Our
Projects
As the only institution focusing on an anthropocentric conservation vision on the islands, we have a wide and exciting array of projects and the list is growing!​
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Habitation of the Galápagos Islands is recent, and its institutional framework is less than a decade old. This presents many opportunities to study the development of economies, governance, and informal and formal institutions.
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Galapagos is famous as a laboratory for natural sciences but until now it has been overlooked as a premier spot to study social phenomena.
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Galapagos is the best place on earth to study the birth of a society and where societal pressures meet conservation and natural resource management. The absence of cultural norms and entrenched informal institutions provide a petri dish for many of the theories and questions that exist today about the evolution of a society in harmony with its natural resources.
Research, policy, and community
At Free Galapagos we conduct ongoing research searching for solutions that will promote agency for the residents of the islands.
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The islands are a premier spot to study and implement the work of the 2009 Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom.
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Ostrom's groundbreaking research demonstrated that communities can effectively manage shared resources through self-organized rules and institutions, challenging the "tragedy of the commons" theory.
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Ostromian solutions are but one of many avenues of research that we plan to engage in, while also contributing to policy proposals and community development activities.
Public Policy
The Governing Council of the Galapagos was established in 2015. Its institutional framework is fragile and needs bolstering. Together with the Instituto Ecuatoriano de Economia Politica we monitor developments on the islands and draft public policy solutions that are presented to the local population through our local grass roots affiliate - Galapagos Para Todos.
Co-creation and open innovation
Together with IdeasLabs.org we are looking to conduct co-creation labs in order to identify problems and discover locally driven solutions that allow for buy-in and agency.
