Charles Darwin Foundation receives Merit Prize for Conservation in Santa Cruz

In a solemn session last Wednesday, February 18th, in the Santa Cruz municipal building, Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) scientist Doctor Rachel Atkinson was awarded the Merit Prize for Ecological Conservation. Her project, "Let's Plant a Native Garden", was recognized for its achievements for the institution and local community.

Rachel Atkinson has worked closely with Miriam Silva and Jose Sanchez for two years in an effort to discourage residents of the Galapagos from introducing ornamental plants to the islands and to promote the use native and endemic plants in their gardens.

Thus far, the project has qualified five residents of the islands for raising plants and designing and maintaining gardens, with the aim of creating their own "micro-companies" to design and plant native gardens and to eradicate introduced plants. One such micro-company has already been formed on the island of Floreana by Francisco Moreno, who participated in Dr. Atkinson's project.

Gardens have also been planted at the university, schools, tour agencies, hotels, stores, restaurants and 16 other institutions, including the Municipality of Santa Cruz, the Harbor authorities, AGROCALIDAD and MAGAP.

During these two years, model native gardens were seeded on CDF grounds to motivate to the local community to plant their own gardens with native species. Many families in the community are already putting into practice this important step for the conservation of Galápagos. For example, the Santa Cruz Gardens development, located in the highlands of Santa Cruz, designed all their gardens to these parameters.

The "Let's Plant a Native Garden" project receives economic support from the Nordic Friends of Galápagos (Nordic FOGO) and the Japanese Friends of Galápagos (JAGA). The remainder of the funding came from the FCD's own fund for Education on Sustainable Development, which campaigns for awareness of the importance of native gardens in the local community.

Dr. Atkinson was thankful for the recognition and commited to continue working for conservation. She is urging, for example, that El Mirador, a new development to be constructed on Santa Cruz, seed its gardens with native plants. The municipality, for it's part, recently approved a new ordinance requiring that gardens in the city not include introduced ornamental plants.