Restoring Floreana integrates ecology with the economy. While nature clearly benefits, so too do the people who call Floreana home. Karina Kastdalen, an agricultural and social specialist with Jocotoco who has deep roots in the Galápagos, is working closely with Floreana's farmers to ensure that they benefit from this effort.
A smart island is a territory where ecological management is structured around continuous, real-time data generated by interconnected monitoring technologies, supplementing difficult field inspections by people. Jocotoco is currently implementing a system that will make Floreana the world's first smart island.
On the morning of February 20, 158 young giant tortoises scampered quickly, one by one, into the highlands of Floreana, the sixth largest island in the Galapagos. National park rangers had just released them after transporting them by boat from the tortoise breeding center on Santa Cruz the day before. After more than 180 years of absence from Floreana, tortoises are reclaiming their ancestral home.
This February, after more than 180 years of absence, giant tortoises returned to Floreana Island. Giant tortoises once played a central role in shaping the islands ecosystems, but they have been gone for more than 180 years. Their return restores a key ecological function and represents an important step in the broader, long-term effort to rebuild what was lost. To understand why this moment matters, it helps to look at how the lineage of the Floreana giant tortoise was ultimately recovered.
