Historical Background
The Discovery of the islands in 1535 by the Bishop of Panama, Fray Tomas de Berlanga. “The first scientific mission to the Galápagos came in 1790 under the leadership of Alessandro Malaspina, a Sicilian captain, sent by the King of Spain.” (Jackson, 1993, p. 2) The Galapagos archipelago is nowadays a part of Ecuador and has a population of around 40,000. The history of the islands can be traced back to the 16th century (year 1535), when Dominican Fray Tomas de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panama, was forced to disembark on one of the islands due to the shipwreck. Later, in 1570, the archipelago appeared on the contemporary maps (Jackson, 1993; Honey, 1994), and in 1790, the first scientific expedition, sent by the King of Spain and led by Alessandro Malaspina, arrived at the Galapagos islands.
Famous visitors and Modern Residents
“The most famous visitor to the Galápagos was Charles Darwin, aboard HMS Beagle, captained by Robert Fitzroy.” (Jackson, 1993, p. 5) In year 1835, the survey ship Beagle took young naturalist Charles Darwin to this picturesque place, who dedicated a lot of time to studying the flora and fauna of Chatham, Charles, Albemarle and James islands. He discovered that the species of birds, tortoises and finches differed from island to island; this finding was considered to be an influential factor in the formulation of Darwin’s approach to evolution. The five weeks visit of Charles Darwin in 1835, amazed the scientist and led him to postulate the theory of evolution by natural selection. (Honey, 1994, p.42)
Description of the Environmental Setting
Overview of Geography and Location
“The Galápagos Archipelago consists of thirteen large islands (greater than 10 km2), six smaller islands and over forty islets that have official names” (Jackson, 1993, p. 14)
The Galapagos archipelago is located in the eastern Pacific Ocean and consists of 7,880 square km of land spread over 45,000 square km of water. The group is composed of thirteen main islands, six smaller islands and 107 islets and rocks, the largest of the islands is called Isabela and measures 4,640 square km (Jackson, 1993).
Overview of Geology and Formations
The islands are among the most active volcanic regions. “Each major island consists of a single large shield volcano except for Isabela which is formed from six volcanoes that have joined above sea level.” (Jackson, 1993, p. 15) The archipelago is located at the so-called Galapagos Triple Junction, which means that in geological terms, the place is characterized by the presence of crust, being melted by a mantle plume. As a result, there is a high frequency of volcanic eruptions on the islands.
The Diversity of Life Forms in Galapagos Islands
Laboratory of Evolution
The diversity of flora and fauna
The realm of Galapagos flora counts around 560 species of plants, one-third of them are endemic, which means that they can be found nowhere else. These include Scalesia, or ‘daisy-tree’, Lecocarpus, the cut-leaf daisy, Jasminocereus, the candelabra cactus and many other exotic plants. Among the animals of the Galapagos islands, it is necessary to distinguish rare flamingos, giant tortoises, parrots, pelicans, penguins, land and marine iguanas (Jackson, 1993, p.15).
Darwin’s discovery of the islands inhabitants’ adaptation features
Darwin’s Finches, an important part of the archipelago’s ecological system, were discovered in the first part of the 19th century. Although the Galapagos finches were visually different, one important habit united them: all of them managed to adapt to the peculiarities of the local fauna and used small sticks to try the recesses of cactus for grubs: “Darwin had discovered that one of the finches had specialized by using small sharp sticks to probe the recesses of cactus plants for grubs.” (Schiller& Herreid, 2000, p. 56)
Human Intrusions
People’s Migration as a factor
An outline of mass migration
An outline of the mass migration, which is putting an enormous pressure on the islands: “We’ve gone from a population of 5,000 in the early ‘80s to over 15,000.” (Schiller& Herreid, 2000, p. 60) It needs to be noted that the Galapagos islands should be approached as a place which originally had no indigenous population. The mass migration to the archipelago started in the middle of the 20th century: in 1959, about 2,000 people lived on the larger islands, the 1972 census counted already more than 3,800 inhabitants. By 1980, the population of Galapagos was estimated at 16,000; in 2006 – at 40, 000.
Negative Impact of Man Intrusion
Some species of dangerous animals, plants and parasites were brought by the first migrants. “Their small permanent settlements and passing ships had introduced rats, cats, pigs, goats, and other highly destructive animals into the islands.” (Honey, 1994, p.42)
Tourism and Human Development
The effect of oil spills
The area was also polluted by oil spills. Moreover, the area was polluted by oil spills – for instance, not a long ago, the Ecuadorian tanker Jessica left about 180, 000 gallons of oil in Galapagos (Song, 2003), which caused the deaths of 15, 000 rarest marine iguanas and appeared to be a violent and cruel intervention in the local system of ecological balance (Gonzalez, Montes, Rodriguez & Tapia, 2008).
Tourism
Tourism is the most economy driving factor in the islands, and at the same time “As the major economic activity, the current model of tourism is also the major driver of immigration and is therefore expected to play a determinant role in the future sustainability of the archipelago.”(Gonzalez, Montes, Rodriguez, & Tapia, 2008). Although tourism is an important source of income for Ecuador’s economy, it greatly threatens the biodiversity of the islands, which are not likely to “bear” a load of thousands newcomers, who expect to receive comfort and highest-level service in their journey.
The number of visitors in Galapagos was estimated at 145,000 in 2006 (Gonzalez, Montes, Rodriguez & Tapia, 2008). Naturally, they require an expanded infrastructure of tourism-related facilities (e.g. hotels, restaurants) , which might destroy a number of valuable species of plants and animals. At the same time, tourism contributes to the sustainable development of the archipelago by providing material resources for environment preservation activities.
Existing Protections in the Area
Conservation Programs
The declaration of National Parks
It also needs to be noted that several significant protective measures has already been taken regarding the natural world of the Galapagos islands. First of all, the government of Ecuador declared the main area of the archipelago as the Galapagos National Park and thus established a set of rules restricting economic activity in Galapagos.
Charles Darwin Research Station
In parallel, one of Charles Darwin research stations was created. It is responsible for scientific explorations of the local natural world and also provides useful monitoring reports concerning the hazards, which await the environment (Gonzalez, Montes, Rodriguez & Tapia, 2008).
Galápagos Marine Resources Reserve
The creation of the Galapagos Marine Reserve was actually a logical continuation of the declaration of National Park, i.e. the sea animals and plants have been protected by the additional restrictive measures, which regulate activities like fishing.
UNESCO’s World Heritage List
In 2007 UNESCO put the archipelago in the World Heritage in Danger List, so the area is also surveiled and monitored by the professionals in environmental science from international organizations.
Oil Pollution Act
Furthermore, in year 1990, as a result of oil pollutions, the United States Congress adopted Oil Pollution Act, which imposed additional penalties for the violation of governmental regulations, related to the use and distribution of oil.
Galapagos as a Special Social-ecological System
The characteristics of the islands that resemble with SES
Galapagos can also be viewed as a unique social-ecological system, due to the extensive interaction between human civilization and the natural world. Local residents of the islands should be first to assume the responsibility for preserving the diversity of species, so their awareness, safe behavior and active participation in environment protection groups are among the main factors which contribute to the future survival of the unique ecological system of the Galapagos archipelago: “Conversely, the future conservation of the unique biodiversity and ecosystems of Galapagos will largely depend on local residents, who must ultimately assume the responsibility for maintaining positive economic and social practices.”(Gonzalez, et al., 2008)
References
Conlin, J. (2008). Can Darwin’s Lab Survive Success? Web.
Gonzalez, J. A., Montes, C., Rodriguez, J., & Tapia, W. (2008). Rethinking the Galapagos Islands as a Complex Social-Ecological System: Implications for Conservation and Management. Ecology and Society, 13(2), 25-32.
Honey, Martha (1994). Paying the price of ecotourism. Americas, 46(6), 40-42.
Jackson, M. H. (1993). Galapagos, a Natural History. Calgary, Alta.: University of Calgary Press.
Nancy A Schiller & Clyde F Herreid. (2000). The Galapagos. Journal of College Science Teaching, 30(1), 56-63.
Song, F. (2003). Troubled Paradise: Galapagos’s Bid for Survival. Harvard International Review, 25(1), 14-25.