Celebration of the 65th Anniversary of Galapagos National Park: Supporting the renovation of the Miguel Cifuentes Arias Community Center in Santa Cruz Island
2024.07.19
On July 4, a commemorative ceremony to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the establishment of Galapagos National Park was held at the Miguel Cifuentes Arias Community Center on Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos Islands, Republic of Ecuador.
The Galapagos Islands are a globally renowned treasure trove of biodiversity. However, the importance and vulnerability of its precious ecosystems needs to be further acknowledged and shared especially among local residents. Providing a place for locals to receive environmental education and creating opportunities for deepening their understanding of their natural environment and ecosystems are crucial for sustainable environmental protection in the Islands.
The Miguel Cifuentes Arias Community Center in Santa Cruz Island, situated on the way to the Tortuga Bay
From left to right: Deputy Representative of JICA Ecuador Emi Takahata, Director of Galapagos National Park Arturo Izurieta, Minister of Environment Sade Fritschi
The Miguel Cifuentes Arias Community Center was constructed as a component of JICA’s technical cooperation project Conservation of the Galapagos Marine Reserve, implemented from 2004 to 2009. The center was built with the aim of promoting environmental education for locals, with the Directorate of the Galapagos National Park as the counterpart of the project. Due to frequent use over the years, as well as the impact of the hot and humid climate in Galapagos and damage caused by El Niño, the facility has deteriorated. Therefore, renovation work on the center was carried out as part of JICA’s follow-up cooperation from the fiscal year 2023. The commemorative ceremony was held to unveil the newly developed facility as a venue promoting local education about the environment.
The ceremony was attended by Ecuador’s Minister of Environment, Water, and Ecological Transition Sade Fritschi, representatives from Galapagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Foundation, and numerous other stakeholders from international organizations and overseas universities that have collaborated with Galapagos National Park for environmental conservation. During the ceremony, Minister Fritschi expressed her gratitude for JICA’s cooperation and highlighted that the various initiatives undertaken thus far have greatly contributed not only to the protection of the unique biodiversity of the Galapagos islands but also its sustainability.
Japan has made environmental conservation and disaster prevention one of the priority areas of its cooperation policy for Ecuador, and JICA is also providing technical cooperation in parallel with this project through such initiatives as the Promotion of SATOYAMA Initiative: Biodiversity conservation and rural development through the sustainable management of natural resources (country training program) and the Enhancement of Ecosystem Conservation Capacity in Coastal Areas (technical cooperation project）. JICA will continue to promote cooperation in the field of environmental conservation in Ecuador.
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