How You Can Save the Galapagos Islands

Although O.A.R.S. does not offer whitewater rafting trips to the Galapagos Islands, they do offer 11-day sea-kayaking trips, 10-day multi-sport trips, as well as 10-day sailing trips to these enchanted islands.

If you are fortunate enough to be one of O.A.R.S.’ Galapagos Islands vacationers, you can be instrumental in protecting the area’s priceless natural heritage!

The Galapagos Islands face serious threats to their unique biodiversity. In 2007, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre placed them on their list of World Heritage Sites in Danger.  In response these threats, the International Galapagos Tour Operators Association (IGTOA) has launched a new education and funding program to help meet the challenge of lasting protection for the islands.

The program is designed to help travelers understand the serious issues facing Galapagos, and how travelers themselves can be part of the solution. Visitors to the islands can provide critical financial support for scientific research and conservation and follow best practices during their travel.

An important part of the program is a series of six videos, produced by IGTOA for prospective travelers. A documentary video, "Challenges Facing Galapagos," uses interviews with scientists and conservationists to detail specific threats, which include an invasion of alien species of plants, animals, microbes, and humans. The growth of tourism and permanent settlements threaten to overwhelm conservation efforts.

Four other videos show best practices for travelers during their visit to the islands and sound environmental practices their boats should follow. Travelers are encouraged to be the eyes and ears for conservation and report problems that they see during their trip.

The videos are available to travelers who book trips with participating IGTOA members. O.A.R.S. is professionally committed to the cultural and environmental well being of the places they visit and where they operate.  O.A.R.S. supports IGTOA.  Travelers can learn more about participating companies by visiting the IGTOA web site:  www.igtoa.org.

Travelers who sign up with an IGTOA member that participates in the funding program will be asked to make a voluntary donation. A significant portion of funds raised goes to the Charles Darwin Foundation. Startup funding for the program has been supplied by Conservation International.

The Galapagos Islands, which Charles Darwin visited on a voyage as a young man, were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. The Galapagos Marine Reserve was added in 2001. The islands are home to plants and animals found nowhere else on earth, including giant tortoises, from which the islands get their name. They lie about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean.

IGTOA is a nonprofit association of travel companies, conservation organizations, and other groups that are dedicated to the lasting protection of the Galapagos Islands and the surrounding Marine Reserve. It has members worldwide in the U.S., Ecuador, Canada, UK, France, Australia, New Zealand.

The launch of the videos and the new funding effort by IGTOA coincide with several important anniversaries in 2009: the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth; the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book, On the Origin of Species; the 50th anniversary of the Galapagos National Park; and the 50th anniversary of the Charles Darwin Foundation.

International Galapagos Tour Operators Association

Written by Tracy

Writer, Photographer, former Waterblogged Editor