Entry #17: Wildlife Tourism for Conservation with Sophia Wood and Gara Trujillo

Gara Trujillo ran Opwall's Galapagos site in 2019. She recently
completed an Erasmus Master's program in Environmental Sciences,
Policy, and Management while traveling across Greece, Hungary,
and Sweden. As an ecologist, Gara has worked in the Amazon
rainforest in Peru, in coastal Greece, and in the Galapagos
Islands with Opwall. This episode was recorded in early 2021 when
she was still completing her graduate program. Gara is now
interviewing at WWF Sweden. In this joint episode you will also
hear Gara interview Sophia Wood about our site in the Ecuadorian
Amazon and how it is evolved since she started managing the
project in 2018. Sophia had her start with Operation Wallacea in
2017 while helping set up the Fiji project fresh out of
university. After a brief stint in venture capital and start-ups
in Latin America, she dove into conservation full-time with
Opwall in 2019 to run Friends of Wallacea, Opwall's tourism arm,
and to continue to develop conservation projects alongside
indigenous communities across the region. In this episode, we
cover what life is really like in the Amazonian rainforest, how
travelers can leave a positive impact when they travel, and how
scientific research fits into local tourism and conservation
efforts.