The King of the mountain

Niccolò Ricci, CEO of Stefano Ricci

Back to mission

With a renewed focus on exploration, this mission to Chile was marked by a deep immersion into true wildlife. In particular, our commitment to sustainability and climate change led us to support the Puma Rewilding Program by Fundación Acción Fauna, dedicated to the conservation of the puma, a dominant predator inhabiting Torres del Paine National Park. Pumas are generally solitary animals, also known as “mountain lions”. We observed them in the vast Patagonian steppe, moving fearlessly among the rocks, ready to hunt their prey while respecting the natural laws. As scientific studies point out, their ecological role is to maintain the balance of the ecosystem. They are an iconic species, a sacred symbol representing the wild, powerful and untameable heart of an unspoilt land.

niccolò ricci in chile

This journey evoked many affinities with a previous mission into the wilderness, to the Galápagos Islands. Sailing through a narrow channel that links the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, we encountered once more the name Beagle—a direct reference to the vessel on which Charles Darwin joined the expedition that began in 1831 and concluded in 1836, exploring Tierra del Fuego and its islands. These are landscapes virtually untouched, a region first “discovered” by Ferdinand Magellan. Such a spirit recalls to my mind another recent memory: the presentation of our work at The Explorers Club in New York a couple of years ago, in that renowned home of genuine “mission impossible” ventures, where values and knowledge are passed down from the pioneers who have always led humankind to the conquest of new frontiers.

Thanks to an ever closer relationship with TEC, we have chosen to extend our vision to projects that may appear of lesser importance at first glance. In particular, we have committed to funding a research mission for young explorers each year. It is therefore with great satisfaction that we can share the launch of the Northern Tanzania Secretary Bird Project, developed alongside The Explorers Club by a team led by Federico Romani and Elena Ramella. Fittingly, they are Italians—introduced to us through New York—and never more than in this case does the phrase about our country, a nation of poets, saints and sailors, feel right to extend also to explorers.