Dr Javier ALMUNIA

Director, Loro Parque Fundación

Javier Almunia is director of Loro Parque Fundación, an NGO that funds and implements wildlife conservation projects in over 40 countries around the world. The mission of LPF is to conserve wild species and their habitats, through education, applied research, responsible breeding programs, and community-based conservation activities that use parrots and cetaceans as ambassadors for nature. 

He holds a Ph.D. in Marine Science from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and, during his career, he has built extensive knowledge in endangered wildlife conservation projects and has carried out field research in the Atlantic, Indian, and Antarctic oceans. He has published over 30 scientific articles and over 50 conference papers on marine ecology, cetacean ecotoxicology, bioacoustics, ethology, etc.

He is also Past-President of the European Association for Aquatic Mammals and President of the Iberian Association of Zoos and Aquariums.