Meeting FFN hero Barbara Galetti

Barbara Galetti is president of Centro de Conservacion Cetacea (CCC), a Chilean NGO dedicated to the conservation of cetacean species and the marine ecosystem. In 2011 she won the Future For Nature Award, and now she was back in the Netherlands for a short visit. Eight of the Future For Nature Academy members had the opportunity to meet her personally in Burgers’ Zoo. With only a little bit of time Barbara took the FFN Academy group through her journey of setting up the CCC. How CCC was founded and what challenges she faced. She answered the various questions of the FFN Academy members and stressed how important every individual’s contribution is. She reflected that the younger people today are more conscious of what others think, which has unfortunately make people less activistic in their battle for nature conservation. Especially in South-America, being a conservationist is not ‘cool’ and can be dangerous. In her career she has learned that it is not always possible to stay friends with everyone if you want to achieve your conservation goals because everyone has their own agenda. She explained how she aims to stay independent of the commercial industry as this often leads to compromises in conservation work. At the end of the meet and great Barbara referred everyone to look up the movement reclaimconservation.org. By Onnika van Oosterbosch