The Galápagos Project brings Rotary clubs together around the archipelago that taught the world how life changes: its mangrove lagoons, its shark corridors, its tortoises and the 33,000 people who live among them. Our first undertaking is a mangrove restoration project dedicated to Dr. Meenakshi “Mina” Venkataraman.
Mina was a Director of the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group from 2021 to 2024, founding Chair of its South Asia chapter, a Rotary Foundation Cadre adviser for the environment, and convenor of the Rotary Friends of Environment mangrove team. She helped carry mangroves from village shorelines in India onto Rotary’s global agenda.
“This example shows how intertwined human needs are with biodiversity.”Dr. Mina Venkataraman, writing in 2024
Several Rotary clubs have expressed interest in funding a mangrove restoration project in the Galápagos in her name. This site is where that work, and everything Rotary does in these islands, will be gathered.
The archipelago is small enough to know and fragile enough that every intervention shows. A club’s contribution can be pointed to on a map, which makes it a good home for a project carrying someone’s name.
Figures from the Galápagos National Park, Galápagos Conservancy and UNESCO. Population is an approximate current estimate.
Galápagos mangroves fringe quiet bays and lagoons on the larger islands: red, black, white and button mangrove. They are nursery, shelter and coastline defence, and they hold one of the rarest birds on Earth.
Around 100 birds survive, restricted to two patches of mangrove on the northwest coast of Isabela: Playa Tortuga Negra and Caleta Black. Introduced black rats take eggs and chicks, and larvae of the parasitic fly Philornis downsi kill nestlings. The sites are closed to visitors.
The stilt rooted species that builds the lagoon edge. Its tangled roots are where juvenile blacktip and hammerhead sharks, sea turtles and reef fish spend their first years.
The three species that follow the red mangrove inland, each tolerating a different salinity and tide line. Together they trap sediment, store carbon in the mud and take the force out of storm surge.
What a Rotary mangrove project could do here. A committee would scope this with the Galápagos National Park and local partners. The work that tends to matter: propagating and planting native mangrove in degraded bays, invasive rat control around nesting habitat, monitoring that produces data a global grant can report, and paid roles for local residents so the project outlives the funding.
The Galápagos sit in Rotary District 4400, which covers Ecuador. Clubs have carried out environmental, water and education work across the country for decades, but there is no single public record of what Rotary has done in the archipelago itself. This site is being built to be that record. If your club has worked here, send it to us with the year, club, partners and outcome.
Below, Rotary global grants on the mainland. None is in the Galápagos yet, which is the gap this committee intends to close.
| Grant | Project | Budget |
|---|---|---|
| G-4035 | Barlomi Chico community water system | $100,000 |
| G-3949 | Protection of Santa Marianita beach | $49,370 |
| G-3793 | Regenerative agroforestry | $230,664 |
| G-3744 | Safe water | $120,123 |
| G-3652 | Biorenace project | $95,000 |
| G-3262 | Tabuchila community water system | $99,800 |
Source: matchinggrants.org, Rotary District 4400 listings, read 13 September 2026.
Several clubs have already expressed interest in funding a mangrove restoration project in the Galápagos in her name. The Rotary Club of Newport Beach is looking for partner clubs and districts to form the committee that turns that interest into a funded project.
Lead club: Rotary Club of Newport Beach, District 5320.
Put my club forwardRoughly 80 per cent of the land birds, 97 per cent of the reptiles and land mammals and 30 per cent of the plants here are found nowhere else. Three ocean currents collide offshore, which is why penguins and tropical rays share the same reef.
Twelve or more surviving species, each shaped by its island: saddleback shells on dry islands, domed shells in the wetter highlands. Hunted to near collapse by whalers, now recovering through captive breeding and repatriation.
The only lizard on Earth that forages in the sea, grazing algae off submerged rock and sneezing out the salt. Bodies shrink in lean El Niño years and grow again when the cold currents return.
Described only in 2009 and found on the flanks of one volcano, Wolf on northern Isabela. A few hundred animals, with almost no young surviving, which points to introduced predators.
The blue of the feet comes from carotenoids in fresh fish, so a bright foot is an honest signal of a bird that is feeding well. Courtship is a slow, deliberate display of exactly that.
Nearly the entire world population breeds on one island, Española, then disperses to feed off Peru. Pairs bond for life through a clattering bill circling ritual.
Wings reduced to stubs because nothing here hunted it on land and the fishing was better below. Around 1,700 birds, on the coldest, richest coasts of the archipelago.
The only penguin that breeds north of the equator, surviving on the cold Cromwell Current. Its numbers rise and fall with ocean temperature, a sharp climate indicator.
Around 17 species from one ancestor, sorted by what a beak can open: seeds, cactus flowers, insects, even blood in the case of the vampire finch on Wolf.
The red and blue crab on every black lava shore, and the archipelago’s cleanup crew. Juveniles are almost black, which hides them on the rock.
Schools of hundreds gather in the currents off Darwin and Wolf, one of the last places where that sight is still routine. The species is collapsing globally, mostly through the fin trade.
Adults passing Darwin between June and November are overwhelmingly large females, many apparently pregnant, which makes these waters important to a species whose breeding grounds are still largely unknown.
Endemic, and the animal most visitors meet first, since colonies sprawl across town docks and benches. Numbers fall sharply in warm water years.
The only sea turtle that nests in the archipelago. Hatchlings and juveniles shelter in exactly the mangrove lagoons this project aims to restore.
Wingspans beyond six metres, feeding in plankton rich upwellings. Individuals are identified by the spot pattern on the belly, so citizen photographs genuinely contribute to the science.
A poor swimmer that walks the sand on modified fins, wearing what looks like a painted mouth. Found almost nowhere else on Earth.
Described from these islands and now known across tropical oceans, but still most reliably seen here, patrolling the drop offs where the currents hit the rock.
Colonies stand out of the sand like grass in a current, retracting as one when a shadow passes. They need clean, moving water over undisturbed sand.
The species behind the fishing conflicts of the 1990s, stripped from the sea floor for export until quotas and closures followed. Conservation here is inseparable from local livelihoods.
Almost nobody comes home from these islands without photographs, and almost none of them are ever seen. The Galápagos Lens opens at Half Earth Day in Dallas, inside the Environmental Xperience, and runs until the winners are exhibited on Earth Day 2027. Entries are collected through BCaster: scan a category QR code and upload from your phone or library, with rights and credit handled at upload. A jury of photographers, Galápagos guides and Rotarians selects the winners, and a public vote picks its own from the shortlist.
Original photographs only, no AI generated or extended images, and field ethics count as a judging criterion alongside image quality. Full rules published at launch. Presented by The Galápagos Project and the Rotary Club of Newport Beach, with entries collected through BCaster.
Rats, cats, goats, fire ants and the parasitic fly Philornis downsi arrived with people and now drive most of the extinction risk, including for the mangrove finch.
Warming and El Niño cycles cut the cold upwellings that feed penguins, cormorants and sea lions. Plastic reaches even uninhabited shores on the currents.
Tourism and a growing population press on water, waste and fuel systems never built for this many people. Illegal fishing continues at the edges of the reserve, part of why the Hermandad Reserve and the Eastern Pacific marine corridor were created.
Every one of those is something Rotary clubs already know how to work on: water and sanitation, waste and recycling, education, community livelihoods and habitat restoration.
Sources: Galápagos Conservancy, reserve and park figures; Galápagos Conservation Trust, mangrove finch; Charles Darwin Foundation, species research; UNESCO World Heritage Centre; IUCN Red List, conservation statuses; matchinggrants.org, Rotary global grants in District 4400. Species statuses and population figures are current published estimates and should be checked before use in a grant application.
Tell us your club, district and the role you would like to take, or send photographs and records of Rotary work in the islands.
steve@stevebender.net