Trouble in Galapagos 'paradise' for Ecuador locals

Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, lying 1,000 km (621 miles) off-shore in the Pacific Ocean, are famed as the natural laboratory that inspired Charles Darwin to develop the theory of evolution.

 

Fears that rising tourist visitor numbers could threaten the island's unique wildlife have not been borne out but other challenges remain

 

Surging growth in tourism and local population during the boom times led to serious fears about whether their unique ecosystems could survive the pressure.

Now, awareness of these twin threats appears to have spurred the government into faster action.

On 1 June, President Rafael Correa warned that the islands faced "multiple problems" from "disorder, a lot of abuse, a lot of anarchy, lack of policies".

In a break with tradition, he named an outsider, Maria Isabel Salvador, who was Ecuador's ambassador to the Organization of American States, to run the archipelago.

"The message was very clear, the government is preparing to make some unpopular decisions," says Reyna Oleas, an ecologist in Puerto Ayora, the islands' biggest town.

Already, some fuel subsidies have been cut and the permitted number of cars capped because of the 13,000 birds they run over each year.

In recent years, with the rapid growth of both luxury and backpack travel, tourists have flocked to the islands to wonder at its unique giant tortoises, tame sea lions, and abundant birdlife.

The tourism boom prompted warnings that the visitors would inflict untold damage on the archipelago. Sheer numbers were considered the main threat.

In 1980, environmentalists worried that too many people were arriving, and called for no more than 12,000 a year. That's less than a tenth of present visitors.

Since 2007, tourist numbers have stagnated at around 170,000 annually because of the global financial crisis. If pre-crisis growth rates had continued, there were fears that number could have reached 300,000 tourists.

The slowdown has eased calls for a ceiling on tourists. And observers argue the industry remains the lifeblood of the economy, and needs to be regulated, rather than prohibited.

"If not for tourism, these islands would have been destroyed long ago," says Fernando Delgado, a hotel manager with a long working experience on the archipelago.

Among the rare species on the Galapagos was the giant tortoise, 'Lonesome George', who died in

2012

From BBC NEws  Latin America

 

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