ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen at the WILD Nature Foundation event in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the two founders Helle and Uri Løvevild Golman.

Ambassador for nature conservation

Besides being an ambassador of ESA, each astronaut going on a long-duration mission gets to choose a charitable foundation to support.

Andreas, who is going to the International Space Station later this summer, has a fondness for nature conservation. After hearing a lecture by the founder of WILD Nature Foundation (WNF), Helle Løvevild Golman, in the Copenhagen Zoo, Denmark, Andreas knew that WNF was the foundation he wanted to support and make a part of his Huginn mission.

“They are a new foundation with plenty of ambition and exciting projects. Their motto ‘’What you love – you will protect’ fits perfectly with what astronauts experience when we see Earth from space: We know that there is only this one vulnerable planet, so we better take good care of it,” says Andreas.

A foundation for nature and wildlife

Founded in 2019 by two wildlife photographers, Helle and Uri Løvevild Golman, the WILD Nature Foundation is starting with two nature conservation projects: in Greenland and Colombia.

“We are both honored and excited to have Andreas as our ambassador. One of the many great traits of Andreas is that he understands there is only one planet, having seen our blue planet from above. With this ambassadorship Andreas will connect space and nature conservation in a beautiful new way,” says Helle.

Together with two municipalities in Greenland, WNF, is studying the feasibility of creating a national park in Western Greenland with an area of 5795 km² which is about twice the size of Luxembourg, protecting the nature and wildlife in the park, including reindeer, muskox, and several bird species.

On the western side of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia is the Campoalegre, meaning “happy field”, an ecosystem with large forests and open fields. The WNF has purchased a 7.3 km² area, with hopes through the foundation to grow the nature reserve into by a factor of four. This area of the forest is home to the mountain tapir and the indigo-winged parrot, of which there are less than 350 left.

You can follow Andreas’s mission on the Huginn page and read more about the WILD Nature Foundation here.