Galapagos: Conservation meets Development

By Nellie Gopaul

For many, the word “biodiversity” conjures up images of lush, dense rainforests, home to rare and exotic animals.  It is a word used in conjunction with those out-of-the-way places where environmental scientists conduct very important research, and other people spend their hard-earned and long-saved tourist dollars.  For others, however, the word “biodiversity” is much more personal - it is the home in which they live, the home whose resources must be capitalized on and depleted in order to provide their living. 

Local residents of the Galapagos Islands understand the above paradox firsthand.  During the past 15 years, the Galapagos Islands, first made famous by Charles Darwin and the evolutionary theories he developed while visiting there, have seen an a dramatic increase in tourism.  According to a 2007 report by the Charles Darwin Foundation, tourism has grown 14 percent each year since 1992. Tourism, which is the main generator of income on this archipelago located 600 miles west of mainland Ecuador, is a very complex topic, comprised of the business, environmental and political sector. 

“Galapagos tourism represents a total value of $418 million, of which $63 million enters the local economy”, according to a 2006 report by Conservation International. That tourism is the main pillar of the Galapagos economy and numerous locals depend on the revenue tourism brings.  Tourism dollars sustain locally-owned businesses, employ guides, support restaurants and bars and purchase locally-made handicrafts in the Galapagos.

Unfortunately, certain problems have arisen as a result of the influx of visitors.  Cruise ships and cargo vessels may unwittingly contain invasive species of plants and animals which eventually take hold in Galapagos’ unique ecosystem.  Currently, The Galapagos Islands have 748 species of introduced plants, compared to its 500 species of native plants.  Roughly 60 percent of 180 endemic plants, plants found nowhere else in the world, are now considered threatened by the World Conservation Union Red List of Threatened Species.  An increase in visitors also means increased demand for fuel, potable water and food. Marine life, such as lobster, sea cucumber and grouper, is dwindling, and at an unsustainable rate. If tourism continues unchecked, the Galapagos Islands are at risk of losing their most precious natural resource:  their incredible biodiversity.

Solutions to the unique challenge of preserving the Galapagos Islands while supporting the important tourism industry must satisfy all sectors involved.  Laws intended to promote or protect one part of the equation sometimes do so to the detriment of another part.  In 1998, for example, a law was passed to enable to Galapagos National Park Service, which began operating in 1968, to protect and conserve the islands and surrounding ocean.  Restrictions were put in place on various fisheries, which made it harder local fisherman to make a living.  “We are not interested in breaking the law,” explains Francisco Otuño, a fisherman on Isabela Island for over 25 years.  “But if you close one area, then open up a different one so that we can make a living.” 

Conservation efforts promoting responsible tourism seem to working, at least in the terms of retaining the archipelago’s natural wonder.  The Galapagos, which are made of five large islands, nine small ones and a variety of large rocks and small inlets, still retain 95 percent of its original biodiversity. And despite centuries of exploration and travel - the first humans were deposited there in 1535 after strong ocean currents carried Bishop Fray Tomas de Berlanga of Panama and his crew on a rather circituitous route from Panama to Peru via the Galapagos Islands - the giant tortoises, lizards, sea lions, penguins and other wildlife still remain unafraid of man.

Long after the first visitors were brought by sail and traded island-grown vegetables with pirates for rum, the Galapagos Islands seem to have taken on almost a mythological status.  No where else in the world do sharks, penguin, sea lions and turtles coexist peaceably in the same waters.  If the Galapagos islands can continue to keep the footprint of the human presence to a minimum, then the world will be able to appreciate its natural beauty for many more years to come.