Galapagos Conservancy (GC)

Achieving sustainability: education for sustainability in 2022, working in close partnership with ecuador's ministry of education and conservando Galapagos, our network of more than 40 education specialists and all 400 local prek-12 teachers and school principals are transforming teaching and learning in every classroom in Galapagos. By helping educators to teach core subjects in the context of local examples and sustainability principles, and to use active learning approaches such as project-based learning, we are preparing the island's 7,500 prek-12 students to become environmentally minded, critical-thinking conservation stewards.

Galapagos initiative: in 2022, our staff in partnership with Galapagos national park and conservando Galapagos led several field expeditions to monitor giant tortoises and other endangered species on the islands of fernandina, espanola, santiago, and isabela while individuals were released to rewild populations in isabela and were equipped with gps devices to monitor their activities and movements.

In 2022, gc continued to focus on science-based conservation species in Galapagos. Our impact grant program has supported over thirty projects to save both terrestrial and marine wildlife. And we continue to work towards controlling the negative impact of invasive non-native species on endemic wildlife which has included researching biocontrol actions on the non-native vampire fly, philornis downsi, to reverse the decline in bird populations. Our iniciativa Galapagos program with Galapagos national park and conservando Galapagos is helping rewild giant tortoise populations across the Galapagos. The program also continued an intensive research program on the critically endangered pink iguana in an urgent effort to save the species from extinction.