Celebrity Cruises already offers cruises and daily excursions that take groups into the heart of the Galapagos Islands, but its connection with this natural wonder of a destination only continues to grow—literally—with a reforestation effort that recently surpassed 30,000 trees.
The public-private partnership between Galapagos National Park and the cruise line was signed in 2014 in an effort to encourage cruise guests and staff to help conserve the rare flora and fauna found on the famous archipelago located off the coast of Ecuador. Just three years later, approximately 14,300 guests, crew and community members exceeded the reforestation goal by 150 percent.
Among the trees planted are Scalesias, Cat’s Claw, Galapagos Miconia and Thin-leafed Darwin’s shrub, which can all help regenerate areas on the islands that have been affected by humans and introduced species. The Scalesias trees alone provide an ideal home for rare bird species found only in this part of the world. The Galapagos Fund, the onboard conservation program, allows groups to help with these reforestation efforts on Galapagos excursions, in addition to participating in other conservation efforts such as building greenhouses and developing organic agricultural initiatives.
While the Galapagos partnership is one of the most interactive that Celebrity offers groups, the cruise line has other environmental partnerships, including one with World Wildlife Fund (WWF). It allows Celebrity to protect the waters in which it operates by supporting WWF’s efforts to conserve everything from coral reefs to coastal wildlife. A focus on emissions reduction and sourcing sustainable seafood is just the beginning.
