Initiatives

A lecture from Rakan A Zahawi, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Charles Darwin Foundation, is now available on YouTube.

The TMG signed a partnership agreement with the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) in 2019. The CDF is an international non-profit organization whose mission is the conservation of the natural environment of the Galapagos Islands.

Both Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands and Ogasawara Islands, also known as the Oriental Galapagos in Tokyo, are World Heritage Sites. They are oceanic archipelagos that have never been connected to the continents and home to a large number of endemic species. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic response, the Executive Director of the CDF Rakan A. Zahawi, the Executive Coordinator and Interinstitutional Affairs of the CDF Johanna Carrión, the Executive Director of the Agency for Regulation and Control of Biosecurity and Quarantine for Galapagos (ABG) Marilyn Cruz, and the former President of the Association of Galapagos National Park Guides Sofia Darquea De Witt were able to visit the Ogasawara Islands January 19 to 22, 2023. They all expressed their admiration for the wonderful nature of the Ogasawara Islands.

During their stay, we held a seminar on eco-tourism and biosecurity and had a meeting with local guides, tourist associations, trade and industry associations, and government agencies. Consecutive interpretation in Japanese, English, and Spanish was provided. Recordings of these meetings are now available on YouTube.

A lecture by the CDF Executive Director Rakan A. Zahawi (in English) and a lecture by the Executive Director of the Agency for Regulation and Control of Biosecurity and Quarantine for Galapagos (ABG) Marilyn Cruz (in Spanish): https://youtu.be/yb8-_3j5th8

Meetings with local guides, including presentations by the CDF Executive Coordinator and Interinstitutional Affairs Johanna Carrión (in English) and the former President of the Association of Galapagos National Park Guides Sofia Darquea De Witt (in English):https://youtu.be/_5IS73ZbTwI

Contact: NPO Japan Galapagos Association (JAGA) info@j-galapagos.org

We will continue to work together to protect native species, control invasive species, and balance tourism and conservation.

Site Visits

They were able to see five Japanese Wood Pigeons (Columba janthina) at the sanctuary on Chichijima Island.

Our visitors learned about efforts to conserve the Ogasawara greenfinch (Chloris kittlitzi) and elaborated on their own efforts to conserve the mangrove finch, a closely related species that is endemic to the Galapagos Islands.

Our visitors had an opportunity to meet with Governor Koike at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Wednesday, January 25th, 2023.