High-Profile Visits Highlight Challenges Facing Galapagos
In recent weeks, Britain’s Prince Charles and U.S. actor Richard Gere have paid visits to the Galapagos Islands, along with China’s Vice-Premier, Hui Liangyu.
Prince Charles, 60, and his wife Camila stopped in the Galapagos during a 10-day tour of South America to promote sustainability and action on climate change. Charles has used the tour to deliver warnings that the world must act if it is to prevent irreversible harm from climate change. He first raised such issues two decades ago. “If now people are beginning to realise perhaps, after all, I wasn’t talking complete nonsense, then I am delighted,” he said. “All I have been trying to do is remind people that we have to live and work in harmony with nature if we are to have any chance of surviving on this planet,” Charles said, “We are, I fear, at a defining moment in the world’s history.” Island chains like the Galapagos are especially at risk to the affects that global warming will have on sea level.
Richard Gere also made headlines recently when he visited the archipelago. Galapagos National Park spokeswoman Vanessa Garcia says that during a visit to the Ecuadorean islands, Gere, 59, offered to speak out publicly for their conservation. “He was very enthusiastic about the Islands and offered, for nothing in exchange, to become a spokesperson; that he would allow us to use his voice and image whenever needed for the Galapagos cause”, said Garcia. According to the sources, Gere was trying to go unnoticed on his visit to the Islands, but was surprised to be caught by cameras.
The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) played host to Hui Liangyu, Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China on February 14th. Over the hour-long visit, Matthias Wolff, Director of Sciences of the CDF, and Edgar Muñoz, Director of the Galapagos National Park, accompanied the Chinese Vice Premier and his 30 member delegation on a tour of the tortoise breeding center.
Sources: The Sydney Morning Herald , Merco Press, and Friends of the Galapagos, New Zealand.