Galapagos Volunteers
Pete Hiemstra, the volunteer that we sent to Galapagos to help with the CDF Marine Department’s database, has now been there for 3 months, has made good progress in his job and has also been enjoying life in the islands. He is contributing a regular blog of his experiences, the link is http://bathic.blogspot.com/ He is likely to be offered a contract by CDF for him to stay on for a further 6 months to help them with their databases, you can imagine what a boon it must be to have someone there who really understands the technology, without which the CDF work would grind pretty much to a standstill. This development illustrates how valuable volunteers can be, and how with a relatively modest contribution, FOGNZ has been able to provide something of real value to CDF and the Galapagos conservation effort.
We have also helped Zoe Newman from England obtain a volunteer position with Fundar Galapagos, who work largely on the human side of the problems in Galapagos. They are also working with habitat restoration and sustainable agriculture. The link to Zoe’s blog is http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/zozoe