Fundar

This afternoon we went up to the highlands to visit the Parajo Brujo reserve (www.fundargalapagos.org). The goal of the organization Fundar there is to have an organic farm to show locals how to adopt organic sustainable farming practices to help reduce dependence on food importation. They also aim to eradicate invasive species (the farming is one of the ways of doing that since there is a great risk of importing invasive species with food). After one of the best meals of the entire trip, we walked out to tour the farm. On the way, we saw several giant tortoises in the wild—an irreplaceable experience. We then went to pick out scalesia tree saplings to plant near the restaurant area. Scalesia is a native plant that is planted for shade and to provide animal habitat. The need to repopulate native plants comes partly from the total decimation and destruction left in the wake of the feral goats on the islands. When we planted our trees, we logged our names and the number of the tree in a logbook, and they are planning to email us with photo updates of our tree's progress.

Pictures from the Darwin Station and Fundar