Tourism

IGTOA donated $10,000 to the Scalesia Foundation for a pilot project in environmental education at the Tomas de Berlanga School.

Thanks to the support of IGTOA,130 students and their respective families, 25 teachers and 100 people of diverse audiences were exposed to fundamental environmental education concepts, fundamental for a Galapagos’ citizen: efficient water use, trash and recycling, fertile soil and organic products, marine life and its relation with land environments, between others.

The TBS started a pilot project for critical thinking using the scientific method and applied to environmental issues that were thought, should be part of the knowledge of global citizens that live in a World Natural Heritage Site and National Park like the Galapagos Islands.

Methods

As part of a inter institutional effort, Scalesia Foundation and TBS´s teachers worked with scientists of other local institutions in order to identify topics assigned to each grade according to curricular structure. A team of teachers, educational experts and conservation volunteers worked in the designed of a program for each grade. The implementation phase took place between April 2009 and January 2010, according to Galapagos´ Academic Calendar.

During the implementation phase, TBS’s students, between 4 and 12 years old, devoted two hours per week to explore and implement short scientific experiments that triggered environmental awareness and the use of science as a practical tool to understand and generate solutions for local environmental challenges.

Each academic year at TBS was assigned a topic of environmental importance according to the academic curriculum. Students worked on experiments as well as discussions, debates, and critical thinking exercises focused on awakening the recognition of their role as part of a specific environmental challenge and how changes in daily routine and consumer practices can turn an individual into an active contributor.

Results

One hundred and thirty students have: (a) used the scientific method and critical thinking exercises to understand global and local environmental problems and (b) they have explored and discovered how their daily life practices can become part of local and global solutions to environmental challenges. Annex 1 includes pictures of the process of implementation.

Through the project the school’s community has been exposed to a more personal analysis of the World’s and Galapagos’ environmental challenges. Twenty teachers, one hundred thirty students and their parents have been empowered to become active contributors of a solution.

Teachers at TBS were trained and were able to successfully implement the pilot project.

The Environmental Education Program was finished and implemented during academic year 2009-2010. The Program is the base over which TBS is building additional initiatives. Annex 2 describes some of the initiatives that are now taking place at TBS.

The tourist yacht, Alta, ran around while entering the harbor at Puerto Ayora, on the southern coast of Santa Cruz Island. Sixteen Canadian passengers and eight crew members were evacuated from the ship with no injuries reported. There were no reports of leakage from the 3,500 gallons of fuel on board. The yacht remains on the reef, while its fuel tanks are being drained. The boat is owned by Quasar Nautica Expeditions.

Associated Press report

Ecuadorian press report

Source: Center for Responsible Travel

A ground-breaking new study, “The Market for Responsible Tourism Products”, finds that while international tourism markets continue to waver in the wake of the global financial crisis, one market segment is weathering the storm with relative impunity – Responsible Tourism. The study, commissioned by SNV Netherlands Development Organization and produced by the Center for Responsible Travel, concludes that “Responsible tourism appears to be doing slightly better – or less badly – than the tourism industry as a whole.”

The study examines global trends in responsible tourism, profiling products, markets and consumers; it also makes a series of in-depth marketing recommendations for service providers in developing countries who are already in or who wish to enter the Responsible Tourism market. 

The study is available to download for free from CREST’s website.

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.

On the heals of multiple celebrity visits to Galapagos, Alex Trebek, the host of the game show “Jeopardy” has announced that he will also host a 10-day trip to the Galapagos with 25 Jeopardy! viewers.  The contest is set to start March 30, while the trip will take place on October 16th.

Source:  Jeopardy.com