About us
Our Mission: Education Through Conservation...
Is to provide an academic platform for study abroad and to help sustainable development and conservation in the Isabela community through participatory and educational approaches and scientific research.
What We Do
IOI’s operations take place in Puerto Villamil and around Isabela. IOI is a Florida-based non-profit organization that operates in close affiliation with leading international academic institutions in the US and Europe for the exchange of professors, students, and researchers.
IOI offers an institutional framework for supporting the growth of community concepts and strategies for grassroots ecotourism based on stewardship and participatory management to save the ecology.
IOI is financially self-sustaining through its academic programs. IOI is currently raising a critical fund base from which to give out scholarships and expand community projects over the next three years.
Academic and Cultural Exchanges
IOI offers semester-long undergraduate university programs, spring and fall, taught by visiting professors from major universities worldwide. Community members with local knowledge will guest lecture during each course, sharing local knowledge in formal and informal exchanges. All semester long students stay with local host families as part of the intercultural exchange, and may join in community service and conservation projects for internship credits. IOI also offers winter intersession, Spring Break and summer classes (see Study at IOI tab in the left navigation panel)
IOI also aims to run seminars where community members discuss timely topics and generate feedback on their own development and IOI’s role. Formal cultural exchanges will occur during special events and discussions exploring difference and commonalities, local development and conservation strategies.
Research
Researchers are invited to come to IOI with their grants to address locally relevant topics, employing local assistants. Research will be in consultation with the Galapagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Foundation and could include, amongst others, areas such as environmental change in the unique marine and coastal habitats of Isabela, volcanism, climate change/El Niño, Fisheries (Dynamics) of exploited fish and shellfish species, oceanography, sustainable urban planning;
Exciting and valuable areas of applied research beckon overlap with the community’s need. For instance, work can explore shifting social economic situations on Isabela and the areas of human/environmental interaction, and possible local long-term solutions (e.g. utilizing urban planning, participatory modeling for ecotourism, landscape ecology, and political ecology mapping stakeholder groups).