Geographic Setting and Context
The Galápagos Islands are a living laboratory for the study
of evolution, global environmental change, and the conflicts between nature and
society. Free of humans and predators for almost all of its history, these “Enchanted Islands” have developed some of the most
unique life forms on the planet, highly adapted to their harsh surroundings and
living in ecological isolation from the rest of the world. It was not until
Charles Darwin’s famous visit in 1835, which helped inspire the theory of
evolution by natural selection that this archipelago began to receive
international recognition. In 1959, the Galápagos
National Park was formed, and in 1973,
the archipelago was incorporated as the 22nd province of Ecuador.
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)
designated the Galápagos as a World Heritage Site in 1978, a designation to
honor the “magnificent and unique” natural features of the Galápagos and to
ensure their conservation for future generations. These islands were further
deemed a Biosphere Reserve in 1987, and the Galápagos Marine Reserve was
created in 2001. The Marine Reserve was formed as a consequence of the 1998
passage of the Special Law for Galápagos
by the Ecuadorian government that was designed to “protect and conserve the
marine and terrestrial resources of the Islands.”
This hallmark piece of legislation, further discussed below, has important
implications for both human and natural communities alike. The Galápagos
archipelago encompasses 19 large islands (4 of which have human populations)
and 200 small islands and rocks totaling approximately 8,010 sq. km. dispersed
throughout an area of 70,000 sq. km. The Galápagos Islands are world renowned
for their scientific importance, as exemplified by the giant tortoises, marine
iguanas, and Darwin
finches whose existence vividly illustrate the mechanisms of evolution.
During the past
two decades, dramatic social and ecological changes have occurred in the
terrestrial and marine ecosystems of the Galápagos that have threatened the
ecological resilience and survival of this highly sensitive and fragile
ecosystem. Some of the more pronounced negative consequences of the effects of
the human dimension on ecological systems include: (a) human population growth
(particularly through in-migration) and the related over-use of natural
resources; (b) the introduction of invasive flora and fauna that replaces
native and endemic species; (c) extraction of marine resources at unprecedented
rates by a local and global fisheries industry; (d) uncontrolled ecotourism in
sheer numbers of visitors and increased access to fragile environments; (e)
human energy consumption and waste generation; and (f) conflicts between
international conservation and development groups and institutions. These
complex human/environment interactions involve the use of common-pool
resources, effects of multiple stakeholder groups
and various spatial and social scales, exogenous and endogenous factors that
affect biodiversity and ecosystem health and services, social inequalities, and
rapid demographic change.
Beginning in the
1970’s, the Galápagos Islands began to draw thousands of new residents,
attracted by the promise of lucrative opportunities linked to the islands’ rich
marine and terrestrial ecosystems and employment opportunities in construction,
fisheries, and tourism. Development of the tourism industry and a boom in
fishing have resulted in the growth of the local population from nearly 10,000
in 1990 to nearly 25,000 residents in 2006, living in communities and in
agricultural zones that comprise about 3 percent of the archipelago. Only two
airports exist in the Islands to accept travelers from the mainland and international
locations: one is located on Baltra, adjacent to Santa Cruz Island, and one on San Cristobal island; few
travelers arrive from the mainland by boat. As consequence of the Special Law for Galápagos four
population types are present in the Galápagos: (1) undocumented or “illegal”
workers from the mainland of Ecuador,
(2) “tourists,” (3) “temporary residents” or workers subject to legal residence
restrictions of labor contracts, and (4) “permanent residents” or the native
population of Galápagos. A population registration system has been in-place
since 1998 (i.e., residence cards) as a consequence of the Special Law for Galápagos, but a more rigorous and demanding
population registration system that tracks each of the four population types in
and out of the Galápagos is now being developed by the Ecuadorian government
and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The new population
registration system, for instance, will have immense implications for land
ownership, access to health care, and employment. At present, no waste water
treatment facilities exist on the islands to accommodate the current and
expanding population, instead waste is injected into the relatively porous
volcanic geology of the islands causing seepage into the freshwater aquifer,
thereby, affecting the health and well-being of the local population, as well
as visitors to the islands. In addition to settlement and population
in-migration pressures on the Islands, the
number of tourist visitors has increased from about 41,000 in 1990 to nearly
125,000 in 2006, exceeding the established quota specified in the Special Law. Previously using tour boats
to gain access to the island’s ecology, increasingly, tourists are staying in
newly constructed hotels on Santa Cruz, San Cristobal, and Isabela Islands,
thereby, further affecting the fragile ecosystems in direct and indirect ways.
_____________________________
Stakeholders in the Galápagos include: farmers who cultivate crops in
prescribed agricultural zones adjacent to the Galápagos National Park; tourists
and the tourism industry that place considerable pressure on the fragile
environment; communities and local governments that support tourists and
in-migrants in direct and indirect ways; and fisher-persons and the fishing
industry, both local and global, that respond to economic opportunities. A
variety of institutions and agencies are involved, including the Ecuadorian
national government and the Ministry of the Environment that set and administer
environmental policies; various non-government organizations (NGOs) that
represent conservation and development interests; the Galápagos National Park
that adheres to a mandate of conservation and resource management; the Charles
Darwin Research Station, an international ecological research institution that
interacts with the Park and an array of conservation and development agents;
INGALA (Instituto Nacional Galápagos),
and the UN Development Program that influence conservation and development
through their policies and procedures. For many of these groups, transnational
connections link Ecuador and
the Galápagos Islands to the global stage.