Galapagos Matters

GALAPAGOSMATTERS Rewilding Galapagos GLOBAL PLASTICS TREATY Antarctic connections

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galapagosconservation.org.uk

GALAPAGOSMAT TERS

Cover: Galapagos land iguanas are ecosystem engineers and create opportunities for other species on islands where they are present by opening up paths, removing soil and dispersing seeds. © Leighton Lum

CONTENTS

4-5 Wild Galapagos 6-7 Galapagos News 8-11 RGCT’s ewilding Galapagos Tom O’Hara explains how the removal of

invasive species and the reintroduction of keystone species can restore habitats in Galapagos, making space for natural processes to take over and heal degraded island ecosystems, while Dr Paula Castaño tells us more about the next steps in the Archipelago’s most ambitious rewilding project, the restoration of Floreana island.

12 Remembering Randal and Godfrey GCT’s new Chief Executive Jen Jones pays tribute to two pillars of the Galapagos conservation community that we sadly lost earlier this year: Randal Keynes OBE and Godfrey Merlen.

13 Legends of Galapagos Appeal 14-15 Project Updates

16-17 GCT at the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations

GCT’s Jess Howard reports back on the second round of negotiations for a future Global Plastics Treaty in Paris, and we interview Luis Vayas Valdivieso, one of the elected Chairs of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee, about the progress so far.

18-19 RGCT’s estoring Floreana: a local perspective Kelly Hague visited Floreana last year,

and saw first-hand the fantastic impact that the Restoring Floreana project is going to have for the people and wildlife that call the island their home.

20-21 Supporter News & Membership 22 GGalapagos lobal Relevance and Antarctica, two remote and 23

seemingly very different regions of the globe, share some surprising connections and face many of the same challenges, as Jonathan Green explains.

Events & Merchandise

CONTRIBUTORS

Dr Paula A.Castaño is a wildlife veterinarian who has been working with Island Conservation since 2013, supported by GCT, to provide technical assistance to the Galapagos National Park on preventing extinctions and restoring ecosystems. She is currently part of the Restoring Floreana project, working as a Native Species Specialist and co-ordinating all environmental aspects of the project, including species reintroduction.

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Luis Vayas Valdivieso is Ecuador’s Ambassador to the UK and one of the elected Chairs of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee for the future international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. He has nearly 30 years of experience in government and diplomacy, and served as the VicePresident of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions on protecting human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals and wastes.

Jonathan Green is the founder and director of the Galapagos Whale Shark Project, and has worked for nearly three decades in the Galapagos Islands. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London, and when not in Galapagos he works on expedition vessels in the polar regions. He also teaches photography workshops in destinations around the world and has won several international awards.

FROM THE

CHIEF EXECUTIVE I

am honoured to have been appointed Chief Executive Officer at GCT, my ultimate dream job.

After dedicating the last 12 years to Galapagos through my work with GCT as the Head of Programmes, my passion for the Islands, the wildlife and the wonderful people who live there has only grown with each new experience. The same is true of GCT, an organisation I have grown with, learned so much from and never fail to see the potential of. I would like to say a big thank you to the Board for placing their trust in me, to my predecessor Sharon Johnson for the strong foundations that she has built over the past eight years, and to GCT’s amazing staff, supporters and volunteers for everything that you do.

We are at a pivotal point in our mission, with experience, evidence and connections coming together and allowing us to rapidly scale up our impact. We are being invited to sit at increasingly influential tables, representing voices from the Islands that deserve to be amplified – the result of more impactful programmes, communications and networking. This was exemplified by our recent attendance at the second round of negotiations on the future Global Plastics Treaty in Paris in May (p.16-17). This momentum is not

Galapagos Matters is a copyright biannual publication produced for members of Galapagos Conservation Trust.

a second too soon as we ramp up our efforts towards achieving global targets such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 in Galapagos.

We are optimistic about the prospects of securing a strong Global Plastics Treaty, but we know that the power of the plastics and petrochemical lobby will present a major obstacle – coming together as civil society will be key to standing up for the planet. We face additional challenges over the coming months, from political upheaval in Ecuador to the return of El Niño conditions, which will have a big impact on the delicate balance of nature in Galapagos. In particular, we know that marine species will be hard hit by the warming of the seas around the Archipelago, making our ocean protection work a crucial focus. Thank you to everyone who supported our recent Ocean Protection Appeal and our Alberto the Waved Albatross storybook crowdfunder, and to those of you who attended our fascinating spring webinar with Jonathan and Sofía Green of the Galapagos Whale Shark Project. If you missed the event you can watch the recording on our YouTube channel, and you can also hear more from Jonathan on page 22.

The information in this issue was obtained from various sources, all of which have extensive knowledge of Galapagos, but neither GCT nor the contributors are responsible for the accuracy of the contents or the opinions expressed herein.

© Jen Jones

by Dr Jen Jones

Since the last edition of Galapagos Matters, we have sadly lost two of our dearest friends, Randal Keynes OBE and Godfrey Merlen. Both were GCT Ambassadors, hugely influential in the conservation of the Islands, and to me personally. We pay tribute to them both on page 12. We hope that in the coming years we will be able to realise their ambitions of reintroducing iconic species such as the little vermilion flycatcher and the Floreana mockingbird through restoring and rewilding the island ecosystems where they were once found, and we are launching a new appeal in their honour (p.13).

The local community is key to the success of island restoration and rewilding projects, and Kelly writes movingly on pages 18-19 about her visit to Floreana last year. You can find out more about rewilding in Galapagos in our feature on pages 8-11, which I hope will whet your appetite for Galapagos Day at the Royal Geographical Society on 19 October (p.23). We have some brilliant speakers lined up – I hope to see you there!

ISSN 2050-6074 Galapagos Designer: The Graphic Design House Matters is printed on paper Printer: Bishops Printers made from well managed forests 020 7399 7440 and controlled sources. gct@gct.org Editor: Henry Nicholls galapagosconservation.org.uk Chief Executive: Jen Jones Communications Manager: Tom O’Hara

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© Claire Waring

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WILD GALAPAGOS This dramatic image of a juvenile great frigatebird attacking a swallow-tailed gull by Claire Waring won overall first place in our Galapagos Photography Competition. Frigatebirds exhibit a behaviour known as kleptoparasitism, harassing other seabirds and forcing them to regurgitate their recently caught food by grabbing their tail feathers and shaking them, then catching the regurgitated food before it enters the sea.

Our judges were impressed by the clarity and definition of this difficult shot to pull off, with BBC producer and director Jo Haley describing it as “full of energy and action”, while Galapagos naturalist guide Walter Perez commented that the image “shows that paradise can turn into hell!”

Our 2023 competition was kindly sponsored by Mundy Adventures, and a selection of the top images chosen by our judging panel will feature in our 2024 calendar which is now available to pre-order (p.23). To see all the winners and runners-up, please visit galapagosconservation.org.uk/photographycompetition-galleries/

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GALAPAGOS

NEWS

ECUADOR SECURES WORLD’S BIGGEST ‘DEBT FOR NATURE’ DEAL

Scalloped hammerheads © Simon Pierce

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n April the Ecuadorian government announced a much anticipated ‘debt for nature’ swap, which will see $1.6 billion of existing commercial debt converted into a new $656 million loan, freeing up funds for the conservation of the Galapagos Islands.

Ecuador will repay the loan over 18 years, and will contribute $12 million a year to conservation, as well as a further $5.4 million a year to create a permanent endowment, which will

HIGH SEAS TREATY AGREED AT THE UN

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here was a crucial breakthrough at the United Nations in March, as nations finally reached agreement

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then be used to finance conservation activities in perpetuity.

Belize, Barbados and the Seychelles have all concluded similar debt for nature swaps in recent years, but the Ecuadorian deal is by far the largest to date. The allocation of the new conservation funds will be overseen by a new body, the Galapagos Life Fund (GLF), which will be governed by an 11-member board of directors that includes five Ecuadorian government ministers and six non-government

representatives. The GLF’s brief is to address the impacts of overfishing, climate change and pollution on the Archipelago, supporting the work of the Galapagos National Park. Funding will be allocated to projects that help to strengthen the local economy, improve the management and enforcement of the Galapagos Marine Reserve and Hermandad Marine Reserve, support the development of more sustainable fisheries, and build climate resilience.

on a High Seas Treaty after nearly 20 years of negotiations. The treaty will put mechanisms in place to create Marine Protected Areas in parts of the ocean beyond national jurisdiction, a key component in realising the shared global goal of protecting 30% of the

world’s oceans by 2030. The treaty will also govern marine research for both scientific and commercial purposes, and a new conference of the parties (COP) will meet periodically to monitor progress and hold signatories to account.

STUDY SHOWS THAT CONSERVING WILDLIFE CAN HELP MITIGATE CLIMATE CHANGE

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rotecting wildlife could significantly enhance natural carbon capture, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change and co-authored by 15 scientists from eight countries. The research looked at nine species – marine fish, whales, sharks, grey wolves, wildebeest, sea otters, musk oxen, African forest elephants and American bison – and found that protecting or restoring their populations could allow the capture of an additional 6.41 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year. This constitutes 95% of the amount needed every year to meet the Paris Agreement target of keeping global temperature rise below 1.5C. You can read the study here: go.nature.com/3qp2j5U

GLOBAL PLASTICS TREATY NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE

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he GCT team attended the second round of negotiations on a future Global Plastics Treaty, which took place between 29 May and 2 June at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Although the negotiations got off to a difficult start, with some oil- and plasticproducing nations delaying proceedings with procedural arguments around voting mechanisms, there was also some encouraging progress, with states agreeing to develop the first draft of the treaty text. Intersessional work on the ‘zero draft’ will continue ahead of the third round of negotiations taking place in Nairobi in November. Read Jess’s article on page 16 for more reflections on the Paris talks.

12 LITTLE VERMILION FLYCATCHER CHICKS FLEDGE

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he land bird conservation team at the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) has reported the most successful nesting season for little vermilion flycatchers on Santa Cruz since the management programme started in

© Agustín Gutiérrez - CDF

PRESIDENTIAL POLL GOES TO SECOND ROUND

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cuador’s presidential election will be decided by a run-off after frontrunner Luisa González failed to secure the 50% of the vote required to win the contest outright in August’s first round. She will face Daniel Noboa in the second round on 15 October. Elections were triggered when President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly in May, and take place against a backdrop of a deteriorating security situation in mainland Ecuador. A recent upsurge in violence has been fuelled by the drugs trade, and tensions remain high after presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated less than a fortnight before voters went to the polls. GCT will continue to monitor the situation and the implications for Galapagos.

TOURIST ARRIVALS HIT RECORD HIGH

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© GCT

2018, with 12 juveniles successfully fledging following the 2023 nesting season. Scientists from CDF and the Galapagos National Park are working on the experimental restoration of the island’s Scalesia forest, a key habitat for this colourful but Vulnerable endemic bird, which is threatened by invasive species such as mora (hill raspberry) and the avian vampire fly (Philornis downsi).

arch 2023 set a new record for monthly tourist numbers in Galapagos, with 32,509 arrivals according to the Ecuadorian Ministry of Tourism. The tourist industry in Galapagos has experienced a rapid post-pandemic recovery, and the Galapagos National Park Directorate recently announced that 267,688 tourists visited the Galapagos Islands in 2022, just 1% behind 2019 numbers.

STUDY REVEALS GROWING ‘PLASTIC SMOG’ IN OUR OCEANS

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here are more than 170 trillion plastic particles, weighing approximately 2 million tonnes, afloat in the world’s oceans, according to a study led by the 5 Gyres Institute and co-authored by Dr Martin Thiel, a member of our Pacific Plastics: Science to Solutions network. The study also showed a rapid acceleration in plastic densities in the world’s oceans since 2005. Read the full paper here: bit.ly/5GyresPlasticsResearch

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER PRISTINE DEEP-SEA CORAL REEFS IN GALAPAGOS

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n international team of scientists has discovered extensive, ancient deep-sea coral reefs in the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR), the first such discovery since the GMR was established in 1998. The Galapagos Deep 2023 expedition, led by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, University of Bristol, Boise State University and University of Essex, in collaboration with the Galapagos National Park Directorate, Charles Darwin Foundation and the Ecuadorian Navy’s Oceanographic and Antarctic Institute, made the discovery while exploring a previously unmapped seamount in the centre of the Archipelago on board the deep-sea research submersible Alvin.

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REWILDING GALAPAGOS

by Tom O’Hara

Galapagos giant tortoise © Ben Howitt

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ewilding’ is a broad and not entirely scientific term, which has been used to describe everything from landscape-scale restoration of ecosystems to letting weeds grow wild in your garden.

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t has been the source of controversy, particularly when it entails land being taken out of food production, or the reintroduction of species such as wolves and beavers.

Concerns have also been raised about local and indigenous communities being marginalised by rewilding projects, and the economic benefits of rewilding have been questioned by those who fear the loss of traditional rural industries.

Yet the potential benefits of rewilding are enormous. There is a growing realisation that biodiversity loss needs to be reversed if we are to mitigate against the worst effects of climate change, and nations are now committed to protecting 30% of the world’s land and sea by 2030. Rewilding creates more space for nature, and allows natural processes to drive the restoration of damaged ecosystems, often with a little helping hand from humans.

This may involve the removal of damaging invasive species, the creation of new habitat (e.g. by planting trees), or the reintroduction of locally extinct ‘keystone species’. A combination of deliberate reintroductions and spontaneous recolonisation can help

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wildlife populations recover and boost biodiversity, which we now know is so crucial to the health of our planet, and there is also a growing body of evidence that rewilding brings economic benefits to local communities, particularly when applied to unproductive land that is poorly suited to agriculture. Rewilded land has a role to play in everything from carbon capture to preventing the transmission of zoonotic diseases, and can help to create a world in which humans thrive in balance with the natural world.

But what does rewilding mean in the context of Galapagos, where 97% of the land is already a protected National Park?

CONTROLLING INVASIVE SPECIES

Today, despite strong biosecurity measures, there are estimated to be nearly 1,500 introduced species present in the Galapagos Islands. Among the most damaging are rats and feral cats, which predate on ground nesting birds, iguanas and the eggs of giant tortoises, while introduced herbivores such as

The Galapagos rail has naturally recolonised Pinzon island © Ian Henderson

goats can lay waste to vegetation.

Less immediately obvious, but equally devastating, is the parasitic avian vampire fly, Philornis downsi. The larvae of this fly feed on the eggs and hatchlings of many species of Galapagos land bird, with up to 100% mortality in some nests. If we are to return the Galapagos Islands to a truly wild state, these invasive species need to be removed.

We already know what a difference this will make from islands such as Pinzon, which was cleared of invasive rats in 2012 after many of its native

species became extinct. Ten years later, there are promising signs of ecological recovery, and GCT is supporting our partners to deliver surveys to track this.

Two species of bird – the Galapagos rail and the cactus finch – have naturally recolonised the island, and Pinzon giant tortoises are reproducing in the wild again.

GCT is addressing the impact of Philornis downsi through our support for the Mangrove Finch Project. In recent years, the team has been focusing on Philornis control in the wild. This includes injecting wild nests with an insecticide, which needs to be delivered by a highly skilled tree-climber, and trialling use of feather dispensers treated with an insecticide to see if breeding pairs will use these feathers as nest building materials.

RESTORING HABITATS

Invasive animal species are not the only barrier to rewilding the Galapagos Islands. Since its introduction in 1968, the invasive hill raspberry (Rubus niveus) has spread across the Archipelago. In places, impenetrable spiny thickets grow up to three metres tall, turning agricultural areas into wasteland and preventing the unique native forest, dominated by the endemic daisy tree (Scalesia), from regenerating. The dense stands of vegetation have also been found to be preventing birds such as the little vermilion flycatcher from foraging on the ground for food.

We are supporting the Landbird Conservation Programme, led by the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galapagos National Park, which is investigating a number of ways to reverse the decline of endemic land birds. This includes research into potential biocontrol methods to

Galapagos National Park plant nursery © Shannon D’Arcy

remove the hill raspberry, for example by introducing a rust fungus from the plant’s native range to weaken it and reduce its impact. Current control methods entail a mixture of manual labour and herbicide application, but the plant’s fast growth and large seedbank make these methods expensive and labour-intensive.

Research has also shown that natural regeneration of Scalesia pedunculata forest is limited following the removal of the invasive plants, so the team is helping to restore the flycatchers’ habitat by planting saplings.

REINTRODUCING KEYSTONE SPECIES

The ecologist Robert Paine coined the term ‘keystone species’ in the 1960s to describe those species that exert a significant effect on the composition of an ecosystem. When a keystone species is removed from an ecosystem, that ecosystem is dramatically altered, and

may even collapse. There are generally considered to be three different types of keystone species: predators, mutualists and ecosystem engineers.

Predators such as sharks control the populations of their prey, which in turn can have effects further down the food chain, in what is known as a ‘trophic cascade’. Mutualists provide benefits for other species as part of a symbiotic relationship. The most obvious example is pollinators such as bees, which both feed on the plants that they pollinate, and also enable those plants to reproduce and spread. An ecosystem engineer is a species that can create, modify, maintain or destroy a habitat, which in turn can benefit (or harm) other species. Perhaps the best-known example of an ecosystem engineer is the beaver, with its remarkable ability to slow rivers, restore woodlands and create wetland habitats through felling trees and building dams.

Mangrove finch © Michael Dvorak

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The most iconic Galapagos species of all, the giant tortoise, is an important ecosystem engineer. Tortoises shape their habitats by grazing on plants, dispersing seeds and trampling vegetation. They play an important role in germinating seeds, as well as in thinning out and opening up new areas of ground for different types of vegetation to grow.

For evidence of these processes at work, we just have to look at the reintroduction of giant tortoises to Santa Fe. This small island once had its own endemic species of tortoise, which went extinct in the mid-19th century due to overexploitation by humans. The island’s ecosystem was then ravaged by the introduction of feral goats, which caused severe soil erosion and changes in the structure of the vegetation. A successful eradication programme removed the goats in the 1970s, but the continuing absence of tortoises limited the ability of the ecosystem to recover.

Following genetic evaluation of tortoise bones on the island, a decision was made to introduce the closest living relative of the Santa Fe tortoise to the island as a proxy for the extinct species.

Between 2015 and 2020, a total of 551 juvenile and 31 subadult tortoises from Española island (Chelonoidis hoodensis) were translocated to Santa Fe, and by 2020 they had successfully colonised around 10% of the island. Most promisingly, the population of both the Opuntia echios cactus (a keystone species for many organisms on the island) and the land iguana subspecies Conolophus pallidus were shown to have increased following the arrival of the tortoises.

Findings such as these support the reintroduction of large-bodied reptilian herbivores as a key component of restoring island ecosystems in Galapagos, and we expect to see similar results from the reintroduction of land iguanas to Santiago island, a project supported by GCT over a number of years. Iguanas were

Santa Fe land iguana © Kevin Fraser

reintroduced in 2019 after an absence of more than a century, and are now successfully breeding, with the island already showing positive environmental changes. The iguanas open up paths, remove soil and disperse seeds, and changes in population dynamics create greater food availability for others, with endemic species such as Galapagos hawks likely to return over the next few years.

their land, and we want to support young islanders to experience nature through involvement with rewilding.

We also believe that these projects can create sustainable jobs in conservation, regenerative farming and ecotourism, and allow humans to thrive alongside nature on the populated islands. This, we believe, is the only way to guarantee the long-term survival of the unique wildlife and natural beauty of Galapagos.

SUPPORTING LOCAL COMMUNITIES

As we reported in the last issue of Galapagos Matters, we are currently scoping a new project to rewild marginal agricultural land in the highlands of Santa Cruz. This land could act as a ‘buffer zone’ between the agricultural zone and the National Park, creating more space for nature and allowing land to recover from damage sustained due to overgrazing, cultivation of introduced crops and the use of pesticides. Together with more wildlife-friendly methods of farming, this can also mitigate the spread of disease between wildlife, domestic animals and humans, and limit the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

We are partnering with local NGO Fundación Un Cambio por la Vida to support landowners and local community leaders who want to rewild

Treating vermilion flycatcher nests © Agustin Gutierrez - CDF

Scalesia pedunculata © Patricia Jaramillo - CDF

GALAPAGOS DAY 2023

Participants in the Floreana workshop, July 2022 © GNPD

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Find out more about rewilding and restoring island habitats, including our plans for the highlands of Santa Cruz, at Galapagos Day 2023.

See page 23 for more details.

RESTORING FLOREANA:

A PLAN FOR THE REINTRODUCTION OF LOCALLY EXTINCT SPECIES

by Dr Paula A. Castaño

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loreana is home to an array of unique species, some endemic to the island, such as the medium tree finch, and others endemic to the Archipelago, like the Galapagos petrel, which has its largest breeding colony on Floreana. But these unique species are not alone in paradise. Mammals, including the house mouse, black rat and feral cats, in addition to other species such as the avian vampire fly (Philornis downsi), introduced by people at different stages in the island’s human history, became invasive, negatively impacting wildlife populations and the island’s food security. This has resulted in 54 species present on Floreana being listed as globally threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with at least two of these species classified as Critically Endangered, suggesting a high likelihood of extinction within our lifetime.

But there is hope. The Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD), the Agency for the Regulation and Control of Biosecurity and Quarantine for Galapagos (ABG) and the Floreana community, with technical assistance from Fundación JocoToco, Island Conservation, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and other partners and funders such as Galapagos Conservation Trust, are working hard to protect Floreana’s native species through the implementation of the Floreana Island Ecological Restoration Project, which aims to remove invasive rodents and feral cats from Floreana in 2023.

Once invasive rodents and feral cats are removed from the island, Floreana’s unique fauna and flora will have greater opportunity to recover and flourish.

But these restoration and rewilding efforts require careful planning. In July 2022, after several years of planning and collaboration among

This workshop was of great importance and a great challenge to determine strategies for reintroducing locally extinct species on Floreana. During the workshop, it was evident the great interest that all the participants had in being able to contribute to this remarkable conservation project, regardless of the challenges that await us. As a Park Ranger, it is another commitment and challenge that I am willing to face in order to protect and restore the ecosystems of Galapagos.

Wilson Cabrera, Invasive Species Eradication Specialist, Galapagos National Park

the Floreana Ecological Restoration Project partnership and supporters, we finally gathered on Floreana at a three-day workshop led by the GNPD. The goal was to create a collaborative environment to understand the requirements for reintroducing all extirpated species to Floreana once invasive predators are removed and establish a mutually agreed upon plan for this ambitious conservation endeavour. This plan spans beyond the next five years with the first three to five species (including the Floreana mockingbird) returning to the island, possibly in 2024 and 2025, while other species such as the Galapagos hawk will return only when other reintroduced species populations have become established.

Furthermore, all stakeholders agreed on the end goal: restoring an ecosystem unlike anywhere else on the planet, where communities continue to thrive together with nature.

I was invited to a workshop by Island Conservation, an NGO dedicated to conservation in the Galapagos, and by my institution, the Galapagos National Park, to create an action plan for reintroducing native and endemic species of the Galapagos Islands.

This opportunity was significant for me and my colleagues. The speakers and experts attending the workshop shared their knowledge on the topics being discussed, allowing me to improve my conservation knowledge as a Park Ranger. This experience was very satisfactory since it strengthened my ability to continue supporting all the future work to be carried out to restore Floreana. Everyone’s involvement was critical to help the future reintroductions of these species. I learned a lot, and I am very grateful for being part of this project.

Fidelino Gaona, Park Ranger and Avian Specialist, Galapagos National Park

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REMEMBERING RANDAL AND GODFREY

by Jen Jones

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arlier this year we lost two very special members of the Galapagos conservation community and long-standing GCT Ambassadors: Randal Keynes OBE and Godfrey Merlen.

planes and boats to campaigning for an end to whaling and wildlife trafficking, he drove so much change for the benefit of the Islands, often pioneering new approaches to conservation that hadn’t even crossed the minds of others.

GCT is honoured to have had Godfrey as an Ambassador since we began in the 1990s, and all who worked with him were inspired deeply by his love for nature and his wisdom of conservation. He had many friends and colleagues all over the world who will miss him dearly.

Godfrey was a true voice for nature – we must continue to deliver his vision for a Galapagos where humans and nature thrive in harmony.

Randal Keynes at Down House © GCT

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first met Randal Keynes in 2011. A smiling, unassuming gentleman keen to share his knowledge and stories, he was already a stalwart for GCT and someone high on my list of ‘Galapagos All Stars’ to meet when I first started.

A skilled raconteur, Randal delighted in telling little known stories about Charles Darwin, his great great grandfather and object of much dedicated study. One of his main missions was to humanise Darwin and increase relatability with the general public, moving away from the image of the old, bearded sombre scientist to a real person (who was young once!) with many facets. I remember the twinkle in Randal’s eye as he spoke about the drawings Darwin kept that were done by his young children, littered amongst his copious scientific notes, and how he made a slide for them in his home at Down House. How he was fascinated by earthworms and pigeons and barnacles.

Replicating some of Darwin’s experiments to supplement learning was a big element of Randal’s pioneering education work, another of his passions through the Charles Darwin Trust, aiming to promote ‘Darwin-inspired learning’ – highlighting the value of taking the time to truly observe, record and reflect in nature. Randal was very influential in the development of GCT’s Discovering Galapagos educational websites and a big supporter of getting local children out to connect with nature, benefitting from the same wonderful wild experience that many tourists get from visiting the Islands.

Godfrey Merlen had lived in Galapagos since the 1970s (arriving around the time Lonesome George was found on Pinta island), and he leaves an amazing legacy in conservation impact. From pushing for greater invasive species control on

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Do not expect anything. Just go with an open mind and unexpected surprises will greet you wherever you look. But remember to look and don’t hurry by… Live the journey, for the destination may not be the expected one! It is always worth keeping in touch with Galapagos…

Godfrey Merlen

Godfrey Merlen © Stephanie Foote

APPEAL HONOURING THE

LEGENDS OF GALAPAGOS

by Tom O’Hara

Floreana mockingbirds © Luis Ortiz-Catedral

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he conservation of the Galapagos Islands is a collective endeavour that unites people from all walks of life, from scientists who have spent their entire professional careers working on the Islands, to the rapt viewers of David Attenborough documentaries who have only ever glimpsed the Archipelago’s incredible wildlife on TV. Protecting one of the world’s greatest natural treasures is by necessity a collaborative effort. Nevertheless, throughout the Islands’ history there have always been visionaries and leaders who have stood out, inspirational figures who have found creative solutions to challenges that have at times seemed insurmountable.

As we find ourselves at a crucial juncture in the fate of our natural world, we can again draw courage from those who have shown us the way forward in the past.

Our great friend Felipe Cruz, who sadly passed away in 2018, was born on Floreana island to one of the first

Sir David Attenborough and Felipe Cruz in 2009 © Richard Lewisohn

families to settle in Galapagos. Felipe was a passionate conservationist, driven to protect his home Islands and their unique biodiversity for future generations. In 2023 the restoration of Floreana reaches a critical point, as we prepare for the reintroduction of 12 locally extinct species. This project meant so much to Felipe, and will make a real difference not just for the wildlife, but for the friends and loved ones that he left behind (as you can read on pages 18 - 19).

Randal Keynes was also passionate about the restoration of Floreana, and particularly the plight of the Floreana mockingbird. There are only a few hundred of these birds left in the world, clinging on to a tiny amount of habitat on two islets off the coast of Floreana. Randal gave a lot of his time and effort to support preparations for their reintroduction over the last two decades, and we hope that we will soon reach a point where we see these birds back on their home island. On that day, there will be many of us thinking of Randal.

Godfrey Merlen was instrumental in beginning the work to save the little vermilion flycatcher, one of the most charismatic and well-loved bird species in Galapagos, which is already extinct on Floreana and faces the same threat on Santa Cruz. In 2020, Godfrey wrote movingly in this magazine about why the fate of this little red bird matters: “It is not just the maintenance of an endemic species, a part of the unique biodiversity of Galapagos. It is a matter of the heart, the inspiration of life to

highland farmers, to all those who take the time to visit the mists pervading the forest of Scalesia daisy trees, a magical place, very far from the madding world, yet saving our minds and souls.”

Restoring and rewilding the islands that inspired these legends of Galapagos gives us a unique opportunity: to leave a small but significant part of the world in a better state than that in which we found it.

It also allows us to harness the potential of young local conservationists – the legends of tomorrow – who are working to secure a better future for their Islands.

As we honour the legacy of Felipe, Randal, Godfrey and the many others who we have loved and lost, we should ask ourselves: what do we want our legacy to be?

Can you help us restore and rewild the Islands? £25 could provide a week’s bird feed for a finch in captivity while invasive mammals are eradicated on Floreana £50 could provide materials for interactive Tessa the Giant Tortoise reading sessions with primary school students £75 could fund a day of clearing invasive hill raspberry plants from vermilion flycatcher habitat Please donate whatever you can by using the form on the back page, visiting galapagosconservation.org.uk/ donate or calling us on 020 7399 7440

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PROJECT

UPDATES

CREATING A CIRCULAR ECONOMY FOR PLASTICS IN GALAPAGOS

© GCT

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lastic pollution is a huge global problem that is affecting almost every habitat that has been investigated, from the Mariana Trench in the deep ocean to the top of Mount Everest. Only 9% of plastic produced globally is recycled, while 12% is incinerated and 79% is discarded into landfills. It is clear that a paradigm shift is needed in our relationship with plastics.

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lastic pollution threatens more than 40 species in the Galapagos Islands due to the risk of ingestion or entanglement, and there is now an urgent need to embrace circular economy approaches and reduce plastic waste at source. The circular economy concept is defined as the need for a systemic shift from the traditional linear ‘cradle-to-grave’ economy to a circular system that reduces waste and leakage, embracing the ‘4Rs’ concept (reduce, reuse, recycle, recover).

In January this year, GCT embarked on a new plastics circular economy project in Galapagos. The project aims to deliver prevention measures for local plastic pollution in Galapagos, including reducing imports, consumption and leakage, supported by community solutions for single-use plastic alternatives, whilst informing sustainable policies and supporting reduced risk to wildlife.

The project is funded by the Norwegian Retailers’ Environment Fund, Norway’s largest private environmental fund, which supports national and

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international projects that reduce plastic pollution, increase plastic recycling and reduce the consumption of plastic bags. It is also Norway’s most important measure in complying with the EU Plastic Bags Directive.

One of the aims of the project is to strengthen the international case for stronger plastic pollution legislation, by supporting Ecuador to provide a bestpractice example of a plastics circular economy in the Galapagos Islands and set an example to other areas, starting with action on single-use plastics. It also aims to provide new livelihoods within a circular economy, and will empower community innovators to implement their single-use plastic solutions.

In partnership with our partners Fundación Un Cambio por la Vida and the Galapagos Hub, we plan to launch the project with the local community, combining community engagement with policy, advocacy and business activity.

The aim is to develop a multi-pronged approach that will reduce single-use plastic bags for grocery shopping in Galapagos, and thus tackle one of the

major sources of plastic waste on the Islands.

We will be calling on members of the community (residents, tourists, shopkeepers and market owners/ organisers) to help build and inform the trial of three interventions aiming to reduce the consumption of singleuse plastic bags. We will combine interactive community engagement and behavioural science to understand existing behaviours, viability of alternative solutions and how to encourage and engage the community with those solutions.

Solutions will be trialled between February and April 2024 and will comprise alternative products or systems, designed and trialled in an iterative process with the community, establishing trust and uniting science, community and policy.

SHARK DAY 2023 O

n 15 July the Galapagos Science Center, in partnership with many other community partners, ran their tenth annual Shark Day event on San Cristobal island. San Cristobal is the fifth largest and easternmost island of Galapagos, and its 5,400 residents constitute the second largest human population.

Over the past decade, the team has worked hard to raise awareness about the importance of sharks. The ‘Science in the Family’ event focusses on intergenerational learning, making games as fun and interactive as possible, and the aim of the day is to promote greater knowledge about conservation and inspire the community to take concrete action to protect sharks and other marine life.

Thanks to the help of volunteers and community partners the tenth anniversary event was hugely successful. Over 500 people attended to learn about the importance of sharks to marine ecosystems and how we can take care of them. Children had the opportunity to participate in varied interactive games, where they explored and learned about the internal structure of these fascinating marine predators. In addition, the children also enjoyed reading GCT’s educational storybook Marti the Hammerhead Shark. Marti’s story is based on research carried out by MigraMar (supported by GCT) over many years, tracking the journeys of sharks from their nursery areas in Galapagos to the seamounts of the Pacific Ocean.

Shark Day 2023 © Galapagos Science Center

IMPORTANT SHARK AND RAY AREAS (ISRAS) T

he IUCN Red List of Threatened Species now estimates that over one third of sharks and rays are at risk of extinction. The situation is particularly acute in coastal habitats where 75% of threatened species are found. The IUCN Species Survival Commission Shark Specialist Group has identified Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) to ensure that discrete portions of habitats, critical to shark species, are delineated to enhance protection.

Earlier this year we were notified that nursery grounds in Galapagos were designated as some of the first ISRAs in the world, including sites around San Cristobal where GCT has been supporting research for the past five years. This is fantastic news, and an important first step to conserving vulnerable shark and ray populations and other species that rely on sheltered mangrove lagoons in their lifecycle.

White spotted eagle ray © Carlos Luna

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From L-R - Dr Sam Garrard (Plymouth Marine Laboratory/PPSS) and GCT’s Jess Howard, Dr Jen Jones, Kelly Hague and Lucía Norris © GCT

GCT AT THE GLOBAL PLASTICS TREATY NEGOTIATIONS

by Jess Howard

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arlier this year, GCT attended the second round of negotiations for a global agreement to end plastic pollution at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

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e were in Paris to provide evidence of the harms being caused by plastic pollution, and to represent our Pacific Plastics: Science to Solutions (PPSS) partners across Galapagos and the wider Eastern Pacific region.

For the past five years, we have been gathering a wealth of evidence about the sources and impacts of plastic pollution washing into Galapagos and testing locally relevant solutions. We are using our research to support calls for a strong treaty and a global commitment to reducing single-use plastics, backed up by some of our key findings:

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• Over 2,500 microplastics were found per m2 on the most polluted beaches in Galapagos, which are very difficult to clean • 69% of plastic items found on Galapagos coastlines are single-use items, and one third of those items are linked to drinks • 20% of plastic pollution globally is from maritime sources, whereas in Galapagos 40% comes from maritime sources • More than 95% of plastic found on Galapagos coastlines is likely to originate from outside the Galapagos Marine Reserve

These negotiations marked the second meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-2) for the Global Plastics Treaty. The timeline is tight, and the aim is to complete negotiations by the end of 2024. This reflects the global ambition for this treaty, accelerated and supported by countries including Ecuador, Peru, the UK, Rwanda and Senegal.

Outside of the plenary room, where discussions were held until the early hours of the morning, the GCT team was busy making strong connections with key players working to tackle plastic pollution with real solutions.

GCT, along with our international research network (PPSS), was invited to share our positions at a GRULAC (Latin American countries and the Caribbean group) meeting. We also joined efforts with more than 20 NGOs and networks working in Latin America, to submit a joint statement that was read during the plenary.

The week started slowly, with seemingly endless debates on the rules of procedure, delaying delegates from discussing the actual content of the treaty. This tactic seemed to be

an attempt by countries with special interests in oil and plastic production to stall meaningful discussions and weaken the resulting treaty. Ultimately, however, the negotiations ended with some positive action. Delegates agreed to develop a ‘zero draft’ of the treaty – a full draft that will form the basis of discussions during the next round of negotiations in Nairobi in November 2023 (INC-3).

GCT is calling on world leaders to agree an ambitious, legally binding Global Plastics Treaty that addresses

Luis Vayas Valdivieso © Kiara Worth | IISD - ENB

While we were in Paris, we spoke with Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso, Ecuador’s Ambassador to the UK and one of the elected Chairs of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee.

Can you explain what has been discussed at INC-2, what will you hope to discuss at INC-3, and how we, as civil society, scientists and community groups, can support you and other delegations to build a strong and binding plastics treaty?

We are currently working on a ‘zero draft’, a text that will be used to create the future treaty. The mandate that we want from this negotiation is a text for the inter-sessional discussions. Now, the second part of your question is of great importance. Ecuador has been one of the leading countries in proposing that civil society and NGOs, and the scientific community should all participate. We already have great communication and strong links with the scientific community; they are the experts in the matter.

What we would like to see now is a formal relationship with these

stakeholders, meaning the scientific community, both during the negotiations and hopefully later on with the implementation of the treaty.

We need data, we need information, and we need more scientific evidence.

We have evidence already, but it’s still developing, and every day we know more about how dangerous plastic pollution is, both for the environment and also for human health.

We know the Ecuadorian delegation is proposing for the Global Plastics Treaty to be signed in Galapagos, and for it to be called the ‘Galapagos Treaty’. Why is it important for the world to sign this once-in-a-lifetime treaty in Galapagos?

Ecuador has received this suggestion from different organisations, and from other countries as well. As you know, Galapagos is fragile, and it is suffering like other islands in the world from plastic pollution. Ninety-six percent of the plastic pollution that we receive in the Galapagos Islands comes from abroad. Although Ecuador is making great efforts to protect the Islands, and we have specific legislation for the

social inequalities and ends plastic pollution by building an innovative circular economy rooted in evidence, that protects humans and biodiversity, and promotes human rights and environmental justice.

Our message to delegates is to lead the way towards a world free from plastic pollution. Don’t delay or hesitate, don’t wait for the treaty, be ahead of the curve. There’s no time to waste, and we need global action now.

Galapagos Islands, it is not enough.

We even have regional efforts together with Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica, with CMAR (the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor) – but unfortunately, it is still not enough. We need global solutions for global problems, and this is a global problem.

Treaties, conventions and agreements are always signed in a distinctive and representative place. We have the Stockholm Convention, the Basel Convention, the Rotterdam Convention, we have the Paris Agreement on climate change, so we have proposed that Galapagos should be the place to sign this treaty. The Galapagos Treaty is more than just a name, it is what we want to show to the international community: that we need to fight against plastic pollution to preserve places like the Galapagos Islands.

Finally, could you please tell us about the specific problem of plastic pollution from fisheries?

This is a notorious problem that we are currently making a priority in these negotiations. Fisheries, or fishing gear, are polluting the environment in alarming amounts. Here’s some data – 29% of all fishing lines that are produced end up in the oceans. Six percent of fishing nets end up in the water, accidentally or deliberately.

Almost 560 species are endangered because of the fishing gear that winds up in the ocean. We have a lot of room for improvement. There is already plenty of discussion about this, but in Ecuador, we believe there needs to be even more conversation and awareness of the problems surrounding fishing gear.

There needs to be a change in how we manufacture those items, which are produced with plastic and are severely polluting the ocean. And lastly, it is important and relevant for Galapagos to work together with fisheries, fishers and with the industry.

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Little vermilion flycatcher © Thomas Hopmann

RESTORING FLOREANA: A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE

by Kelly Hague

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ur Senior Philanthropy Manager, Kelly Hague, visited Floreana last year, and saw first-hand the fantastic impact that the Restoring Floreana project is going to have for the people and wildlife that call the island their home.

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am standing in a field on Floreana island, damp mist swirling around and the daylight quickly disappearing, as I photograph a bearded man in his new cow shed.

A busload of people is waiting for me, wondering why I said I needed

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photographs before it got dark. I am so excited to be here with this man. I would never have imagined that this would be one of the highlights of my first trip to Galapagos!

Claudio Cruz explains how the Restoring Floreana project has paid to

build this new shed. He has put some of his own money into it as well to make it bigger. This empty, lifeless structure embodies his hopes of a better future.

Claudio is not ‘just’ a farmer. He represents many people, on Floreana, in Galapagos and living far from

interest in their small island, but thank goodness, as this is what is needed.

Floreana has been recognised as one of the most important island restoration projects in the world.

I was personally involved in work to eradicate rats and mice from the island of South Georgia, another globally important project, and I know of the success of previous eradication projects in Galapagos and elsewhere. Bird populations can very quickly ‘jump’ back. On Rabida in Galapagos, the Rabida gecko, thought to be extinct, was rediscovered. I want my working life to make as big a difference in global conservation terms as possible. I know that Floreana is a project that can do this and at the very least could help the 55 endangered species on this island.

I leave the small town determined to continue trying to help Claudio, Felipe’s memory, and everyone else involved.

And deeply grateful for all of the GCT supporters who are, and have been, involved in this vital work.

Kelly with Claudio Cruz in his cow shed © Kelly Hague

this island, who have been tirelessly plotting, planning, and working to reverse the terrible destruction that has been causing havoc to Floreana for many, many years. And one of the main driving forces behind the original idea was Claudio’s brother, Felipe Cruz.

From the 1980s until his sad death in 2018, Floreana-born Felipe became a passionate advocate for conservation in Galapagos, inspiring many who met him. He was distressed at the demise of local wildlife thanks to goats, pigs, donkeys, rats and cats, which had all been brought to Floreana by humans, and he witnessed these invasive species devouring the eggs and young of birds, snakes and turtles, eating seeds and plants found nowhere else, destroying habitat and trampling nests. Twelve species have become extinct on this one island, with another 55 highly threatened.

I finish taking my photographs and we climb into the truck. As we drive back down to the small town, Claudio reminisces.

“As children we used to ride down this road, which was a dirt track back then, on a donkey, and have competitions to see who could spot the most vermilion flycatchers on the way – I might see 20, my brother or whoever was with me, perhaps 21. I have nice memories of watching vermilions hunting up and down.”

Sadly, this beautiful red bird is now extinct from Floreana, but the project team is looking at the feasibility of reintroducing it, along with the other 11 locally extinct species, once the rats and feral cats are gone.

But there are other important reasons why the restoration of Floreana means so much to him and other locals. “The feral goats, pigs and donkeys have been sorted – it is now just the rats and cats that are left. We spend a lot of money poisoning rats as they destroy crops and corn.“ Claudio’s cows are now fenced in, no longer roaming free across the island and devastating precious habitat. Other farmers will be doing the same in the following months, with more livestock enclosures built. Claudio explained that he currently needs one hectare for one cow. “After the baiting, I should be able to have 30 cows per hectare as I’ll be able to grow feed for them, without it being destroyed by rats.” My jaw dropped.

“All my harvest should be successful so I will have more income. Species will be reintroduced, and more tourists will want to visit Floreana to see them.”

He is excited to perhaps one day see Floreana tortoises roaming across the island, fulfilling their important role as natural dispersers of seeds. He would love to see large ground finches. Many older locals would be excited to see the beautiful red vermilion flycatcher, now just a childhood memory.

“Thirty-eight years ago, I saw the last large ground finches. A couple of them.

I feel very privileged.”

As I leave, Claudio expresses his deep thanks to everyone at GCT and to our supporters and project partners, who are helping to change the lives of people on Floreana by restoring their beloved home. It must feel strange for them to have such international

As children we used to ride down this road, which was a dirt track back then, on a donkey, and have competitions to see who could spot the most vermilion flycatchers on the way – I might see 20, my brother or whoever was with me, perhaps 21.

I have nice memories of watching vermilions hunting up and down.

Large ground finch © Tim & Kate Bradley

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SUPPORTER NEWS

Over halfway through 2023 and nine months into our new strategy, all of us at GCT are excited by the prospects for the rest of the year and beyond. We have a new CEO, a new website, our 2024 cruises are almost full and you, our supporters, continue to amaze us with your generosity and fundraising endeavours.

Our 2023 Raffle: Win a Galapagos cruise and other fabulous prizes!

For our 2023 raffle we have again secured some amazing prizes! Tickets – costing just £3 each – are on sale from now until 19 October, and we will hold the draw just after our Galapagos Day event. You can buy tickets online at galapagosconservation.org.uk/raffle or via the back form of this magazine.

Please note that, as part of our ongoing commitment to reducing our paper usage, once again we won’t be sending out books of tickets.

We’re so very grateful to all our partners and the companies who have donated prizes, so please buy lots of tickets to help us deliver our conservation work and save Galapagos’ precious wildlife!

1st Prize: Luxury Galapagos Cruise from Metropolitan Touring worth $11,286 (a double cabin for two people onboard Yacht La Pinta for a 4-night, 5-day itinerary). Sailings depart every 10 days. © Metropolitan Touring

Changes to our membership fees A few months ago we took the difficult but necessary decision to increase prices across some of our membership categories, the first time we have increased our fees since 2014. This small increase is needed to help cover the rising costs of printing all the materials and servicing memberships.

Membership is a vital source of income for GCT and your membership fees are fundamental to helping deliver critical conservation work in Galapagos. We are immensely grateful to all of you who have been long-standing members and support us through our appeals, adoptions, online shop purchases and raising funds in other ways.

Our new regular membership categories are as follows: Galapagos Friend: £4 per month or £48 per year Galapagos Protector: £6 per month or £72 per year Galapagos Benefactor: £9 per month or £108 per year For supporters who are able to give a little more, we also have a Galapagos Friend for Life category for £600, or you might consider becoming a Galapagos Guardian for £2,000. All these categories come with a range of benefits. If you would like to discuss your membership, or would like to join GCT, please contact ryan@gct.org

GCT Cruises

2nd Prize: Nikon PROSTAFF P7 10 x42 Binoculars (worth £259) 3rd Prize: Craghoppers £200 Voucher to spend on their clothing and accessories Other raffle prizes donated by: Rhyme & Reason, Big Wild Thought, M&S, Crocodiles of the World, Booby, Colchester Zoo

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GALAPAGOS MATTERS

After the success of our 2022 cruise, we arranged a GCT supporter cruise for June/July 2024. This sold out so quickly that we put together another cruise for June 2024 which is also now almost full, with one cabin remaining. Find out more: bit.ly/GalapagosConservationTrustCruise Please contact kelly@gct.org if you would like more information on the 2024 cruise, or if you would like to be informed as soon as any future cruises are organised. These cruises are a special opportunity to not only see the wonders of Galapagos, but to meet local conservationists, visit GCT projects and contribute to saving the wildlife you will witness during your visit.

New GCT website!

Fundraising

Those of you who are regular visitors to our website, or who receive our monthly eNewsletter, will have noticed that we have recently launched a new website. We worked with Studio Republic, a small web agency that specialises in developing websites for charities and non-profits, with a focus on usability and accessibility. We have listened to your feedback from various surveys, and we hope you will agree that the new site is modern, easy to navigate and full of inspiring content, with an improved donation and shopping experience. Importantly for us, it will also be much easier to maintain and update. Visit galapagosconservation.org.uk and let us know what you think!

Ecuadorian artist Diana Mercado donated a clutch bag with her painting, Baile de Inmigrante, created by acclaimed British designer, Anya Hindmarch, for a raffle to benefit GCT. The bag was raffled off at The Gallery at Green & Stone in Fulham in May and over £600 was raised for GCT. A huge thank you to Diana, the lovely team at Green & Stone and Anya Hindmarch.

Crocodiles of the World – the only zoo in the UK to breed Galapagos giant tortoises, based near Burford in Oxfordshire – is a proud supporter of GCT. Their giant tortoise exhibit remains one of the most popular displays (along with the tortoises’ year-old offspring), and the Giant Tortoise Experiences are as popular as ever. The team is looking forward to more involvement and collaboration with GCT in the years to come and supporting giant tortoise conservation work. crocodilesoftheworld.co.uk Iguanas From Above © Amy MacLeod

Iguanas From Above Phase 3 of Iguanas From Above is now live! This innovative project combines drone technology with citizen science to monitor the health of marine iguana populations in Galapagos. It is difficult to collect data on marine iguanas with traditional field methods, due to the remote, rocky and often inaccessible sites most colonies live in, so the project team has been using drones to photograph the coastlines of the Islands remotely.

Individual photos are then uploaded to Zooniverse, a web portal for citizen science. Here, public volunteers can join scientists in analysing the photos for the presence of marine iguanas, other wildlife and plastic pollution. Anyone with a phone or laptop and an internet connection can take part, and the project needs your help – why not take part and join a community of over 6,000 other volunteers!

Artist David Pollock is supporting GCT by donating the profits from his new book, Galápagos Sketchbook, which is filled with beautiful watercolour illustrations and sketches of the Archipelago’s unique wildlife. The book is a replica of the sketchbook that he has carried with him everywhere for the past three decades, and features species including giant tortoises, blue-footed boobies and marine iguanas.

iguanasfromabove.com

davidpollockartist.co.uk

© Crocodiles of the World

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GLOBAL RELEVANCE

GALAPAGOS AND THE ANTARCTIC: A LOOK BENEATH THE SURFACE

by Jonathan Green

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isitors to the tropical Galapagos Islands are frequently reminded of the connectivity this remote island ecosystem has with a much more frigid part of our planet: Antarctica.

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ot simply because we find penguins on the Equator – the endemic Galapagos penguin – but because of the abundance of coldwater species, found particularly in the western and southern areas of the Archipelago. These waters are enriched and cooled by ocean currents that almost certainly have their origins in the far south, quite possibly the deep Weddell Sea. No matter how isolated an island ecosystem may appear, global connectivity through ocean currents and atmospheric circulation demonstrates how our planet is a single global entity, where cause and effect are felt in every part of the Earth.

Galapagos is not only enriched by the upwelling of nutrient-abundant waters; many of its resident and visiting species hail from the Southern Ocean.

The aforementioned penguins, the Galapagos fur seal, the waved albatross and the humpback whale either have their origins here or are seasonal visitors travelling between the two areas.

Countless smaller marine vertebrates, along with invertebrates and marine algae, are swept north to the Equator

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Galapagos penguin © Jonathan Green

GALAPAGOS MATTERS

by the Humboldt current. Huge plankton blooms occur as the cold nutrient-rich waters from the south meet the warm tropical waters of the north.

This not only creates a massive food source for all marine life, but also plays a crucial role in climatic balance and change. Phytoplankton remove carbon directly from the atmosphere, which is then consumed and sequestered by filter feeders, and progressively through the food chain by apex predators such as sharks. Blue carbon, as this oceanic carbon storage is now known, is fast becoming the focus of climate change mitigation efforts, as the ability of the oceans to absorb anthropogenic carbon, from activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, far exceeds that of the land.

For over two decades I have led expedition travel to Antarctica, both on land and underwater, and I have worked as a scientist in Galapagos for three decades. During this time I have seen changes and challenges in both regions, such as the dangers of introduced species that can so easily arrive on vessels, or even in the tread of a hiking boot in the case of invasive

plants or pathogens. Or avian flu, which has caused mass die out of both domestic and wild bird populations around the world, and which could so easily be spread by visitors to either of these fragile places.

The question as to why we then continue with tourism to either area is often discussed, but the answer is quite simple. In Galapagos over 97% of the local population lives directly or indirectly from tourism. The alternative would be large-scale fishing, which, as we have seen worldwide, is hugely destructive on so many levels. For Antarctica, mining and extracting the untapped resources (already a point of focus for the Sauron-like eye of industrial mining corporations and governments) would bring disastrous consequences.

We will never protect what we don’t know or understand. Education through experience, combined with scientific research, is the only way that active conservation and resource management will provide alternatives to activities such as industrial fishing and mining.

EVENTS

For more information about events, to book tickets or register your interest in attending, simply visit galapagosconservation.org.uk/events or call us on 020 7399 7440.

GALAPAGOS DAY

19 October 2023, 7.30-10pm (doors open at 6.30pm) Royal Geographical Society, London Join us at the Royal Geographical Society for the 2023 edition of Galapagos Day, where we will be exploring the theme of rewilding in Galapagos.

Tickets are now on sale for £15 (£10 for students). Buy yours via the back form of this magazine or online at galapagosconservation.org.uk/galapagos-day-2023

We will enjoy an evening of fascinating talks from speakers including Professor Alastair Driver, Director of Rewilding Britain, Birgit Fessl, Coordinator of the Galapagos Land Bird Conservation Plan at the Charles Darwin Foundation, and GCT Ambassador Dr Sarah Darwin, of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. We will hear about projects including the restoration of Floreana island and efforts to save iconic bird species like the little vermilion flycatcher and the Critically Endangered mangrove finch, with the chance to network and meet our speakers and staff after the talks.

GALAPAGOS MERCHANDISE New! Alberto the Waved Albatross storybook

Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, we are excited to launch our brand new children’s storybook, which is the third in our series of Galapagos Journeys connecting land, air and sea. The book, aimed at primary school children (7-11 years old) in both the UK and Galapagos, addresses conservation challenges including plastic pollution and overfishing, and is bilingual in English and Spanish. Order online at galapagosconservation.org.uk/shop or via the payment form at the back of this magazine for just £10.

2024 Galapagos calendar

Our stunning 2024 Galapagos wildlife calendar is now available to pre-order.

Filled with amazing photos of the unique and wonderful wildlife of Galapagos, including the winner of our 2023 photography competition.

Only £10!

The calendar is kindly sponsored by Latin Routes.

Christmas cards

All cards read: “Seasons Greetings | Felices Fiestas’ and come in packs of ten with envelopes.

Each design is £5 a pack or £9 for two.

Order these and other Galapagos merchandise using the form on the back page, by calling us on 020 7399 7440, or online at galapagosconservation.org.uk/shop

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PAYMENT FORM There are several easy ways to place an order or donate in support of our work.

1. Via our website galapagosconservation.org.uk 2. By telephone on 020 7399 7440 3. By completing the details on both sides of this form and returning with your preferred payment method using the FREEPOST envelope provided.

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JOIN US Want to become a GCT member, or know someone who may like to join? From as little as £4 per month, you can support our ongoing efforts to preserve and protect these incredible Islands and their wildlife. Members receive monthly email newsletters with the latest Galapagos news and information about GCT projects and events, biannual copies of Galapagos Matters magazine, an exclusive GCT pin badge and priority booking for events. You can find out more online at galapagosconservation.org.uk/ membership, by emailing gct@gct.org or contacting us on 020 7399 7440. Alternatively fill in your contact details above and tick the following box: Yes I would like to join, please contact me.

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Tessa the Giant Tortoise: A Galapagos Journey book

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Marti the Hammerhead Shark: A Galapagos Journey book

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New! Bradt Guides: Galapagos Wildlife 2023 book

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Galapagos Crusoes: A Year Alone with the Birds book

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The Galapagos: A Natural History by Henry Nicholls

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Galapagos sea lion

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calloped S hammerhead shark

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Galapagos penguin

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Floreana mockingbird

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To see our full range of adoptions, including our digital adoptions, head to bit.ly/GCT-adoptions

Postage & Packaging Charges

UK

International

All orders

£3

£15

Total Price £

TOTAL All donations will go towards supporting conservation in Galapagos.

Calendars are available to pre-order and will be dispatched once they have been printed.

JOIN US FOR...

GALAPAGOS DAY Thursday 19 October 2023 6:30 - 10pm Royal Geographical Society, London Tickets £15 / Students £10

INTRODUCING OUR SPEAKERS!

Professor Alastair Driver Rewilding Britain

Dr Birgit Fessl Charles Darwin Foundation

Dr Sarah Darwin

Museum für Naturkunde Berlin

For more information and to buy tickets please scan the QR code or visit our website

bit.ly/GalapagosDay2023Tickets

Photo credits L-R: © Luis Ortiz Catedral, Enzo Reyes, Claire Cockcroft, Chris Moakes, Carlos Cuenca Solana