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Location:
Image Courtesy of Pablo Borboroglu
Free Hybrid Lecture
Speaker: Pablo García Borboroglu, Global Penguin Society
Advance registration required for both in-person and online
Join Dr. Pablo Borboroglu, the 2023 Indianapolis Prize Winner for animal conservation, as he recounts his lifelong journey to save penguins. Dr. Borboroglu will highlight the challenges of conservation work, from protecting 32 million acres of ocean and coastal habitat to cofounding the Global Penguin Society, an international conservation coalition for the world’s penguin species. Hear about the risks and rewards he has experienced while trying to save penguins in some of nature’s wildest places.
Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.
Presented in collaboration with the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Indianapolis Zoo and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
About the Speaker
Dr. Pablo Borboroglu is a protector of ocean and coastal habitats for penguins in several countries, including Argentina. Dr. Borboroglu works to improve penguin colony management through the creation of large, protected areas, including 32 million acres of ocean and coastal habitat. He is the founder and leader of the Global Penguin Society, an international conservation coalition for the world’s penguin species.
Borboroglu is the cofounder and cochair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Penguin Specialist Group, which helps to assess the conservation status and advance international penguin conservation action. In the same year that he founded Global Penguin Society, he discovered six breeding pairs of penguins at the El Pedral colony on the eastern coast of Argentina. After successfully designating that area as a wildlife refuge and reducing human impacts, the area is now home to 4,000 breeding pairs of penguins.
Borboroglu also led efforts to create Blue Patagonia–a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve–which protects 40 percent of the global population of Magellanic penguins and the most biodiverse area of Argentina. Home to 67 species of animals, more than 120 species of birds, and nearly 200 species of marine invertebrates, this is Argentina’s largest UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, encompassing 200 miles of coastline and 7.6 million acres of land and ocean. In total, Borboroglu has coordinated the development of management plans for eight protected areas since 1998 in Chile and Argentina.
Borboroglu is also dedicated to educating the next generation. His Global Penguin Society program has reached more than 200,000 students and community members across Latin American nations. Efforts include leading field visits for 7,000 students who live near penguin colonies as well as the creation of free books and educational material.