For the second consecutive year, Galapagos youth traveled to Picalquí to take part in an ecological experience.

The students participated in field activities in Picalquí, in the Pichincha province.

As in 2010, a group of 12 children and two teenagers from Oswaldo Guayasamin and Delia Ibarra de Velasco schools on Santa Cruz Island, along with three park rangers of the Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS), traveled to Picalquí, located in the parish of Tabacumbo, in the province of Pichincha in mainland Ecuador, to participate in an exchange of knowledge with the students and residents of that community.

The Training Center of the United Brethren Foundation is located in Picalquí. There the students learned about the basic principles of agro-ecology, an activity that is practiced throughout this community. The activities included soil preparation, weeding, tilling, planting, watering, working with seeds, worm culture, and compost preparation, among others.

The students also participated in the reforestation of native plants in the area of Las Lagunas de Mojanda, located in Pedro Moncayo county. This activity allowed the group to participate in the recuperation of this protected area belonging to the municipality. In addition to gaining hands-on experience, the group hiked to the villages of Chiriyacu and Guayaro Grande to observe their organic gardens.

For the GNPS, it is important that Galapagos students receive training in these types of activities, as such training is beneficial to their local organic gardening project. With this experience, the youth become multipliers of knowledge, applying their newly gained skills to the organic horticultural gardens of the education centers of Delia Ibarra de Velasco and Oswaldo Guayasamín, which were begun during this academic year.

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