Valentina’s Dream
- The Parques Reunidos Spirit promotes initiatives in favor of childhood, social integration, biodiversity, and education.
- Madrid, January 16th, 2019. — Throughout 2018, Parques Reunidos has promoted corporate social responsibility initiatives valued at 0.5% of the company’s revenues. The group’s strategy regarding this scope is organized around four action lines: initiatives related to supporting childhood, citizens with special needs and their families; actions to foster social integration; educational programs to raise awareness about environmental preservation; and projects in favor of biodiversity that focus on conservation and research about threatened wildlife and ecosystems. “In Parques Reunidos’ 50-year history, the company has been defined by its commitment to society. Our business growth has walked hand in hand with a vocation for service towards each park’s community. In 2011, we established the Parques Reunidos Foundation which, along with each park’s individual actions, constitute de “Parques Reunidos Spirit” highlights Parques Reunidos’ President, Richard Golding.
- Out of the total amount devoted to CSR projects, 38% corresponds to programs for hospitalized children, individuals with special needs, and their families. Supporting low-income families who are at risk of social exclusion took up 28% of the total amount. Biodiversity and research projects represented 20% of the investment made in CSR actions, while education and awareness raising amounted to 14% of the total.
- Among the numerous initiatives Parques Reunidos has carried out this past year, the following are particularly noteworthy:
- Support to hopitalized children and to people with special needs and their families: All the parks in the Madrid region do outstanding work in collaboration with the Niño Jesús Hospital. In addition, one of the most important projects is “FarmAventura”, which has been designed to incentivize children to take their prescribed medication regularly through games and visits to the Group’s animal parks.
- Support to low-income families at risk of social exclusion: The group has collaborated with Fundación Soñar Despierto, who, once more, celebrated Children’s Day at the group’s parks. Along with Mensajeros de la Paz, they develop social action to help those at risk of social exclusion. Similarly, other noteworthy collaborations include organizations such as the Spanish Commission for Refugee Relief (CEAR) and Cáritas.
- Education & awareness raising
- Zoohackathon 2018: Thanks to the collaboration with the Embassy of the United States, the Department of Ecological Transition, and SEPRONA, the Zoo Aquarium of Madrid was able to hold the first Spanish edition of a competition between a number of teams of specialized biologists and computer engineers looking to develop solutions to wildlife illegal trafficking.
- “1 m2 por la naturaleza”: Within the framework of the “Libera, naturaleza sin basura” project (“Libera, nature without trash”), this initiative -promoted by SEO/BirdLife and Ecoembes- has a mission to eradicate all trash that can be found in the natural environments of the Spanish landscape.
- PhotoArk: Zoo Aquarium de Madrid and Faunia participated in this photographic project launched by National Geographic in collaboration with prestigious wildlife photographer Joel Sartore to record every possible species and raise awareness about their preservation.
- Biodiversity: conservation & research.
- Conservation of the Giant Panda’s natural habitat: Through this program, the Parques Reunidos Foundation supports the Chengdu giant panda reproduction and research station in its conservation project regarding giant pandas. Through this project, the world’s giant panda population has seen a significant increase, and has reached 1.864 specimen in the wild and 520 hosted at reproduction centers and animal parks around the world.
- Project for the conservation of the Mediterranean monk seal: In collaboration with CDB-Hábitat Foundation, the Parques Reunidos Foundation participates in a conservation program to protect this species at the Cabo Blanco Peninsula in Mauritania. The program focuses on three lines of action: the protection of the colony through the “Seal Coast” reserve; the assistance to the neighboring communities; and the permanent monitoring of the colony. Thanks to this program, the colony has gone from about one hundred members in 1998, to more than 330 today.
- Collaboration with the Brinzal Association for the recovery, rehabilitation and reintroduction of nocturnal birds of prey: Through this agreement, the Parques Reunidos Foundation has collaborated in the rescue of 3.872 wild animals, with a 56% success rate in their rehabilitation.
- Research project on the reproduction of the giant panda and other threatened species: The Parques Reunidos Group collaborates with the National Institute for Research and Agrarian and Food Technology, the Chengdu Reproduction Center in China and the Veterinary School at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid and participates in various research projects to support biodiversity.
- Collaboration with the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB): Through Zoo Aquarium de Madrid and in collaboration with Zoo Animal Welfare Education Center (ZAWEC), the Center for Research and Conservation del Antwerp Zoo Society, the Foundation has participated in a study carried out by a number of expert biologists and veterinarians from these centers in order to identify the different personalities of bottle nose dolphins and provide tools to their caretakers to improve reproduction success indexes.
