Desirée Cruz has a degree in Biology from the University of Guayaquil, and a degree in Linguistics and Literature from the Technical University of Loja. She has been involved with tourism and management of natural protected areas since 1987, year when she started guiding in the Galapagos National Park as a Naturalist. She worked later for the Galapagos National Park Service (1997-2000), and was the coordinator of an IDB/WWF-run project that promoted best environmental practices in small tourism businesses in Galapagos (2010-2012).
During the time she was employed by the Galapagos National Park Service, she got the opportunity to come closer to a Galapagos that most of us don’t see. She witnessed first-hand the damage introduced animals and plants were causing to native and endemic wildlife, and was closely involved with the launching of the Isabela Project that aimed to the restoration of Marchena, Pinta, Santiago, and Isabela Islands, all of which are now free of large introduced vertebrates, like goats, pigs, and donkeys. She was also a member of the task-force group responsible for the establishment of the Galapagos Marine Reserve.
Between 2003 and 2009, she was AGIPA’s general secretary. This was a time of for the association’s restructuring and strengthening. Our flagship project: the building and opening of the local municipal library, a task that was acknowledged by local and international organizations, and has given AGIPA a well deserved position among decision makers in Santa Cruz Island.
She believes in ecotourism and sustainability, because walking along the trails of the Park’s visitor sites, she has attested what a great job the Galapagos National Park Service has been doing in the conservation of the Galapagos Islands –a job that couldn’t have been achieved without the support of local communities.
Besides guiding, she is a professional technical writer.
She cannot see herself living in Galápagos confined to the geographical boundaries of Santa Cruz Island, where she resides. The true Galápagos is the one that lies beyond, where wilderness is at its best because it is pristine. She would like everybody, locals and foreigners, to be able to learn from the beauty and wisdom of Nature, and what a best place to do that than the Galapagos Islands!
