Chagos Conservation Trust

11/06/2026

After two years of training, our Director, Sarah Puntan-Galea, will be ‘out of the office’ for 6 weeks as she sails 4,220 nautical miles across the Atlantic Ocean (from Washington DC, USA🇺🇸 to Oban, Scotland🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿, finishing in Portsmouth, England🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) as part of Team Great Ormond Street Hospital and Charity in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race’s homecoming leg 🌏⛵️

Sarah will also ID and log details of marine wildlife seen during the race on citizen science apps. And the boat will collect data, for and thanks to the technology fitted by race partner, The International SeaKeepers Society 🌊🐬

Whilst she is away, our outgoing Intern, Jenny Tait, assisted by our outgoing Digital Lead, Josh Greatorex-Davies, will take over our social media accounts and post on Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter/X - so please follow us over there! 📲💻

On behalf of everyone at , we wish Sarah fair winds and following seas, plus a very safe return to us. Good luck for the race Clipperteam GOSH!!! 🩵🏆

09/06/2026

On the United Nations’ World Oceans Day, we wanted to transport you into the wildlife-rich Indian Ocean off the islands 🏝️🐠🦀🦈🦜🐙🐬

helps to raise global awareness about the critical role oceans play in sustaining life, and to mobilise international action - including through charities like the Chagos Conservation Trust - for their protection 🌊

Read more on our website ⬇️
https://chagos-trust.org/

🐢 🇺🇳 [🎥 Jon Slayer]

02/06/2026

And the second largest Marine Protected Area in the Overseas Territories is the Archipelago: More than 55 islands and 600,000 square kilometres of a ‘no take’ zone with the world’s largest coral reef 🪸
Read more on our website ⬇️
https://chagos-trust.org/
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02/06/2026

🎥 Our team works remotely, so when we got together recently for our annual events in London🇬🇧, we took the opportunity to film a quick video to accompany our letter to David Attenborough to both wish him a Happy 100th Birthday, and thank him for a lifetime of work connecting humanity to nature, inspiring people around the world to respect, protect and understand the importance of our natural world and the incredible wildlife that calls it home 🙏🌎💚
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28/05/2026

We were delighted to launch our new website at our recent AGM, where our members were given a walk-through presentation before it went live 🙌

Created by our Director Sarah Puntan-Galea, and the tech team at Octophin Digital (who partnered with on their Chagos Information Portal ), it has a totally different look, including a moving image landing page by videographer Jon Slayer, which transports viewers into the heart of the , new messaging, easier to navigate interface, swifter payment system, and a more efficient CMS for us to update ourselves 👩🏼‍💻

Check it out and let us know what you think ⬇️

Chagos Conservation Trust. Conserving one of the planets last wild places In a world with very few unspoilt places, the Chagos Archipelago is a unique and precious environment that needs our protection.

26/05/2026

If you missed our recent post-AGM Speaker Event - which was held at The Linnean Society of London, presented by our director Sarah Puntan-Galea, and featured presentations on our recent expedition to the by our key programme (‘Healthy Islands, Healthy Reefs’) lead Pete Haverson, ZSL’s Rachel Jones, Kew Gardens’ Grace Flanagan, plus research updates by Dr Tom Bech Letessier and Dr Clara Diaz from University of Plymouth and Charlotte Oulton from Swansea University - you can watch it on our YouTube channel here ⬇️

The Chagos Conservation Trust's 2026 Speaker Event held at the Linn...

21/05/2026

To celebrate the United Nations International Day for Biological Diversity, we wanted to share a film about our November expedition to the islands - the first in our ‘Healthy Islands, Healthy Reefs’ nature restoration programme 🏝️

Like the ethos of the day to “safeguard and protect the ecosystems that support human well-being”, our project will eradicate invasive species on 30 ecologically degraded islands in the outer islands to restore native habitats and seabird populations, which will help fish communities and coral reef heath - creating the longest chain of invasive preditor-free islands in the Indian Ocean (more information on our website) birds 🐦🐠🪸💚

🎥 https://youtu.be/wgAWlYpeGes

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🙏 With thanks to ProVision Ltd for creating this video from their drone footage;
Our partners, including ZSL, RSPB and Kew Gardens;
And our Darwin funders Biodiversity Challenge Funds, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

A summary of the Chagos Conservation Trust's 'Healthy islands, Heal...

19/05/2026

Thank you again to everyone who attended and took part in last week’s jammed-packed and ‘sell out’ day(s) of CCT annual events 🙏

Events kicked off at The Linnean Society of London with a Finance Committee and Board meeting in the Council Room for Trustees, before a members’ tour of their incredible collections - including a restored book from the Linnaeus collection dating back to 1488 📖

Our AGM and Speaker Event took place in the Meeting Room under the watchful eye of Darwin’s painting, followed by a reception in the stunning Library 🖼️

And finally, our ‘Healthy Islands, Healthy Reefs’ Working Committee - made up of our and partner association scientists and specialists - met at the Natural History Museum, and enjoyed a private tour 🦕

We will post the recordings soon. Meanwhile, we are already planning next year’s event - so why not clink on the link and join us today, to guarantee your invite? ⬇️
🔗 https://chagos-trust.org/join/

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14/05/2026

And that’s a wrap! Thank you to everyone that attended our ‘sell out’ annual event today, whether in person or online.

We started the day with a Finance Committee and Board meeting for Trustees, before a members’ tour of The Linnean Society of London, AGM (including our new website launch), the ‘premier’ of our expedition short film, and Speaker Event presented by our director Sarah Puntan-Galea, featuring six speakers: Three from our recent expedition, and three marine science updates from project leads working in the Archipelago. Before finishing the day with a networking reception.

We’ll be posting photos, footage and recordings next week. Till then, here is a photo of nearly all of the Chagos Conservation Trust Team (only missing three people!) celebrating another successful year!!! 🐢