Loro Parque Fundación has presented, this Thursday 28 November, a sculpture made from recycled objects that shows the serious problem that plastic generates in the environment. The inauguration took place in the Auditorium of the University of La Laguna (ULL) and was attended by more than 500 people.
In addition to other authorities and collaborating associations the event was also attended by: Rosa María Aguilar, rector of the ULL; Professor Victoria Martín Osorio; Enrique Arriaga, first vice-president of the Cabildo de Tenerife; Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, mayor of San Cristóbal de La Laguna; María Candelaria González Morales, general director of Educational Centers, Infrastructure and Promotion of the Government of the Canary Islands; Wolfgang Kiessling, president of the Loro Parque Company and Christoph Kiessling, vice-president of the Loro Parque Company and president of the Loro Parque Fundación.
In this way, Loro Parque Fundación and the Universidad de La Laguna have joined forces in their fight against the use of plastic to lessen the effects of climate change. The two institutions, fully aligned with the Sustainable Development Objectives, have participated in the presentation of the project ‘BYE BYE, PLASTIC’, an initiative designed to raise awareness among the entire population for the damage caused by non-biodegradable waste in nature.
For her part, the rector of the host center, Rosa Aguilar, pointed out that in 2017 the two convening entities signed a general catalog of measures from which some research projects arose. One of those in the area of industrial engineering to find out how noise pollution affects cetaceans, led by Professor Fernando Rosa, and another in the field of zoology on marine mammals, led by Professor Alberto Brito.
Thus, this artistic representation of the Foundation is part of the numerous actions against single-use plastic carried out in all the facilities of the Loro Parque Company. In this way, thanks to the implementation of this strategy, since the beginning of 2018, more than 30 tons of this harmful material have been eliminated, stressed the president of Loro Parque Fundación.
In this sense, for the manufacture of this consciousness-building piece of art, the creator of the sculpture, Paolo Bonano, has been inspired by the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria artist Néstor Martín-Fernández de la Torre. For this purpose, he has mostly used cans, bottles and plastic lids.
Through these actions, it is intended to reinforce the commitment to promote the search for solutions to keeping our planet cleaner and to raise awareness of the problem that the oceans and the different species that inhabit them are facing, with particular emphasis on the effects of marine litter.
With all this, Loro Parque Fundación highlights, once again, that the accumulation of plastics in the oceans affects marine biodiversity in a terrible way. According to figures from the United Nations, presented at the session by the president of the Foundation, Christoph Kiessling, 13 million tons of plastic seep into the ocean each year, which causes, among other damages, the death of 100,000 marine species every year. In addition, it is estimated that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. “All of this makes the role of wildlife conservation centers essential in protecting species for future generations,” added Kiessling.
