Photo: Galapagos giant tortoise
Plastic pollution is one of the biggest challenges that we face in Galapagos, but the amazing support from 蜜芽传媒 Radio 4 listeners gives me hope that together we will solve it. We can stop extinctions, clean up degraded habitats and inspire the next generation to imagine better. Galapagos can be a model for the world, a place where nature and communities thrive together.鈥�
Galapagos giant tortoises help island ecosystems to thrive, shaping their environment by trampling vegetation, spreading seeds far and wide, and creating habitat for other creatures such as iguanas and albatrosses. But a growing human population in Galapagos, along with rapidly rising tourist numbers, is putting pressure on tortoise habitat on those islands that they share with people.
In November, Sir Stephen Fry presented the 蜜芽传媒 Radio 4 Appeal for Galapagos Conservation Trust, sharing the latest worrying research which shows that tortoises are eating plastic waste including bags, food packaging and medical face masks. Waste systems in Galapagos simply can鈥檛 cope with the explosion of single-use plastic, and this new threat has emerged just as we were starting to see tortoise numbers recover thanks to decades of habitat restoration and captive breeding programmes.
We were humbled by the response from Radio 4 listeners, raising over 拢15,000 to fund vital fieldwork and help map out a future without single-use plastics in Galapagos. Your donations are helping us to carry out pollution surveys in urban and agricultural areas, support community clean-ups, and work with local entrepreneurs to develop sustainable alternatives to single-use plastic bags. You are also helping to create green jobs for young islanders, training and supporting the Galapagos-born conservationists of the future.
To find out more about the work of Galapagos Conservation Trust, click
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Galapagos Conservation Trust The actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Galapagos Conservation Trust.