Photo: Juan Pablo Muñoz
Since 2011, the Galapagos Science Center has been a hub of collaborative research and education spanning many disciplines. With your support we can expand our research footprint, offer more students opportunities to gain an impactful global experience, and continue to tackle the grand challenges of our time. We currently have three areas of pressing need and value donations at any level!
Gifts to the Galapagos Science Center will allow us to enhance our equipment to conduct cutting-edge science such as DNA sequencing of endemic species and ongoing water quality monitoring to better understand impacts on both animal and human health. Gifts will also help expand the first comprehensive Galapagos Biobank, which is preserving the genetic resources of existing biodiversity. Your support is ultimately helping to protect and conserve the Galapagos for generations to come!
Knowledge is key to inspire the next generation of leaders to protect our planet and inform policymakers to make key decisions to empower sustainable and resilient ocean communities around the world. A gift to the Galapagos Science Center will help fund new research around pressing topics such as plastic pollution, food security, global public health, and climate change. Your support would enable young researchers the means to travel internationally and opportunities for local students to acquire the knowledge and leadership skills to address challenges facing Galapagos and the world.
Scientific research is most meaningful when it engages with the larger community, and gifts to our Galapagos Science Center will allow us to continue our long-term commitment to the people and communities of Galapagos. We work with all local schools on San Cristobal Island and help train our next generation of scientists through environmental education, providing small grants for community members, and citizen science projects that allow us to address key issues faced by Galapagos families and better serve the community.
$50 – Science Kit for local community kids (Science Club)
$100 – Local transportation to field sites for researchers and students to develop fieldwork
$250 – Support environmental education through reading sessions at local elementary schools
$300 – Expand ongoing citizen science activities to help involve local community in preserving this precious ecosystem
$350 – Provide much needed supplies for testing water quality at the Galapagos Science Center
$500 – Fund field excursions for local girls to spark their interest in science
$750 – Conduct molecular testing of biological samples for the first ever Galapagos Biobank
$1k – Enable student field trips to conduct ocean data collection and measurements in the Galapagos Marine Reserve
$5k – Allow travel & housing for two students for two weeks in the Galapagos Islands, working on science and education projects
For more information about supporting the GSC, please contact:
Amanda Thompson | althomps@email.unc.edu
In 2022, the Galapagos Science Center (GSC) and the broader UNC & USFQ Galapagos Initiative will celebrate its 10th Anniversary. We are proud to announce the World Summit on Island Sustainability scheduled to be held on June 26–30, 2022 at the Galapagos Science Center and the Community Convention Center on San Cristobal Island.
The content of the World Summit will be distributed globally through social media and results documented through papers published in a book written as part of the Galapagos Book Series by Springer Nature and edited by Steve Walsh (UNC) & Carlos Mena (USFQ) as well as Jill Stewart (UNC) and Juan Pablo Muñoz (GSC/USC). The book will be inclusive and accessible by the broader island community including scientists, managers, residents, tourists, and government and non-government organizations.
While the most obvious goal of organizing the World Summit on Island Sustainability is to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the GSC and the UNC-USFQ Galapagos Initiative, other goals will be addressed through special opportunities created as part of our operational planning of the World Summit.
For instance, we seek to elevate and highlight the Galapagos in the island conservation discourse, seeking to interact with other island networks in more obvious and conspicuous ways to benefit the Galapagos Islands, the UNC-USFQ Galapagos Initiative, and the world. We will seize the opportunity to further develop the I2N2 – International Islands Network-of-Networks. Further, we wish to highlight and emphasize multiple visions of a sustainable future for the Galapagos Islands and we cannot do this alone. Therefore, engaging the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Tourism, the Government Council of Galapagos, the Galapagos National Park, and local Galapagos authorities, including government and non-government organizations and local citizen groups, is imperative.
Borrowing from Hawaii’s and Guam’s Green Growth Program and the Global Island Partnership, we wish to examine existing global programs that emphasize island sustainability and their incorporation into life, policies, and circumstances in the Galapagos Islands. We will also seek to enhance our connections with the institutional members of our International Galapagos Science Consortium and expand the Consortium through the recruitment of other member institutions. We will also work to benefit islands and their local communities by working with citizen groups as well as important NGOs who seek to improve the natural conditions in the Galapagos and diminish the impact of the human dimension on the future of Galapagos’ ecosystems.
Lastly, we will use the World Summit to benefit UNC & USFQ and our constituencies through a strong and vibrant communication plan about the World Summit, creating corporate relationships as sponsors, identifying funding goals through donors, and benefiting our study abroad program for student engagement in the Galapagos Islands. We plan to develop and issue a Galapagos Sustainability Communique after the World Summit that includes the vision and insights of all its participants for a sustainable Galapagos with applicability to global island settings.
We are eager to hear your perspective and have you join us at the World Summit on Island Sustainability!