While Galapagos’ natural ecosystem is unique and varied, so too is the Archipelago’s organisational ecosystem. Discover why organisational development is key to securing a safe future for the Islands.
While Galapagos’ natural ecosystem is unique and varied, so too is the Archipelago’s organisational ecosystem. A diverse mix of local, national and international organisations aim to help build scientific knowledge, conserve biodiversity and further sustainable development aims for the Island’s nature and people.
As an international NGO, we carefully assess our niche in this social ecosystem, striving to add value to existing efforts, championing under-represented causes and building positive outcomes through the power of partnerships and networks.
An important component of GCT’s approach to conservation in Galapagos is supporting organisational development. Without strong local organisations and robust social movements ready to call out poor practices and champion solutions, conservation wins can easily flounder or be reversed. And who better to advocate for and implement conservation actions for the Archipelago than the communities that reside there.
Organisational development takes a holistic view of an organisation and how it runs, from the essential back-room operations such as financial management and human resources, to how an organisation engages with and communicates to its audiences, brings in essential funding and delivers and tracks its impact. It asks the question: what areas of the business need strengthening to help us deliver our impact even more effectively? These elements are critical to success, yet are so often over-looked or under-valued in the support that NGOs and other organisations require.
Like the natural world, the conservation community and its funders are in constant evolution. New threats and challenges arise, innovations are found, and the conservation community strives to continually improve how our actions are generating positive outcomes whilst safeguarding against negative ones, all whilst considering transparency, good governance, diversity and inclusion and many other things.
As we celebrate 30 years of GCT, and look ahead to the next 30 years, we ask some of our friends and local partners what they want Galapagos to look like in the year 2050.
GCT sees organisational development not as a one-way street, not a simple donor-recipient relationship, in fact, far from it. This is a joint learning journey that we go on together with our partners, acknowledging the value in sharing and exchanging experience, knowledge, skills, insights, tools and approaches.
In 2022, GCT started its support to organisational development with Fundacion un Cambio por la Vida (FUNCAVID) thanks to vital funding support from the UK Government’s Darwin Initiative Capability and Capacity fund. This enabled the establishment of the Co-Galapagos initiative, that offers an internship scheme for young islanders, along with internal policies and manuals that help underpin transparency and accountability which are vital in an organisation. In 2024, with GCT’s support, four internships for local residents were funded through Co-Galapagos, which focused on environmental education, improving food security and developing circular economies to reduce plastic waste production.
In 2024, we are starting a three-year collaboration with Frente Insular de la Reserva Marina Galapagos (FIRMAG), a local NGO formed in 2017 as a grassroots collective rooted in volunteer action. This support has already enabled the creation of their website, a database of their projects and actions to date, policies and procedures to strengthen their internal operations, safeguarding improvements for their volunteers and additional specialist support for financial management.
FIRMAG’s capacity to communicate with the population of Galapagos and mobilise action is second to none. They act at pace and with so much agility, while staying informed. GCT can learn so much from them at the same time as supporting their organisational progress.
If you invest in the community, believe me, you are investing in ideas that will protect the environment because we want to protect our home. Alberto Andrade
With new funders coming online for Galapagos that recognise the importance of community-led efforts, such as the Galapagos Life Fund, we hope that our efforts will contribute towards local organisations building successful cases for financial support that result in strong and lasting pipelines of action that will benefit Galapagos’ nature and people far into the future, and that as GCT, we also grow and develop to be as impactful and effective as possible, as we move forwards together, adding value to each other’s efforts.
In 2025, GCT celebrates its 30th anniversary. Over these years we have grown and evolved, keeping at its core the value of collaboration. This year, we have also been looking ahead to 2030, refreshing our strategy and putting in place the resources and processes we need to continue growing our impact in Galapagos. This has included registering as an international NGO in Ecuador, a move which we have been considering for some time and will ensure we can continue to collaborate with the authorities and our partners on the Islands and play our part in protecting the Galapagos for decades to come.
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.
