The Last Paradise: Man-Animal Relationships in the Galapagos-

• Eugene Guribye. Thesis submitted for the degree of cand.polit. 2000-07. Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen. 30.03.2001
• 97 % of the archipelago is today declared a National Park
• “Endemic” means “peculiar to the region”, and is used to categorise species that are found nowhere else on this planet, as opposed to “native” species that could be found in other parts of the world as well, and “introduced” or “exotic” species, that have been introduced to the islands by humans in one way or the other.
• The Station has a permanent international staff of about 50 people, and an additional number of visiting scientists and volunteers from all over the world.
• Instituto National Galapagos (INGALA)- created in 1980 w/ primary responsibility for development in the islands. they emphasize construction projects. these lead to employees immigrating from the Andes.
• The flow of developmental funds into the islands also drew other immigrants to the archipelago, especially to Puerto Ayora where INGALA's impacts has been most obvious (Guerrero 1997:17).
• marine iguanas (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) exist only on Galapagos. These are the creatures most abundant on the islands, observable virtually everywhere, on the black lava rocks, in the water, under water, on the piers, in the streets, and occasionally in people's houses.
• In "My father's island", an autobiographical book about life on Galapagos in the decades before tourism started to take off, Johanna Angermeyer describes an episode that is a good example. On one of those rare occasions when she was eating a chocolate- bar, she discovered a cockroach on it:

  "Disgusted, I threw chocolate and occupant through the window, but Mary [her sister] made me fetch it back. 'Save paper for starting fires. That chocolate will make a roach trap. We need a bottle. Sometimes they wash up on the beach. You put something sweet inside and by morning it's full of cockroaches; breakfast for lizards. Don't throw anything away, first because we'll probably need it for something eventually and second, nobody wants garbage messing up the place" (Angermeyer 1989: 104).

• major indian groups in puerto ayora are from the salasaca and otavalor egions of the andes
  • salasaca- sell animal weaves on the streets of puerto ayora to tourists
  • otalavalo- also sell handmade products to tourists
• mestizo-
  • mostly remain farmers and buy land in the interiors of the islands
  • or become construction workers in puerto ayora
  • or get involved in commercial enterprises (ie. stores, tourist occupations)
• immigrants from coast usually fishermen
  • poor standard of living, recent arrivals
• better educated from Quito and Guayaquil
  • usually teachers or public servies, contracted by gov't
  • often most informed on conservationist issure and have good ties with station
• Immigration: La Paz and La Familia
  • As we threaded our way through heavy traffic and billowing diesel exhaust from the municipal buses [in Quito], the [taxi]driver asked me what sorts of birds I had seen [in Galapagos]. I told him. The litany made him gesture at the traffic, the different makes of vehicles pinning us in, and led him to smile ruefully.

    Por que quieres ir a las Galapagos? I asked. Why do you wish to go to Galapagos? For work? To buy a farm?

    La paz, he said, turning to look at me, his thin, sharp face full of fervent belief. The peace. (Author Barry Lopez 1998:64)

    Permanent residents on the islands are now concerned that with the immigration stop, there’s no possibility of getting their families to the islands. “The family is going to lose even more importance on the islands because of the New Law”, one of my acquaintances complained. “The family is important to Latin Americans. Most of my family still lives on the mainland, but of course they would like to come and live with us here. It’s more peaceful here. Now they don’t have a chance.”

• Although there is a high rate of analfabetism on the islands, and the general level of education is low even when compared to Ecuador on the mainland, it is not uncommon to encounter people who are both bilingual and even trilingual.
• Small hamlets of some 500 people have grown around the main agricultural centres in the highlands of Santa Cruz, where they have their own fiestas and councils.
• Thus poor small-scale farmers and their descendants have few opportunities to improve their situation much, while the landowners of the large farms often engage in more lucrative tourist-related activities in Puerto Ayora, leaving their farms to be managed by contratados, people contracted to run the farms.
• For instance, on Santa Cruz, elephant grass, an African forage grass that was introduced by farmers for their cattle has grown to such an extent that cattle don't manage to consume it at all, and is considered one of the most threatening alien species (Schofield 1989).
• In 1998, more than 64 000 tourists visited the Galapagos Islands, spending more than 74 million US dollars. (Informe de Galapagos 1988-99)
• Apart from some pollution and small problems like erosion on paths, there is little direct impact on the environment that can be attributed to tourism. But in a deeper sense, tourism has severe indirect impacts on the ecology of the islands.
• On the one hand, [tourism is] the source of income to touristic entrepreneurs, divided into small and big business of Galapageños, continental or foreign enterprises competing for numbers of tourists or "dolares", and on the other hand tourism is blamed for the drastic changes that have found place on the islands the last couple of decades, at the same time that many people feel that tourists and the endemic animals are more taken care of than the people on the islands (due to economic motives).

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This web page created by Jill A. Rowehl

Email the author at ig3@mit.edu

Last Edited on Sunday, 24-Oct-2004