25 November 2020, Quito—To face the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Galapagos Islands, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) together with the Government Council of Galapagos, the University of San Francisco de Quito and the local organization ‘Insular Front of the Galapagos Marine Reserve’, launched today the crowdfunding campaign ‘Save the Galapagos Islands: Empower its people’, to support the economic recovery of the Island´s inhabitants through reactivation of employment and training opportunities.

Travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have depleted the economy of the Galapagos Islands which is a highly tourism-dependent economy. 80% of its population work on tourism, welcoming 250,000 visitors per year. This could affect the vulnerable ecosystems of this UNESCO Heritage Site, threatening the conservation efforts of its unique biodiversity. In addition, this emergency exacerbates pre-existing inequalities and vulnerabilities among local people.

Matilde Mordt, UNDP Resident Representative in Ecuador invited the international community to participate and support the initiative by highlighting the role of the local community: “Behind the Galapagos Islands, there are people. Brave guardians who protect flora and fauna with their work and dedication. Help us guarantee a quality of life, decent work and environmental protection of the world’s most important living laboratory of biodiversity by empowering its people”.

Thanks to this call to action and donations on the Campaign’s Website https://savegalapagosislands.com/, organizers hope to reach at least $100,000 to develop a project in 3 phases: 1) emergency support to recover the population's livelihoods through a "cash for work" mechanism, providing urgent income for local men and women and ecological protection of the archipelago; 2) a “cash for training” process where participants will get access to a training program on digital marketing channels, financial advice, new payment methods, good environmental practices in their business, among other relevant topics; 3) improve or create small business ideas to strengthen entrepreneurship capacities in the community.

During the crowdfunding campaign’s presentation, held on Facebook Live, and conducted by Onno van den Heuvel, Global Manager of UNDP-GEF Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), Midori Paxton, Global Head of Ecosystems and Biodiversity at UNDP, alluding UN Secretary General’s words, said that we need to rebuild our relationship with nature. She also stressed: “protection of nature is protecting human rights”.

Luis Felipe López-Calva, Regional Director of the UNDP Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, invited everyone to support the campaign and stated that the recovery of Galapagos must be done in an inclusive and environmentally friendly way.

“The greatest strategy for conservation is to invest on people”, said Norman Wray, President of the Government Council of the Galapagos Islands. “People are suffering, and they want to be involved in conservation. It’s a collective call to action and Galapagos is still an example of how to preserve life, and how conservation, economy, life and people can live together”, he added.

Alberto Andrade, President of the Insular Front of the Galapagos Marine Reserve underlined the role of the community to inspire and make possible a real change to protect nature: “If you invest in people you invest in conservation. Our goal is to live nature in a different way, take care of it and set an example to others. It is a great opportunity to forge a great alliance between the community and institutions to protect nature against illegal fishing, plastics, overfishing and other issues”.

The keynote speaker of the launch was Yolanda Kakabadse, Ecuadorian conservationist and member of the Team of Experts for the Protection Strategy for the Galapagos. She reminded the audience that the pandemic of COVID-19 is a consequence of alteration of ecosystems, and that we need to make a big effort to protect nature and doing it a partner of life.

“Acting now in protecting the Galapagos, in developing the necessary tools to recover the balance in nature, is a must. It should not only be a wish. It is an obligation”, she pointed out.

To conclude, she shared some lessons of the current pandemic: “the planet can collapse; we need to take science as basis for decisions and policies; it´s important to reflect on GDP, economic growth versus development; and that nature can recuperate if we give it a chance”.

“We cannot afford to be pessimist”, she ended.

There are different ways to support the initiative:

• By visiting and donating on the Website: www.savegalapagosislands.com  
  
• By a direct contribution to the project through UNDP
• By sharing content of the campaign on social media with the hashtag                                 #ActivateGalapagos and among personal and professional contacts

To see the campaign launch, click here.

For additional information, please contact José Martino or Juan Sebastián Gómez in Quito at comunicacion.ecuador@undp.org  or +593 99500 6899 - +593 98718 1910

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