The petrel's future depends on the communities that share its island home
En las tierras altas de Santa Cruz, donde las fincas privadas se extienden más allá de los límites del parque nacional, una conservacionista ecuatoriana ha encontrado lo que décadas de mirada externa no supieron ver: que la salvación del petrel de Galápagos depende de quienes comparten su tierra. Paola Sangolquí, coordinadora de conservación marina de la Fundación Jocotoco, recibió en 2026 el Premio Whitley —los llamados Óscar verdes— convirtiéndose en la primera ecuatoriana en obtener este reconocimiento global. Su trabajo recuerda una verdad antigua: que custodiar lo frágil requiere no solo ciencia, sino la confianza y el compromiso de las comunidades que habitan junto a lo que se quiere preservar.
- El petrel de Galápagos, ave endémica que anida en suelo volcánico y pasa casi toda su vida en alta mar, se encuentra en peligro crítico de extinción tras décadas de depredación por ratas invasoras y pérdida de hábitat.
- Más de setenta nidos activos fueron descubiertos recientemente en fincas privadas de Santa Cruz que nunca habían sido documentados, revelando que el parque nacional protege solo una fracción del territorio vital para la especie.
- Sangolquí rompió con el modelo de conservación impuesto desde afuera, movilizando a agricultores y propietarios locales como protagonistas del esfuerzo, no como obstáculos a superar.
- El financiamiento del Premio Whitley permitirá proteger nidos en propiedades privadas, controlar depredadores invasores e instalar cámaras trampa y rastreo satelital en Santa Cruz y San Cristóbal.
- La iniciativa expande la conservación más allá de las áreas protegidas, trazando un modelo replicable para ecosistemas frágiles donde la tierra privada y la vida silvestre coexisten de manera inseparable.
Paola Sangolquí observó lo que otros habían ignorado durante décadas: en las tierras altas de Santa Cruz, más allá de los límites del parque nacional de Galápagos, el futuro del petrel de Galápagos se decidía en silencio sobre fincas privadas. Por ese trabajo, la coordinadora de conservación marina de la Fundación Jocotoco acaba de recibir el Premio Whitley 2026, convirtiéndose en la primera ecuatoriana en ganar este reconocimiento conocido como los Óscar verdes de la conservación.
El petrel de Galápagos es una especie paradójica: pasa casi toda su vida en el mar abierto y regresa a tierra únicamente para anidar en madrigueras excavadas en suelo volcánico. Su población colapsó a finales del siglo XX, diezmada por ratas invasoras y la expansión agrícola hacia el interior de las islas. Para cuando el problema recibió atención seria, la especie ya era considerada en peligro crítico de extinción.
Lo que distinguió a Sangolquí fue su decisión de trabajar desde adentro: involucrar a los propios isleños —agricultores, propietarios de tierras, vecinos del petrel— como actores centrales de la conservación. Junto a la Dirección del Parque Nacional Galápagos y las comunidades locales, transformó un esfuerzo que históricamente había sido liderado por actores externos. Trabajos de campo recientes revelaron más de setenta nidos activos en fincas privadas que nunca habían sido documentados, subrayando una verdad incómoda: el parque protegido solo no puede salvar a la especie.
El dinero del premio financiará la protección de esos nidos, el control de depredadores invasores y el monitoreo con cámaras trampa y tecnología satelital, tanto en Santa Cruz como en San Cristóbal. La apuesta de Sangolquí es que las personas que viven junto a los petreles, que conocen sus tierras y sus ciclos, no son un problema para la conservación: son su base más sólida.
Paola Sangolquí stood on Santa Cruz Island, in the highlands where private farms stretch beyond the boundaries of Ecuador's national park, and saw what others had overlooked for decades: a petrel problem that required local hands to solve. The Ecuadorian marine conservation coordinator has just been awarded the Whitley Prize for 2026—the award widely known as the green Oscars—for her work protecting the Galápagos petrel, a seabird teetering on the edge of extinction. The recognition, bestowed by the Whitley Fund for Nature, a British organization, marks a watershed moment not just for Sangolquí but for conservation in the archipelago itself.
The petrel is a creature of paradox. It spends nearly its entire life at sea, returning to land only to nest in natural burrows dug into the volcanic soil. Endémico to Galápagos, the bird's population collapsed in the late twentieth century, hammered by invasive rats and the slow erasure of habitat as agriculture crept upward into the islands' interior. By the time anyone took serious notice, the species had become critically endangered, its numbers so depleted that each breeding season felt precarious.
What set Sangolquí apart, according to Lisa Wheeler, the Whitley Fund's grants director, was not just her technical skill but her vision of mobilizing the islanders themselves—the farmers, the landowners, the people living alongside the petrels—to act with urgency. She worked from the ground up, from Santa Cruz, transforming a conservation narrative that had long been shaped by outside actors parachuting in with solutions. The Jocotoco Conservation Foundation, where Sangolquí serves as marine conservation coordinator, partnered with Ecuador's Galápagos National Park Directorate and local communities to shift the work into territories that had been historically neglected despite their critical importance to the species' survival.
The prize money will fund a targeted initiative focused on protecting nesting sites on private land in the highlands of Santa Cruz—the very areas outside the national park where the petrel's future was being quietly decided. Field work conducted recently revealed something startling: more than seventy active nests on private farms that had never been formally documented. The discovery underscored a hard truth about conservation in Galápagos: the protected park alone cannot save the species. The surrounding landscape, owned and worked by local families, holds the key.
The strategy moving forward is methodical and collaborative. Jocotoco and its community partners will work directly with landowners to monitor and protect active nests, implement control measures against invasive predators—particularly the rats that have ravaged petrel colonies—and deploy long-term monitoring using camera traps and satellite tracking technology. Similar efforts are already underway on San Cristóbal Island, both within Jocotoco's own Los Petreles reserve and on the private farms that border it. The work is expanding across the archipelago, a thirteen-island system that sits roughly one thousand kilometers west of Ecuador's mainland coast and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1978.
Sangolquí's award signals a shift in how conservation happens in one of the world's most fragile ecosystems. It is not about excluding local people from protected areas or imposing solutions from above. It is about recognizing that the people who live on these islands, who own the land where the petrels nest, who understand the rhythms of the seasons and the movements of invasive species, are not obstacles to conservation—they are its foundation. The petrel, a bird that spends most of its life invisible at sea, depends now on the visibility and commitment of the communities that share its island home.
Notable Quotes
Sangolquí's vision of inspiring islanders to act to save the petrel, which is at the brink of extinction, led to her receiving the award— Lisa Wheeler, Whitley Fund for Nature grants director
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a petrel nesting on private land matter more than one nesting in the national park?
Because there are more of them there. The field teams found over seventy active nests on private farms that nobody had documented before. The park alone can't protect the species if most of the birds are breeding outside its boundaries.
So the real conservation work happens on someone's farm, not in the official reserve.
Exactly. A farmer in the highlands of Santa Cruz might wake up one morning and find a petrel burrow on his property. What he does next—whether he protects it or unknowingly destroys it—determines whether that bird breeds successfully. That's where the work actually lives.
What changed about how conservation is done there?
For a long time, outside organizations came in with plans and told islanders what to do. Sangolquí flipped that. She worked from the territory, with the communities, asking them to be the ones leading the protection. That's why the Whitley Fund noticed her—not because she invented a new technology, but because she changed who gets to decide what happens.
The rats are the immediate threat, but what about the bigger picture?
The rats are a symptom. They arrived on ships centuries ago and have no natural predators on the islands. But the real vulnerability is habitat loss—farms expanding into nesting areas, degradation of the soil and vegetation where burrows exist. You control the rats, but you also need landowners who understand why a petrel burrow on their property is worth protecting.
Does winning this prize actually change anything on the ground?
It funds the work directly—protecting nesting sites, controlling invasive species, setting up satellite tracking. But it also legitimizes what Sangolquí has been saying: that local people are not the problem. They're the solution. That matters as much as the money.