These days, the warnings come with discouraging frequency.
Experts announce that yet another natural treasure teeters precariously on the brink. Act now, we are told, before it’s too late.
But this warning seems all wrong. The Galapagos Islands, whose marvelous biological adaptations intrigued Charles Darwin 174 years ago, have been added to the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger.
On paper, Galapagos is among the best-protected natural areas on Earth. Isolated from the coast of South America by 600 miles of ocean, it’s been a national park of Ecuador for 50 years.
Most of its 13 major islands are uninhabited. Only 3 percent of its 3,000-square-mile land area is privately owned. Regulations set strict limits on tourist numbers and behavior. No boat can enter without a permit. Every visitor group must be in the company of a trained naturalist guide. Some islands, or portions of them, are completely off limits. A 13,500-square-mile marine reserve provides a buffer.
Legal protection, along with geographic isolation and an iconic reputation, should be enough to safeguard the islands. Why is it not?
Author Carol Ann Bassett, in her recent book “Galapagos at the Crossroads,” does a convincing job of answering that question while giving us a vivid, often lyrical account of this intriguing place with its “giant land tortoises that can survive more than 150 years, marine iguanas able to hold their breath under water for up to an hour, cormorants that no longer need wings to fly, vampire finches that survive on the blood of masked boobies, daisies that have morphed into giant trees.”
Bassett, a journalism professor at the University of Oregon and director of the university’s Environmental Writing in the Galapagos program, has nearly 20 years of personal history with the islands, including an eight-month residency last year. Although drawn by natural wonders, she could not ignore growing threats: climate change that alters ocean currents and rainfall patterns, invasive species, exotic disease, illegal fishing by residents and foreign syndicates, political corruption, a lack of education, faltering public support — and ecotourism.
That’s right: ecotourism, touted as the modern formula for protecting natural areas.
The wilds draw green cash
Keep a place wild, according to the formula, and all those nice green tourist dollars will flow in like a river. Be it a rain forest, a rhino or a blue-footed booby, natural beauty can pay for itself by attracting people who hunger for the experience of a pristine landscape. Local people prosper, tourists are happy and fragile ecosystems survive in all their intricate glory.
Ecotourism has proven itself around the globe in countries rich and poor. The impact of Yellowstone National Park, for example, is measured in the billions of dollars each year. Even in Yellowstone, arguably the high cathedral of national parks, economic factors play a major role in its ongoing political support. Some people defend parks for their natural values. Others just want to protect the golden goose.
Should it matter why people care, as long as the parks are protected?
According to Bassett, it does matter. Her book, while celebrating the marvels of the islands, also colors the darker impacts of ecotourism — too much development, too many tourists, not enough control.
Bassett describes a spiral that began in the 1960s when adventure travelers managed to hitch rides on supply boats from the mainland. That small demand led to infrastructure improvements, which attracted more visitors, and then more colonists from the mainland, who opened more businesses and drew in ever-larger numbers until in 2007, some 174,000 visitors brought in $418 million.
It turns out that if the economic prize is big enough — and this is plenty big for Ecuador — more players are drawn to the game, including many who hold little reverence for natural values.
This creates pressure, Bassett reports, for new ways to claim a piece of the pie: “sport fishing for marlin at $10,000 a pop, skydiving in groups of up to a hundred jumpers, and cruises on ships that can carry up to 500 passengers.”
This is not what Conservation International, on its Galapagos Web page, calls “keeping conservation at the heart of tourism.” Instead, it threatens to turn the idea behind ecotourism upside down so that economic benefit becomes more important than the resource that began the cycle.
Does it mean nature-loving travelers should stay away? Bassett shakes her head.
“Go, but go with a sincere interest in the natural history and unique species of the islands,” she says. Take it seriously, recognize the special nature of the place, choose responsible travel companies that share your interest — and those dollars might have a beneficial rather than adverse impact.
Sources
“Galapagos at the Crossroads: Pirates, Biologists, Tourists and Creationists Battle for Darwin’s Cradle of Evolution” by Carol Ann Bassett ($26, The National Geographic Society, 2009)
UNESCO World Heritage Center,
Conservation International,
