Puerto Ayora, November 2005
The Galapagos National Park and Marine Reserve are globally unique and extraordinary ecosystems, recognized as World Heritage Sites. This isolated island group is among the best conserved of the world’s tropical archipelagos. Much like other oceanic island systems, the Galapagos Islands are fragile. To date, Galapagos biodiversity has been remarkably well conserved thanks to concerted efforts to study and protect it, as well as relatively low levels of interaction between the islands and global human processes, which produce rapid changes in fragile island ecosystems.
Galapagos is undergoing an accelerating cycle of economic and population growth driven by external markets. These changes bring with them increased threats to local biodiversity: higher probabilities of arrival of invasive species and over-harvesting of natural resources, and more frequent pollution events. There are also several potential new threats to Galapagos biodiversity— including avian malaria, West Nile Fever and Bird Flu—that have already caused significant damage in other areas. Many of the new and growing demands on the biodiversity of the islands are fed by international markets for tourism and marine resources. These global market forces are driving business growth in Galapagos and acting as a catalyst for the expansion of the local human population. Population growth has, in turn, resulted in demands for increased local access to natural resources, public services and utilities to keep pace with the increasing human population. All of these changes have created new social and political stresses in the islands including increased conflict. This economic model is inappropriate for island systems that are limited by the availability of marketable resources, large distances to markets, a weak human resource base, and the difficulties associated with establishing economies of scale on small islands.
The CDF is concerned about economic and population growth in the Galapagos Islands, and in particular, calls for local authorities to recognize the cycle of spiraling growth. In this context, the recent focus on additional tourism growth through new modalities (sport fishing, large cruise ships, community-based tourism, day tours, and diving tours) is a cause for concern. Development initiatives should consider the environmental, economic, social and cultural impacts of this growth and recognize the need to first resolve the inequity issues that plague existing development in the islands. The tourism model in the islands requires detailed consideration and change before developing new approaches to tourism; Galapagos should first have in place the regulatory controls that will ensure long term sustainability in tourism.
Tourism in Galapagos should ensure local benefit sharing, minimize environmental impact, pay attention to limits of acceptable change at regional and local scales, and take into account the impacts of economic growth that could result in pollution and energy consumption. Uncontrolled economic growth related to tourism will lead to runaway immigration and population growth as skilled human resources are required by new ventures. In turn, increasing immigration will escalate pressures on natural resources, public services and utilities, increase social fragmentation, cause local inflation, and result in further cultural change and increased conflict.
The CDF calls for reconsideration of the economic model in the Galapagos Islands by all interested parties - those living in the islands, local and national Government, private sector interests, donors and Non Government Organizations. The CDF also calls for all these parties to work together to address these major conservation and development challenges before we repeat the history of so many other island archipelagos.
Graham Watkins
CDF Executive Director
