yes, we saved eighteen species from extinction.

00:14:38: And this is something we're very proud of because not every conservation center has that record.

00:14:43: And especially there are lots of organizations which are claiming that animals, as you said at the very beginning, their lithium captivity against their will, which is not like this.

00:14:54: animals they need to be understood in a conservation center like ours and we then can help.

00:15:01: So for example, in Brazil, just in Brazil, we've saved four species, like the Lea Macau or like the Amazonia brasilensis.

00:15:10: So you have to imagine the Amazonia brasilensis has the name of Brazil and the zoo from Tenerife from the Canary Islands in Spain has to go to Brazil to save their own species with the name of Brazil.

00:15:22: We're very proud of this.

00:15:23: But we also say the pechi gris or like in Brazil they call it the cara suja, the dirty face.

00:15:30: they call it translated from the Portuguese to the English.

00:15:34: We have other species like from Indonesia like the goth and kakadu.

00:15:41: We have the blue-throated macaw in Bolivia.

00:15:45: We have the yellow-eared parakeet in Colombia.

00:15:49: We also have the Amazonas Barbadenses in Venezuela.

00:15:54: Now we have over ten thousand of them flying in nature again.

00:16:00: We have the Cuban Amazon.

00:16:03: We have the parakeet from Mauricio, from the island of Mauricio.

00:16:10: We have other from Peru, from Caledonia, in Colombia.

00:16:17: The blue-headed parrot in Colombia.

00:16:20: So we have from Africa, we have the Agraponis in Sambia, which thanks to our work got protected.

00:16:30: And yeah.

00:16:34: This is worldwide.

00:16:35: This is

00:16:36: wonderful stuff.

00:16:37: And when I listen to our podcast, once it goes live, I will look up all these various beautiful creatures.

00:16:45: If we think ahead, you've touched on it already.

00:16:49: The planet is, shall we say, somewhat crowded now.

00:16:53: If we look at the current state of global biodiversity, is there anything that gives you hope or are you

00:17:00: just hopeful?

00:17:02: Oh, yes.

00:17:03: If you're a father, you're always a full of hope because you're fighting on a daily basis.

00:17:09: The beauty of this planet is conserved and it's ready for next generation.

00:17:14: What we can see is that a just lower park foundation with its thirty million investment in biodiversity in Sethio.

00:17:23: The foundation needs much more money for its operation, but the money we got and we invested, the result are eighteen species safe from extinction.

00:17:34: This is a great result.

00:17:35: We could stop the mass extinction on planet Earth for three hours.

00:17:41: And it's us.

00:17:43: We are from Tenerife.

00:17:44: We are not a major institution.

00:17:46: We are a private owned zoological garden called Animal Embassy.

00:17:51: And we achieve this.

00:17:52: So if we work together, if we can combine with different areas, nations, interested people, animal loving people, imagine what we can do.

00:18:02: So it's very important that this networking, like on the ITB, it's not just about tourism.

00:18:09: It's about respect.

00:18:11: When you go out, it doesn't matter where you fly to, where you drive to, or where you get to, be respectful with your environment.

00:18:19: Be respectful and leave that place without leaving marks.

00:18:23: Try to eat the local food.

00:18:26: Try to be part of the culture and be respectful to the people, so what they do and what they think.

00:18:31: And at the same time, if you get out into nature, Never leave your rubbish out there.

00:18:37: And if you really want to see wild animals, the best way, the most sustainable way to do that is go to your local zoo.

00:18:44: Christoph,

00:18:45: before we wrap up entirely, I wonder if you might be able to share sort of one message with our lovely listeners in terms of what each of us, and you've alerted us to it also already, but what each of us can do in our daily lives to support.

00:19:04: You know, species conservation.

00:19:06: Well, as I said before, sustainability is the number one because what we are producing, eight point three billion people is rubbish.

00:19:16: And rubbish is what we are done.

00:19:18: And unfortunately, plastic is not getting away.

00:19:21: So if you buy aluminum, aluminum, for example, instead of buying a pet bottle by aluminum cans, aluminum can be recycled infinitively.

00:19:31: that means it's a product.

00:19:32: once it's produced it's always usable again and again and again.

00:19:37: so that would be something.

00:19:38: if we would leave out plastic that would be great.

00:19:42: so again at the supermarket it's easier to go to the cold corner and to buy cheese and ham wrapped up and packed in plastic but maybe it's better to go to the station where they cut it and you get it in wax paper.

00:19:56: And just this action, every family, if they would do something like this, they would definitely help our planet to have less rubbish and be more sustainable.

00:20:06: Thank you very much.

00:20:07: We also at ITB Berlin of course have a huge sustainability track hosted by my colleagues, other board of experts with ITB Berlin and this is definitely one of the messages that will be also very much supported by that entire team.

00:20:25: I have one more thing.

00:20:26: Please.

00:20:26: We will present on the ITB in Berlin which is the C-Sanctuary of Macaronisia.

00:20:33: So Macaronnesia, to explain, it starts at the Azor Islands.

00:20:38: It goes over Madeira, Canary Islands, down to the Capverdic Islands.

00:20:43: And in this area, you have like the birthplace of biodiversity in the Atlantic Ocean.

00:20:49: And we are calling out to make that a marine reserve, a sanctuary.

00:20:54: And therefore, if we would get the support from ITB and from all visitors, exhibitors from ITB, So we will be able to create one of the biggest marine reserves on the world, which would be a great help for biodiversity in the future.

00:21:10: We have the support of the IUCN, the IUCN on the latest World Congress called out that this is the most important project.

00:21:17: IUCN is following up right now for the short time future.

00:21:21: And if we would get you supported as well, that would be wonderful.

00:21:25: Thank you.

00:21:25: I am sure that there is going to be plenty of support, not least also from our listeners.

00:21:31: And very sadly, I think when we spoke before we started recording, I said this goes in a heartbeat and it has.

00:21:38: But what a lot of wonderful insight, Christoph, it's been my absolute pleasure having you on our podcast today.

00:21:44: Thank you.

00:21:45: Charlotte, thank you very much to invite me and to share the message.

00:21:49: Thank you very much.

00:21:50: It's been my absolute pleasure.

00:21:52: And to our listeners, of course, thank you for joining us.

00:21:55: Stay tuned for more conversations with inspiring voices leading the way to a responsible and resilient future for global travel, right here at the ITB Berlin Travel Hero Podcast.

00:22:09: Safe travels.