Goals for Mission 2008

Hi! My name is Sebastián Castro and I am a member of Iguanas Group 1 for
Mission 2008. Our specific group has been assigned the task of researching
the 5 major northern islands of the Archipelago: Wolf, Darwin, Pinta, Marchena,
and Tower. Given that these are some of the most unique islands in the archipelago,
are goals for the research portion of the project are slightly restructured from those
of Mission 2008 as a whole (You can check those out here). All of the islands our
group has been assigned are almost entirely uninhabited, and thus the Mission
parameters of the biosensors and the political implications of declaring the
Galápagos a "World Scientific Preserve" become especially important.

Being Ecuadorian and having lived in Ecuador most of my life, I am particularly
interested in tackling the political issues surrounding the islands. Having been
in tune with the political climate of Ecuador for a lifetime (including being directly
exposed to the tumultuous storm that is Latin American politics), I feel that I
will be particularly useful to our team in finding diplomatic solutions for the
island's political problems. Convincing a country to give up some of its sovereignty
is no easy task, and thus I set my goals realistically for this semester: to obtain the
necessary information/research and formulate tactics that would permit for the
creation of a multi-national body which could cooperate directly with the
Ecuadorian government in managing and protecting the Galápagos islands.