What & Where, Climate,
Why visit, Successes, Problems,
Read more What & Where is it? The Galapagos Archipelago, some 120 islands, is situated in the east Pacific Ocean, 1000 km east from the mainland of Ecuador to which they belong, and 1200 Km south of Costa Rica. The islands at a couple of million years old are geologically young and were formed by volcanic processes, most being the summit of volcanoes, rising over 3,000m from the Pacific Ocean floor. The larger islands are Isabela (458 sq.km), Santa Cruz (986 sq.km), Fernandina (642 sq.km), Santiago (585 sq.km) and San Cristobal (558 sq.km). The name Galapagos (meaning saddle in Spanish) comes from the resident and native giant tortuses who in the eyes of the Spanish conquistadors looked like saddles. Fortunately the eyes of Charles Darwin, who visited the Islands in 1835 saw many more things, such as diversity and specialisation among the 13 humble finches (small birds) of the islands and this led him to develop his (then heretic, still heretic in many parts of the world) Theory of Evolution. The Galapagos are also named Archipelago de Colon (Columbus) but it was the Incas who had been there first, in the middle of the 15th century. In 1535, the Bishop of Panama christened them Las Islas Encantadas and from then on they were used as a stop-off by sailors, buccaneers and whalers. Despite visits by passing ships, the islands remained largely unsettled until the end of the last century What's the weather? Well, it can get cold. Despite the fact that the Equator runs through one of the Galapagos, Isabela Island, the Galapagos are mostly cool with a mist or "garua" covering the islands for 7 months, from May to December when temperature is between 17°C-22°C at sea level. January to April is the warm and rainy season (23-27 C). Temperatures generally decline by some 0.9°C for every 100 metres that you go up and you go up often as most islands are volcanic craters. The main reason for this climate pattern is the oceanic currents. The cool Humboldt current flows around and through the islands during most of the year, to meet the warm tropical waters from the Gulf of Panama at a point north of the Archipelago. From January to April this convergence point moves south and the warm current surrounds the islands, and warm weather ensues. The marine environments are highly varied and are associated with water temperature regimes reflecting differences in nutrient and light levels. These range from warm temperate conditions brought on by vigorous upwelling (Equatorial Undercurrent) and a moderately cool, warm temperate-subtropical influence (Peru Flow). Why go there?: Essentially it is the only place on earth where you can see so many tame and wild, at the same time, birds and animals, endemic species such as the giant tortoise (Geochelone nigra), the flightless cormorant, and marine iguanas (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) and rare sights such as colonies of albatroses. 46 % of the birds and 36% of plants are endemic. Because it is perhaps one of the best thought out, even though not so well managed, protected area in the world. A Conservation Success: The Galapagos National Park was established on 14 May 1936 and ratified on 4 July 1959. Related Websites: The Charles Darwin Foundation http://fcdarwin.org.ec was also established in 1959 and in 1964 their field station, the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS), was inaugurated on Santa Cruz Island. It is jointly supported by the Government of Ecuador, IUCN and UNESCO and funding comes from a variety of European and US conservation bodies and from private donations. After final establishment of the boundaries in 1968, 97% of the land area of the archipelago was included in the park. The Galapagos Islands were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978 and were internationally recognised as a Biosphere Reserve under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme in 1984. In 1986, the Galapagos Marine Resources Reserve (GMRR) was established including all waters within 15 nautical miles of a baseline joining the outermost points of the Galapagos Islands. This was upgraded to a Biological Reserve of Marine Resources in December 1996. UNESCO, last month declared the Galapagos Marine Reserve a World Heritage Site. At 133,000 sq km, the Reserve around the famous islands is the second largest in the world (largest in the developing world), and 16% of the resident species are found nowhere else. The Galapagos National Park has been under the active and generally improving management of specialized governmental departments since 1968.
A Tourism Success: 1967 is considered the beginning of organised nature tourism in the islands when Lindblad Travel, a New York Tour operator, chartered the first tourist vessel, a 66-passenger ship. 30 years after, in 1997, Lindblad Expeditions created The Galapagos Conservation Fund (GCF) which so far has raised over $1 million. Considerable advice for the design of the tourism programme was provided by the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Isles (CDF) over the several years prior to and after that time. The Foundation felt strongly that nature tourism represented the economic activity that was by far the most compatible with conservation of the archipelago's biological diversity, evolutionary and ecological processes, and environment. Since then tourism has grown gradually in the islands, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s, reaching the present total of over 60,000 visitors per year and almost 90 tourist vessels. Nature tourism operates in the Galapagos within a fairly well-developed legal and institutional framework, which has been evolving over the past 40 years. The value of Galapagos tourism to the national economy is estimated at US$60 million, or over a quarter of Ecuador's Tourism Sector. Tourists are admitted into three of six zones and parts of islands are designated as 23 Intensive Visitor Zones, where a maximum of 90 people are allowed simultaneously on shore. The 17 Extensive Visitor Zones are only open to groups of less than 12 individuals. There also are 13 Recreative Zones. The use of licensed guides (200 in total) and marked trails is obligatory. Tourist scuba diving is increasing. Non-endemic species intrusion: More than 250 flora species are non-native introductions occurring predominantly around human settlements. Since 1998, quarantine policies have been improved and there is an ongoing fight to eradicate imported goats and mice, successful in some small islands. Overfishing: Industrial and semi industrial fishing exerts great pressure. The Reserve recently withstood a constitutional challenge from the tuna industry and remains closed to industrial fishing, but there are regular incursions by Ecuadorian, Costa Rican and Colombian fishing vessels catching sharks for their fins and tuna. Fishermen have also resorted illegally capturing sharks for the Asian shark fin soup market. Longlined catch such as sea lion is sometimes used as bait. Moreover, direct exploitation of sea lions has become evident; in May 2001, 10 sea lions were discovered killed for their genitalia. Fishermen have on two occasions in recent years physically attacked the Charles Darwin Foundation who they consider as their enemy. Rumours circulated in 1996 that UNESCO was about to revoke its World Heritage designation from the Park, due to the fishing problems. Overpopulation: Human population is growing at 8% per year, mainly due to immigration from mainland Ecuador. Estimates of future population growth give an increase of 14,000-20,000 in 2003, 40,000 in 2015 and 80,000 in 2027. The greatest population increases have been on Santa Cruz Island and San Cristobal Island due to tourism and Isabela island due to fishing activities. Increasing Population Density: Population, and population growth is officially confined to 3% of the land area of the islands. Freshwater: Among the inhabited islands, only San Cristobal has an adequate perennial supply for human consumption. Tourism model turning slightly sour: As tourists spend most of the time on board, and nearly everything is imported from the mainland, Tourism is not very much connected with the local economy. The authorities have frozen the number of tourist businesses and obviously forbid the development of polluting industries however, through immigration from the mainland, population keeps growing as there has been an economic crisis in the rest of Ecuador during the last decade, while everyone knows about the Galapagos and its rich tourists. People visit the islands aboard large cruise ships, or arrive by air and use smaller boats for 6-12 passengers. There is not a single ecolodge or community tourism effort on the islands, but only a couple of expensive boutique resorts and some rather run down hotels catering for Ecuadorians, soldiers and budget travellers. Shops sell a small variety of over-priced souvenirs, imported from the mainland and further afield. The only locally made product appeared to be cheese. The plane tickets and restaurants are expensive while the service is not very good. Reflecting simmering violence and or boredom, despite warning signs to avoid hurting wildlife, buses, the main means of transportation, run exceedingly fast on the long straight roads. Overall there is a mentality that all tourists must be millionaires to be there, so there is a you vs. us attitude, aboard and ashore, and this is erroneously directed towards the independent budget travellers, as the rest seldom set foot ashore. Such is the feeling of budget travellers, that phrases such as the "Galapagos of the Poor" have been coined to describe other islands much closer to the Ecuadorian shore, that of course bear little resemblance to the original item. Decreasing quality of guiding: There are now approximately 200 licensed guides and the quality is very variable, from extremely good to very poor. The entire system of classifying guides, and training and licensing them, has allegedly become politicised. Finally the 100 USD per person entry fee to the islands payable at the airport on arrival, while theoretically sound, does not appear very convincing particularly if you are at the receiving end after a long journey. I am sure there must be other more subtle or even voluntary ways to raise the same amount, this "violent" way of extracting the money by the central authority I feel drains the same amount from the local island economy. Financial woes: The January 2001 oil spill of the Jessica, carrying 80,000 gallons of fuel threatened the delicate ecology of the Galapagos Islands. PetroEcuador, the owner of the fuel, has still to pay the clean-up costs, and the Park Service remains financially crippled. |
