GALAPAGOS CONSERVATION TRUST
Conservation Survey

A letter from the Director of the Galapagos Conservation Trust

Dear members and supporters,

Thank you to all of you who sent back the questionnaires we sent out in November. The response was fantastic and your comments were very useful. We really value your support and feel we have an obligation to our members to do the best job we can to ensure the long term survival of the Galapagos. However, it is because of your support that we are able to do that, so your feedback is very important to us.

Thank you, also, to all those who included donations with your surveys. In January we were able to send £17,000 to support Project Isabela. This was the result of both Galapagos Day and the donations you sent in with the survey. Felipe Cruz, Technical Director of Project Isabela, who many of you met at Galapagos Day, has asked me to pass on his grateful thanks to all our members. These funds are vital to provide the start up costs for the project.

The full results of the survey will be on our website and are published elsewhere in the newsletter but I just wanted to answer some of your points.

Some of you were concerned that your guides had not understood about conservation. We share your concern and have passed these comments onto the Charles Darwin Research Station and the Galapagos National Park. These bodies are working with the local Association of Tourist Guides to improve the standard of guides.

There was also concern about what was being done to include the local people in conserving the Galapagos. Again, we share these concerns, and GCT firmly believes that it is vital that local people should be included in all decisions being made on the future of Galapagos. The Galapagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Research Station does community work but funds are scarce. One of the recent successes has been the setting up of the Participative Management Board (PMB) to act as an executive forum for advice and consultation on issues relating to the Galapagos Marine Reserve. The PMB is composed of representatives, plus advisors, from the fishing and tourist sectors, the Charles Darwin Research Station and the Galapagos National Park. Part of the funds GCT hopes to raise with the Marine Appeal will go towards strengthening and continuing this important group.

As many of you identified, children are the future of Galapagos - both in the islands themselves and as future supporters. The GCT is developing, with other partners such as Downe House, Charles Darwin Research Station, Galapagos National Park, Young People's Trust for the Environment, an education project to encourage young people to learn about Galapagos and why it is important to conserve this unique area. Funding is currently being sought to develop the project.

Many of you were worried about the increase in tourism and in people living in Galapagos. Ultimately this is a matter for the Ecuadorian government and the Special Law of Galapagos does go some way towards limiting the potential damage. GCT, through its membership of the Darwin Network, is able to make your concerns known to the Government. At the Darwin Network meetings, we are able to meet with representatives of the Ecuadorian Government. In April I was at a Darwin Network meeting and was able to take your comments with me.

A number of our members and supporters who live outside London said that they were unable to come to our events as they were always in London. We take that comment very seriously and this year are planning to organise events outside of London. We launched our Marine Appeal at The Deep in Hull (on the same day it was launched) in March and we were really pleased to meet many of our North of England members who we had not met before, and catch up again with those we had! In October we hope to organise another event at The Deep. We are also talking to the Eden Project to organise an event with them and hope to have a theatre event in Buckinghamshire in November.

We are delighted that the majority of our members and supporters think that GCT is doing a good job. However, we also accept that we could do more to raise our profile and to inform the general public about the risk to Galapagos. We have already started to work on this and many of you may have heard the BBC Radio 4 Appeal that Dame Diana Rigg kindly made on our behalf. You may also have heard our Chairman on the BBC World Service. The staff at GCT are working on building relationships with the media to encourage them to report on Galapagos. It is a long process and we face a great deal of competition but we hope to be able to report successes in the future. As part of our work of informing the public, we depend on our supporters who go out and give talks on Galapagos. Please keep on doing that - it is very important work. We also have speakers who are prepared to give talks on Galapagos so if you would like to organise an event in aid of Galapagos and want a speaker, then please contact the GCT office (telephone 020 7629 5049 or email gct@gct.org).

I want to end by saying again how much we appreciated you taking time to fill out this survey. Without your support GCT would not be able to do the work it does and your concerns, thoughts and ideas are of utmost importance to us. If you are ever in London, then please do consider dropping into the office. My staff and I will be delighted to meet with you. I also look forward to meeting you at Galapagos Day on 22nd October 2002.

With best wishes,
Leonor Stjepic
Director

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