New Galapagos marine conservation grant
ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber secured a new Lenfest Ocean Program grant for $349,570 in partnership with conservation scientists working in the Galapagos National Park in Ecuador.
The project is titled “Establishing the foundations for structured decision making and adaptive spatial management in the Galapagos Marine Reserve.”
Tourism is the main economic driver in the Galapagos; however, the Galapagos is characterized as having unsustainable management principles.
This grant will focus on developing a modeling and monitoring approach to assist the Galapagos National Park Directorate in refining management goals and conservation decisions.
The project will inform decisions for spatial management within the Galapagos Marine Reserve by demonstrating the connection between management objectives, indicators and thresholds for decisions with the monitoring of ecological responses and their associated socio-economic benefits.
To assess ecosystem impacts against specified management objectives, the research team will integrate multiple existing data sources into metapopulation models as well as monitor three fishery species (yellowfin tuna, wahoo and bacalao) and three threatened species (waved albatross, green turtles and Galapagos sharks).
This project launches today and will run for three years. Click here to learn more.