The Galápagos just got a $12-million-a-year conservation fund — run by the locals

The Galápagos Life Fund, built from a debt-for-nature deal, now moves about $12 million a year into protecting the Galápagos and Hermandad marine reserves — and its board gives real seats to the islands' own fishers, tour guides, conservationists and scientists. Early signs show fishing pressure easing inside the protected waters. It's a model where the people who live off the ocean get to help write the rules for saving it.