We have celebrated some amazing conservation success stories over the last three decades, and we are incredibly proud of what we have achieved with your help.
It is no exaggeration to say that, without the conservation projects that GCT and our many partners have supported over the last 30 years, we would have seen more extinctions, fewer fish in the ocean, weaker environmental protections and a growing disconnection between people and nature in the Archipelago.
Instead we can celebrate whole islands cleared of invasive species, an expanded marine reserve, pioneering legislation to protect the Islands, and an incredible community of Galapagos-born conservation leaders, researchers and educators who we just know are going to do amazing things over the next 30 years. Real change starts at the grassroots, and the seeds you have helped us to plant in Galapagos are only just getting going.
Galapagos Conservation Trust was officially launched on 5 April 1995 at the Royal Society. Some 250 people attended, including Sir David Attenborough, David Bellamy (GCT’s first President), the Ecuadorian Ambassador, four former directors of the Charles Darwin Research Station, several MPs and 10 descendants of Charles Darwin.
Our first ever Galapagos Day was held on 16 September 1996 at the Natural History Museum in London, celebrating the success of a campaign to save Down House, Darwin’s former home.
The Special Law for Galapagos created the Galapagos Marine Reserve and provided a new legal framework for the Archipelago. We supported the development and implementation of the Special Law, which governs aspects of island life including immigration control and fisheries management.
Our showpiece event of the year has taken place in a number of different locations over the years, including London Zoo, the Royal Geographical Society, Imperial College and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, online. Past speakers have included Sir David Attenborough, David Bellamy, Ben Fogle, Andrew Marr, Liz Bonnin, Stanley Johnson, Monty Halls and Dame Diana Rigg.
HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, attended Galapagos Day at the Royal Geographical Society in 2001. Prince Philip visited the Galapagos Islands three times, in 1964, 1971 and in 1988, and was a generous supporter of GCT for many years.
In 2001 we also held our first ever Galapagos photography competition, won by Polly Tatum for her photo of a male frigatebird.
We celebrated a big success for Project Isabela, as Santiago island was declared pig-free. Meanwhile, sharks were the theme at Galapagos Day, with a talk from Peter Benchley, author of the book Jaws (and scriptwriter for the film)!
The first ever GCT supporter cruise was organised by Cazenove + Lloyd, hosted by GCT Director Leonor Stjepic, Darwin descendant and GCT Ambassador Randal Keynes, and guest of honour Dame Diana Rigg.
We celebrated our tenth anniversary with a special ‘Dining with the Darwins’ event at the historic Livery Hall of the Drapers’ Company in the City of London. By the end of our first decade we had spent £1.7m on support for conservation in Galapagos.
The first shark tagging expeditions took place in Galapagos, tagging 18 hammerheads, three Galapagos sharks and one whale shark, the first steps in building up the evidence that would eventually lead to the expansion of the Marine Reserve nearly 20 years later.
When Canadian entomologist Bernard Landry and his colleague Lazaro Roque found a number of moth species in Galapagos that they could not identify, they needed to refer to the most important collection in the world, at the Natural History Museum in London, to find out whether the species were new to science. GCT funded their visit to London, and Bernard’s way of saying thank you was to name one of the new moth species that they discovered Caloptilia galacotra after GCT (‘gala’ from Galapagos, ‘co’ from ‘Conservation’, and ‘tr’ from ‘Trust’).
Following the success of Project Isabela, in 2007 Project Pinzon was initiated to eradicate invasive rats from Pinzon island, led by Island Conservation and the Galapagos National Park Directorate. GCT provided financial support for a ten-day international workshop focusing on the problem of introduced rodents.
In 2007 GCT also launched a campaign to raise awareness of the threats to sharks in the Galapagos Marine Reserve, and teamed up with other UK-based organisations to call for a ban on the import of shark fins to Britain (something that was finally achieved in 2023 with the introduction of the Shark Fins Act).
GCT began funding the Charles Darwin Foundation’s Philornis downsi research project. This invasive parasitic fly is the single biggest threat to Galapagos land birds.
GCT participated in a number of events to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth. Our ‘Donate a Darwin’ campaign encouraged people to donate a £10 note (which featured a portrait of Charles Darwin at the time) to save the Floreana mockingbird. GCT Ambassador Sarah Darwin was presented with a giant tenner by Andrew Bailey, Chief Cashier (and now Governor) of the Bank of England.
At Christ’s College, Cambridge, we held a dinner for 70 guests to celebrate the anniversary, with speakers including Sir David Attenborough, GCT President Andrew Marr and Floreana-born conservationist Felipe Cruz.
Initial work on the project to restore Floreana island began in 2009, and GCT also helped to launch the Galapagos Tortoise Movement Ecology Programme.
Together with the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galapagos National Park Directorate, GCT began supporting the long-term monitoring of Galapagos penguins and flightless cormorants.
We also collaborated with WWF to facilitate recycling initiatives on two of Galapagos’ inhabited islands, including a waste oil recycling programme to prevent the contamination of waterways.
Controlling the spread of invasive species is a high priority in Galapagos, and we funded a project pioneered by our Ambassador Godfrey Merlen to install UV insect zappers on boats to prevent the spread of insects between islands.
I urge you to support Galapagos Conservation Trust, which is working to increase ocean protection, restore biodiversity and build climate resilience across the Islands.
As part of the continued fight against the invasive fly Philornis downsi, we supported the refurbishment of the insect laboratory at the Charles Darwin Research Station and helped to fund an international workshop on control methods for Philornis, which resulted in the development of a five-year management plan.
The initial phase of Project Pinzon was declared a success, with the island cleared of invasive rats. This laid the foundation for the recovery of the island’s giant tortoise population, and its natural recolonisation by the Galapagos rail and cactus finch.
We launched our Discovering Galapagos educational programme in both the UK and Galapagos, helping to catalyse interest and stewardship among the next generation of conservation ambassadors.
In 2014 we also began supporting two projects which are still a key focus more than a decade later – the Galapagos Whale Shark Project, which is piecing together the story of how these enigmatic ocean giants behave, and the Mangrove Finch Project, which is working to save one of the world’s rarest birds from extinction.
We supported the launch of the Galapagos Bullhead Shark Project, investigating an almost ‘forgotten’ species about which very little was known, and we funded the first ever Shark Day community engagement event on San Cristobal.
We launched our flagship Plastic Pollution Free Galapagos programme, looking at the sources and impacts of the growing influx of plastic waste in Galapagos, as well as mapping out the solutions.
GCT started supporting research into the Cocos-Galapagos Swimway, a key migratory route for marine species including sharks, sea turtles and whales.
We also continued to develop our work on plastic pollution by holding a four-day ‘Science to Solutions’ workshop in Galapagos.
Beginning in January 2019, the Galapagos National Park Directorate and Island Conservation began releasing land iguanas onto Santiago, an island where they had gone extinct in the early 20th century due to the introduction of feral cats and goats. GCT supported the project for several years through funding for Dr Luis Ortiz-Catedral’s work to assess the population size and health status of land iguanas across Fernandina, Isabela and Santa Cruz islands, providing vital information for the Santiago reintroduction.
Also in 2019, GCT began supporting work to save the little vermilion flycatcher from extinction. We are helping to fund work led by the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galapagos National Park Directorate to restore native Scalesia forest, a key habitat for flycatchers in Galapagos, and reduce the threat from invasive rats and the parasitic fly Philornis.
The first in our series of educational storybooks was published in 2019 following a successful crowdfunding campaign.
Written by GCT’s Sarah Langford and beautifully illustrated by Lisa Brown, the book follows Marti, a young scalloped hammerhead shark, on her journey from Galapagos to Cocos Island, Costa Rica.
The second in our 'Galapagos Journey' series was published in 2022 after another successful crowdfunder.
Tessa's story aims to inspire children in Galapagos to connect with nature and the unique animals that they share their home with.
We completed our trilogy in 2023 with Alberto the Waved Albatross.
The book follows the story of Alberto and his partner Isabela as they overcome obstacles including industrial fishing fleets and plastic pollution.
In 2020, much of the conservation work underway in Galapagos ground to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. GCT’s Board agreed on an exceptional donation to provide essential PPE and food parcels to Galapaguenians, whilst the GCT team speedily adapted our educational materials for home learning and provided support to families to grow their own food through the Urban Family Gardening project.
We also supported the launch of Barcode Galapagos, the largest ever citizen science project on the Islands, which aims to create a genetic library of Galapagos species, and which involved training locals, including out-of-work tourist guides, to be lab and field technicians.
At the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, we brought local Galapaguenian voices to the world stage with powerful videos expressing their greatest concerns about climate change and their messages for world leaders.
Together with the University of Exeter, we launched the Pacific Plastics: Science to Solutions network, which brings together researchers, NGOs, governments and businesses across the Eastern Tropical Pacific to tackle the growing threat from plastic pollution.
We also started supporting the Co-Galapagos project in 2021, which is giving local communities the tools to take forward their own ideas for conservation and sustainable development, working towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals in Galapagos.
The new Hermandad Marine Reserve was formally established, adding 60,000 km² to the 138,000 km² of the original Galapagos Marine Reserve, and increasing the total area of Ecuador’s ocean that is protected from 13% to almost 19%. This huge win for ocean conservation was based on findings from years of research supported by GCT and partners such as the MigraMar network.
In July, Sir David Attenborough was awarded the ‘National Order of Merit’, the highest decoration granted by Ecuador, at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, at an event organised with support from GCT.
After more than a decade of preparation, the eradication of invasive predatory mammals on Floreana began, led by Island Conservation, Fundación Jocotoco and the Galapagos National Park Directorate. Support from GCT included funding for our partners Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust to protect finches and owls by holding them in aviaries while the eradication took place.
We published our landmark plastic pollution report, in collaboration with the Galapagos National Park Directorate, and presented our findings at the Rapa Nui Pacific Leaders’ Summit and the UN Global Plastics Treaty negotiations in Ottawa.
In November we revealed our newest GCT Ambassador, Sir Stephen Fry, who presented the BBC Radio 4 Appeal on our behalf, raising awareness and funds for the protection of Galapagos giant tortoises threatened by plastic pollution.
As we celebrate our 30th anniversary year, we are also looking forward, mapping out our strategy to 2030 and beyond. Key areas of focus for GCT this year include work to address the threat posed by drifting fish aggregating devices (FADs) in the Galapagos Marine Reserve; the continuing Global Plastics Treaty negotiations; the next steps in the Floreana programme; supporting moves towards a more regenerative model for tourism in Galapagos; and strengthening local capacity on the Islands, helping to train the Galapagos-born conservationists of the future.
Thank you for your incredible support in getting us to this point. We could not have done it without you.
Join us online or in person to celebrate 30 years of Galapagos Conservation Trust, with the opportunity to meet our team, our partners and fellow supporters.
