Robin's Nest from American Humane - Championing Ocean Conservation: A Conversation with Wolfgang and Christoph Kiessling

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

Dive into the newest episode of Robin’s Nest, where Dr. Robin Ganzert sits down with Wolfgang and Christoph Kiessling, the visionary leaders behind Loro Parque and Loro Parque Foundation. Discover their groundbreaking work in creating sustainable sanctuaries for marine life, advancing global ocean conservation, and protecting vulnerable species.From innovation to inspiration, learn how their efforts are making waves for our planet's future. Don’t miss this uplifting conversation—listen now on your favorite podcast platform!

Welcome to Robin's Nest. Many of us feel a deep bond with animals, from the pets we cherish at home to the endangered species in nature. Join us for lively, informative conversations where together we will build a more humane world. Today we're talking to world-renowned conservationist Mr. Wolfgang Kiesling and Christoph Kiesling, Vice President of Laura Park and President of the Laura Park Foundation. Together they have transformed Laura Park into a global leader in wildlife conservation. We'll be discussing their groundbreaking work in species preservation, their vision for the future of conservation, and the Kiesling Prize.

I am so excited about this episode of Robin's Nest. Two of the most inspirational people in the space of conservation have joined us in the Nest today. I am so thrilled to welcome back Mr. Wolfgang Keisling, who was the founder of Laura Park. Laura Park is one of the most magical places on earth in the Canary Islands, and if you haven't visited it, it must be on your bucket list. It's a place to go and explore animals in the most beautiful habitats and also support the Keesling's commitment to conservation, which we're going to explore today. We're also joined in Robin's Nest with Mr. Christoph Kiesling, Wolfgang's son,

and the gentleman who is serving as the president of Laura Park Foundation. And I'm so excited to talk about the foundation work because this year the foundation celebrates a 30th anniversary of really saving entire species from extinction. I have learned so much from these gentlemen. To see them work in the space is remarkable, but it all started with Wolfgang. It started with Wolfgang Kiesling's purchase of a parrot park in the Canary Islands on the gorgeous island of Tenerife. Wolfgang, thank you for joining us yet again in Robin's Nest.

How are you doing today? I'm fine, Robin. But you made a little mistake. I didn't buy it. I started it. Yes. And I started from very, very small. And I didn't even own the land. I bought the land with a contract that if the owner dies, I can keep it if I pay him a triple of the four times the price of the rent. And I did this. Oh my.

So I started very small. And today we are 10 times bigger. I started with 25 labors and I started with 150 birds. Today we are in the group 1,300 people and we have four and a half thousand parrots. So that was what happened in these 53 years almost. In December it will be 53 years, yes. 53 years ago you had this vision. It started with a beautiful bird that changed your life. When I think about what you started, did you ever imagine that you would save species

from extinction when you started? Well, maybe not me. My father, yes. He gave me the idea. He was very skeptical about if I could manage it. I was always spending too much money. He was always scared I go broke the next day. But he said, if you make it,

you will do a lot of good for nature, yes. Isn't that beautiful? And you know, clearly you've made it. Laura Park is the number one animal embassy zoo in the world, as rated so many years in a row. And I've had the pleasure of visiting many a time, and it always touches my heart. But what I know is behind the scenes with the Animal Embassy is your great, true, huge heart for conservation. You do this work backed by science, evidence-based practices to build a better world.

Share with us a little bit about your pathway to saving species from extinction. Well, this pathway was that first of all, with my little little zoo which I started, I had to find a definition for it. There are zoos all over the world. All the zoos have rhinos or elephants or gorillas or whatever. I had some birds. I had 150 parrots. So I had to find a way to go. And I decided to create the biggest parrot collection

in the world, which I have never done, was going into the countries and catching their birds to bring them back to us. We bought everything that was on the market and so we reached in top times 350 species and subspecies. Renown until today that was a world record. Amazing. So then came the entrance of CITES. And with this, everything was registered and we got also extreme criticism

that we had so many birds. And there come the idea to bring these birds into a foundation to return them practically to humanity and to have them work in pro of their brothers and sisters in the wild. And that has happened. Since then, we created in 94 the Loro Parque Foundation. Since then, we spent almost $28 million in projects around the world. I'm not talking that we spent $28 million in the foundation. No. All the costs are paid by Loro Parque or by the income of the foundation itself.

But all the money which we receive from sponsoring or people which give us money goes 100% in these projects. That makes us very, very different to anything else. And by this, when you made your audit on Loro Park, you found that out. Yes. And I believe in some way this guided you to the point where we are today. Yes, absolutely. It did provide a great amount of inspiration and huge learnings from the work that you started over 50 years ago. And I love that for people who are listening today to Robin's Nest and participating in

this podcast, you know, if you thought about making a difference in the world, Wolfgang Kiesling's inspirational story, his path of what he's done with Laura Park and so much more should be a case study, a story of lessons learned, how to be a passionate advocate for animals and to make a life with purpose and make a meaningful difference. You have lived a life of significant impact for the animals for which we share the earth and there are few others who can say that and I'm so proud to know you and you inspire so many and I know there's a lot of entrepreneurs listening who want to be able to do something in this space.

You can start very small and you can achieve something with passion and dedication and perseverance like what you've done. Thank you for these words. To be lauded, absolutely. And what I love about your story is, here's your son, Christoph Kiesling, who serves as the president of the Laura Park Foundation, now celebrating his 30th anniversary. Christoph, I know that you have a huge heart for animals. You're his son for

goodness sake, so I know you were raised with many of these creatures in your life and I know they've touched your heart. I also know that you have a home full of animals and a precious baby girl, too. A human baby girl, but lots of incredible animals. Share with us a little bit about your journey with Loro Parque Foundation. Well, if you grow up at Loro Parque, and then my father, he gave me the possibility to travel and see the projects of the foundations. So I learned about the infield projects and I learned about how we take care of the money and how to help animals at the end. So nowadays we have 86 projects this year running. 86 projects running. 86 projects.

Most of the projects, they're long-term projects. If you want to save a species, you can't have a one or two or three years budget. What we have to do is we have to identify which is a good organization to work with, local peoples, local universities, and then we go for long-term support for these organizations to help that these animals in their original habitat are protected and the people know about the beauty and about the value of this biodiversity which they have to protect at the end of the day. Yes, absolutely. 86 projects, when you think about that,

and that's magnificent, and how many countries, how many continents? Well, we, in the last 30 years, we were represented in 40 countries. 40 countries. 40 countries in total, yes. And well, nowadays we are looking forward to be in about 18 countries for the upcoming year. So we are full of illusion, optimism that our work will succeed, successful, and that we can

optimism that our work will succeed successful and that we can save more species. Up to now there are 12 species which we could downgrade in the red list and we're looking forward to continue the work so that we have more animals safe from extinction. Let's explain that to people in Robin's Nest. You said downgrade off the red list. People don't necessarily understand what is the red list, what are we downgrading? And by the way, that's a great victory, friends. When you're removing a species and you're downgrading them on the red list, it's a good thing.

Can you explain this, Christoph? Well, there's an institution called IUCN, and the IUCN is responsible to establish which is the red list. Red list is the list of all the animals which are in danger or which are rated in a certain way that we can make an evaluation of their presence in the wild. So if a species is extinct, so it can be extinct in the wild, but it doesn't mean that it's extinct at conservation centers.

Yes. And they're critically endangered, endangered, funeral, and so on. So at different rates. And what we do is we look for those critically endangered species, and we try to keep them in their original habitat alive, protect them, and teach people and sensibilize the population about the importance of these animals and their habitat. What the Lower Park Foundation achieved is that within those ones which were critically

endangered that they are now endangered or funeral. That means that the population in the wild got so important that they are not so much in danger anymore. Beautiful. I would consider that a victory, wouldn't you? Absolutely. No, it's a victory. It's a victory for nature. It's a victory for biodiversity, and it's definitely a victory for all the people which are working to save species. Absolutely. We're talking about real impact here, friends, and that's very

important because you both have lived your lives to drive impact for the animals. We have also rewilding. I want to ask you about that. I was going to ask you because we have just released Escape from Extinction Rewilding, a film that features your incredible work. Look for Escape from Extinction Rewildinging narrated by Meryl Streep. And I know that they'll see your projects in action,

but tell us about Rewilding Wolfgang, and what does Rewilding mean to you? Well, we had a long time, we had the project with the Spixxman Corp. But we left this committee because we didn't like, like we were, like it was handled. The government from Brazil admired our work in a certain way. And they gave us, when we left the Spix, the also very, very rare Lirmeacaw. Yes.

It's not our property. They gave it to us that we try to breed this animal, but it stayed always the property of Brazil. So we got two pairs. And out of these two pairs, we made up to now over 40 young birds. Of these birds, we sent around 20 back to Brazil. From these 20 we were able to reintroduce, you must understand that there are birds which are born in Tenerife in our breeding center. And we bring them back to Brazil.

And there we put them out in the Catinga. The Catinga is the remotest place in the world I have ever visited. And there they are flying free, eight of them. And from these eight we have now already four chicks which are flying, so from eight make 12, which are free flying. This is rewilding.

Yes. Naturally, it costs a lot of money, the rewilding, compared to catching a bird and bringing it into captivity or shoot them. That is much more expensive. But it is possible, and since it's possible, we have to do it. There are many things you can do in rewilding,

but there are also many animals which are excluded from rewilding. By example, you cannot rewild a gorilla. Why can't you rewild a gorilla? I'm sure our listeners are wondering why you can't rewild a gorilla. I don't know why, but because it's the gorilla. He is used to his life in captivity. He gets his morning coffee, and he likes that.

He does it Laura Park, I know. He has classical music and everything. Yeah, and he likes that. So if you bring him out there, he is lost. He doesn't know how to use his force and his brain is not prepared for that. But then you have, by example, also animals you can easily rewild.

By example, turtles or snakes or insects. or snakes, or insects. All these things you can re-wild easy, but killer whales, you cannot re-wild. They need to hunt five to six years schooling. So if they don't have that schooling, you send them out there, they look at the fish and they think what a wonderful thing. No, but they don't know how to hunt it

and how to eat it and how to prepare it. Yes. So they tried to reintroduce kajko. Yes. And that was a horrible mistake. Yes. The poor animal died. Starved to death.

Starved to death. So let's not try that. It's a very important cautionary note because in today's times it's very easy to listen to the media that's often misinformed and they say, oh, just release that creature back into the wild. But what I love is how you've explained it,

and importantly, your example of the macaw, you trained it at great expense to be prepared for the Brazil barren deserts where there's no water and all of those kinds of challenges, you invest the time and effort for those incredible birds to be able to be rewilded successfully. But I think it is misinformation out there that you can take any animal from a zoo or from human care

and put it back in the wild and it automatically knows. That's like thinking that you could release your dog back into the wild and your dog would know, they wouldn't. My dogs are used to my sofa. And your orcas are certainly used to, you know, the beautiful, beautiful. With our orcas, we have some more problems for rewilding. First of all, the activists claim

that they would like to put our orcas in sanctuaries. There are not. And you know it will be very difficult that they find some because the countries which killer whales in their biodiversity, they must have the same kind of genetic. Very important. And our killer whales don't have that genetic anymore. We have crews between Pacific and Atlantic and so on and that is all mixed up. So who is going to give this permit to put them up? And there are none. There are none in the world. There was one up in Iceland. Iceland? A sanctuary. A sanctuary, but it's occupied. It's occupied and it's not adequate. It is smaller than any of our pools. Oh my goodness. So why take them out

of the pools where they are fine, they are controlled, they have a good time, people are taking care of them? Why? It's inhumane to do so and I think we all agree with that. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. I want to pivot here because rewilding is one of our favorite topics and I want to thank you both for being featured in the movie. One of my favorite lines is where you say all of nature can be recuperated and that's the powerful closing line for escape from extinction rewilding and you have made that happen where you have done this incredible work with the foundation. As you know, we were so inspired by your work and we've created in your honor the International Kiesling Prize for Species Conservation and we are now in our third year of recognizing some of the world's top

conservationists, those who have on-the-ground experience and academic experience and bringing it together to really define meaningful impact. This award is in your honor. It recognizes your legacy. How does it feel to have this international prize in your name? Well, I don't know. I try always to stay devote. I don't try to be bigger than I am. And I was very much surprised when you did it.

But I thank you very much. It's an honor I never would have expected to have. Well, you know what I love about this is that these conservationists deserve the recognition, completely deserve the recognition, and they always tell me how honored they are that this is in the name of the famed Wolfgang Kiesling. Your legacy means so much to them and you really have paved the way forward. Well I know we know some of the winners Dr. John Paul Rodriguez I know he's a good friend of yours as well, Professor Theo Pagel, and this year Arnaud

Desbiéz. Desbiéz. Desbiéz, yes. Beautiful, beautiful resumes, academic work, and importantly field work. Tell us a little bit about these incredible prize winners. Well, I know Theo Pagel is the, you know, I'm from Cologne. Yes. And his zoo is in Cologne. Yes.

But I knew already his father. Oh, my goodness. And I saw Teo coming to conferences on birds with his father. His father was a big specialist in lorries. But then we lost the view and I saw him again when you brought his application. Yes, yes. Isn't that wonderful? Yes, and Jean-Paul, well, we don't have to talk about him. He is worldwide recognized

for his great job he is doing. Absolutely. I know the priest. It's Brazilian. Yes. He is doing a fine job down there. Yes. And Brazil needs it more

than any other country in the world. And I know he's deeply passionate about anteaters and the way he tells those stories. It's stunning. I know it Really can make a huge difference people forget the anteater, but what a charismatic creature Well, we have them. They are beautiful animals. Yes. Yes So we're so thrilled that we're in this stage and Christoph you have been Really such a passionate advocate and you've gone out around the world to speak on the space of conservation.

And one of the most powerful talks I've ever heard was what you gave in terms of why we are in the sixth mass extinction and the unbelievable amount of damage humans have caused to the world. And that's why we're all working so hard to stop that, to stop the impact that's been so negative. Share with us a little bit if you'd be so kind as to why are we in the sixth mass extinction? Well unfortunately, to call it like this, that we live on the land. The land on the blue planet is just a 30% of the surface.

So the population on that 30% of land mass is growing the last 100 years in an incredible speed. And that means that each time our population is growing, we are demanding more space for the infrastructure, which is like housing, schools, hospital streets, the agriculture, the cattle, everything what we need to eat or to live. This comes from nature because at the end you can't put a house on top of the other house to call it like this.

So we're expanding, which is urbanism. And this expansion of the presence of humankind has a reduction of nature. That means each time we grow, nature has to step back. And that means we lose the habitats and like this we lose the species. And therefore it's very important that on one side we protect habitats, but on the other side it's very important to have conservation centers. That means if a species is in danger out there, that a conservation center can take care, that there are people which love the animals, which take care of the animals.

And then we can talk about in the future of rewilding, because the idea is that the conservation center guarantees the existence of these species. And if we can go back into a historical habitat and we can introduce these animals which were taken care of at conservation centers, then we do a great job and these animals deserve it definitely. They definitely deserve it. You know what I am so thrilled is that I see a father-son family really fighting to be the voice for animals, but fighting so successfully with tremendous impact. How does that make you feel, Christoph? Because I know you have a daughter now that you're

inspiring in the same way. Well, my wife just called me and said that our daughter is keeping, which is, how I said, saltamonte, an insect for one week in her room. And she's giving water and plants for that insect to eat. And we had to rewild it, otherwise we would die. But it survived under the protection of my daughter for weeks time. So I believe she's on the right track.

She is understanding what we are doing. She's seeing her grandfather. She's seeing the conservation center. She loves to visit the animals. And since she's a little baby, she is in contact with the dolphins. So we put her together to see the dolphins. So it's all about these animals. And she understands that we can help animals and that we can take care for these animals.

So I believe that we are here because we love nature and we love the animals and because we can do something for them. So let's do it. Let. Yes, so let's do it Let's do it Let's do it. I love that. Let's do it. Let's do it Oh, well, this has been an extraordinary time with both of you and and we're here celebrating the third international prize winner and certainly most importantly celebrating this incredible and certainly most importantly celebrating this incredible Kiesling family who I would dare say is one of the top families in history fighting for conservation and globally your impact is felt. What a pleasure and a

privilege to know you both. Thank you for what you do. And we would like to thank you because it needs always somebody who moves, who moves the stone which is blocking the way. And you did it in our case. I thank you very, very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to Robin's Nest.

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