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Conservation
The Galápagos stay wild because they are protected, and that protection is funded partly by the people who visit. Booking a cruise here already plays a part. Supporting the science that studies and defends the islands goes further.
Almost the entire archipelago is protected. About 97 percent of the land is national park, and one of the largest marine reserves in the world surrounds the islands. Every international visitor pays a park entrance fee that funds rangers, invasive-species removal, and research.
That is the deal the islands run on: tourism pays for the protection that keeps them worth visiting. Our guide to how tourism funds conservation has the numbers and the visitor rules in full.
A Galápagos cruise helps most when it is run responsibly. The cruises listed here sail small ships with licensed naturalist guides and follow national-park rules on every landing: stay on the trails, keep your distance from the wildlife, take nothing home.
Booking directly matters too. When you browse cruises and inquire with an operator, more of what you pay reaches the crews and guides who live and work in the islands, instead of a chain of intermediaries.
For more than 60 years, the Charles Darwin Foundation has run the research the islands depend on: giant tortoise breeding, invasive-species eradication, and long-term monitoring of the marine reserve. It is an independent nonprofit, and it relies on donations to keep that work going.
We encourage travelers to support the Foundation directly. Every donation goes to the Foundation, not to Book Cruise Now, and it funds science that keeps one of the most biodiverse places on Earth studied and defended.
A gift of any size supports research in the Galápagos. The link opens the Foundation’s own donation page.
Support the Charles Darwin Foundation (opens in a new tab)