Sustainability | Anakata

More than four decades of history in the islands

One reason to keep going

The Galápagos changed how the world understands life. It is also one of the most fragile places on Earth, and every visitor leaves a trace — us included, and we don't pretend otherwise. Our main priority is to keep that trace as small as possible, and give back more than we take. This is how Anakata's founding family has worked in these islands for more than four decades, and it is the foundation Anakata is built on.

Our roots

The experience behind Anakata's first voyage

Long before Anakata, the Dunn family spent more than thirty years at the helm of Ecoventura, proving that tourism in the Galápagos could help protect the place it depends on. Under their leadership, the company introduced several practices that were firsts in the islands.

Anakata carries that experience forward — the same family, the same values, and the same belief that the best way to see the Galápagos is to help look after it.

Read Our Story

Milestones from the founders'

2006
First carbon-neutral operation in the Galápagos. Emissions measured, cut, and offset.
2008
First hybrid tour boat in the Galápagos. Forty solar panels and two wind turbines helped power the yacht Eric.
2008
With WWF. The Galápagos Marine Biodiversity Fund, created with WWF, raised more than $400,000 for community projects and scholarships.
2017
A fund for science and education. Created with the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galápagos National Park, the Galápagos Biodiversity & Education for Sustainability Fund has raised more than $800,000.
2022
Recycling in the islands. A recycling center in San Cristóbal that has kept more than 26,000 kg of waste out of local landfills, with recyclables flown to the mainland in Avianca Cargo's existing cargo space.

Our partnership with Fundación Jocotoco

The Anakata Galápagos Conservation Fund

The most important work in the Galápagos is done by people who live here, year-round, long after the last ship has left. So rather than build our own programs, we chose to back Ecuadorian organizations with deep roots in the islands, and to commit to them for the long term. Anakata has partnered with Fundación Jocotoco, an Ecuadorian conservation organization that protects threatened habitats and species, to create the Anakata Galápagos Conservation Fund.

Giving back to Galápagos

From our first season, Anakata will contribute directly to this fund every year. For guests who want to leave their own mark in the islands, there will always be a place for them — and every contribution will go straight to work in Galápagos.

Conservation

Protecting habitats and native species on the ground, from Jocotoco's Los Petreles reserve on San Cristóbal to projects with the Galápagos National Park.

Education

Scholarships for young islanders through ECOS, a Galápagos foundation that trains the next generation in conservation and in keeping invasive species out.

Built on transparency

Independent management
Run by Fundación Jocotoco, not by us.
Shared decisions
Projects chosen by a committee with an independent member.
Public reporting
An annual impact report on every project funded.

Conservation · Fundación Jocotoco

Los Petreles, a seabird that nests in the highlands

On the island where every Anakata voyage begins, a seabird found nowhere else on Earth is fighting its way back. Through the Anakata Galápagos Conservation Fund, we will support Jocotoco's work at Los Petreles, in the highlands of the island where you'll step aboard.

The bird

The Galápagos petrel spends most of its life over open ocean and comes ashore only to breed, in burrows dug into the damp highland forests of just five islands. Feeding at sea and nesting inland, it carries the ocean's nutrients up the mountainside; its guano feeds the soil of the very forests it nests in.

The threat

When people settled the islands, they brought rats, cats and pigs, and cleared the highlands for farms. An egg or a chick in a burrow has no defense against a rat. The petrel is now Critically Endangered. On San Cristóbal it was once thought lost altogether, and many of its colonies here lie outside the national park, on private farmland. Its future on this island depends in large part on that land.

The response

In 2018, Fundación Jocotoco began buying that land. Los Petreles Reserve now protects the island's highland forest and the colonies within it. Rats are controlled through the breeding season, invasive plants are cleared so native forest can return, and nests are monitored. The reserve also shelters endemic orchids, one of them down to a handful of plants.

118

Hectares of native forest protected (about 290 acres)

Nesting colonies

140+

Monitored nests

Islands where the petrel still breeds

Education · ECOS

Knowing the islands they live on

Growing up in the Galápagos doesn't mean knowing it. Many island children live within sight of the sea and have little chance to explore it, and every year around 400 high-school graduates go looking for a first job in a place where conservation drives the economy.

ECOS (Education for Sustainable Communities) is a Galápagos-based nonprofit working to close that gap. Its programs take young islanders out of the classroom and into the field, then into their first jobs protecting the islands they grew up on. The family behind Anakata has supported ECOS since its Ecoventura years.

In every classroom

Since 2020, ECOS has helped Ecuador's Ministry of Education bring the islands into the curriculum, so students learn sustainability from the place they live.

In the field

Every year, high-school students spend 40 hours in hands-on conservation camps: restoring habitat, removing invasive species and monitoring wildlife. Since 2012: 90+ camps, 1,400+ students, 1,600+ giant tortoises monitored.

On the beaches

With the Galápagos National Park, young islanders and their community protect green sea turtle nests through citizen science. Since 2015: 288+ nests protected and 214+ students trained.

A first job in conservation

ECOS trains recent graduates and places them on real conservation projects, giving them income and experience and giving the islands more hands where they're needed. So far in 2026: 700+ conservation operations and 15 young people hired.

Schools

400+

Teachers

7,000+

Students

100%

Of the islands' school system

Be part of what comes next

Every contribution will go directly to the Anakata Galápagos Conservation Fund, managed by Fundación Jocotoco. Donations from US residents are tax-deductible through Jocotoco's US 501(c)(3) organization.

Explore Fundación Jocotoco

Every day, on every voyage

Commitments you can see on board

Big promises mean little if daily life on board doesn't match. From our first voyage aboard Anamara, these practices will be standard on every Anakata expedition.

No single-use plastic on board

Anamara will be free of single-use plastic, from the dining room to the suites . Every guest receives a refillable water bottle, with filtered water stations throughout the yacht. Bathrooms use refillable dispensers for shampoo, conditioner, soap and body wash, and paper straws are available on request.

Out of island landfills

Waste will be sorted on board, and recyclables processed in the islands and flown to certified recycling facilities on the Ecuadorian mainland on existing scheduled flights. Our goal: none of the waste generated on board ends up in a Galápagos landfill.

The taste of the islands

We aim to source more than half of our ingredients locally, working with small farmers, bakers and fishers across the Galápagos. Eggs, bread, fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy and sustainably caught seafood will come from the islands whenever possible, with the day's local catch on the menu. Our cellar will include Ecuadorian wines.

Honest about our footprint

Every expedition has an environmental footprint, including ours. From our first voyage, we will measure it, work to reduce it, and report on it transparently — starting with our first annual impact report.

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Our commitment to conservation