News

Last month Ecuador’s President Correa appointed Eliecer Cruz, former director of the Galápagos, World Wildlife Fund (since 2003), as governor of the Galápagos Islands. Cruz was born and raised in the Galápagos. He is former director of the Galápagos National Park where he worked for eight years.

“I am completely devoted to the Galápagos,” said Cruz. “The Galápagos Islands are a unique spectacle of life and beauty–and it is home. Even as a child, I knew that I wanted to give back to the Galápagos, to work for their conservation.”

Leading WWF’s work in the Galápagos, Cruz concentrated efforts on strengthening the Galápagos Marine Reserve. A key accomplishment was the implementation of a zoning scheme for protection and use of the reserve which was supported by USAID. Over the past three years, Cruz also organized and led a consortium of environmental NGOs to work with the Galápagos National Park and local institutions, strengthening participatory management.

During his time in the park, Cruz was instrumental in working on the development of the groundbreaking Galápagos Special Law. This key legislation created a marine reserve, banned industrial-scale fishing within the reserve, and ensured that tourist revenues would support conservation.

Today, Cruz has new challenges. Immigration control and conservation actions are the issues that lead his agenda.

For more information: http://www.worldwildlife.org/news/displayPR.cfm?prID=419

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 8:41 pm and is filed under Conservation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.