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Some village info on my part:
Enforcement
Current Situation: In the Galapagos, the current enforcement body for preventing invasive species is SICGAL, which stands for the System of Inspection and Quarantine for the Galapagos.(SICGAL, 2004) SICGAL was formed in 2000, its goal being to diminish contamination of the islands. Currently, SICGAL cannot perform up to its proposition because of lack of funds. (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2004)
Enforcement bodies exist through the various Galapagos authorities, Galapagos National Park and INGALA, try to uphold regulation laws, including topics fishing and immigration, for the local population. However, like SICGAL, these bodies cannot enforce as well as they want because of lack of resources. (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2004)
Plan: We want to add the enforcers from our plans of tourism and energy to these enforcement bodies. They will not go into greater debt because we plan to have ORGALA put funds into this area. The funds will help for appropriate education and training of all employees as well as management and technologies for current needs of SICGAL, INGALA, and the GNP. With the knowledge and enforcement position, enforcers will have the incentive to carry out their duties. (Motu, 2004)
Highlights: We strongly suggest to the Ecuadorian government that enforcement regulations include ITQ management and a standard for sterilization of boats, especially for imports and exports, as well as other fore-mentioned implements. These will add to the steps toward harmonizing the relationship between the people and the ecosystem.
Although ORGALA will give funds to the enforcement bodies and ensure that the funds are reaching their specific targets, the change resulting enforcement will depend highly on the people. We want to encourage this change from education.
Galapagos Conservation Trust (2004/ NOV,28)). “Issues in the Galapagos” URL http://www.gct.org/issues.html (visited 11/22/2004)
Motu Economic and Public Policy Research (2004). Migration
and Environment in the Galapagos
Transportation
Goal: To minimize affects of transportation vehicles in the Galapagos.
Current situation:
Motor vehicle engines
generate
pollutants, which cause harm to the Galapagos environment.
About 92% of the pollution from fuel usage
arises from transportation (Ley, 2001). People
of the Galapagos currently use motorized scooters, cars, trucks and
buses. Making an estimate total of land
transport
vehicles, proportional to
Due to their high activity, boats are the greatest source of motor pollution. Transportation by water, by use of boats, occurs daily. Boats are needed for fishing, travel, importing, and exporting. In the area currently exist small and medium sized boats with outboard motors (motors hanging off the side), and larger cargo and tour boats with built in motors.
Pangas and Fibras are small and medium boats with outboard motors. Botes are larger boats with built in engines. (Ley, 2001)
All boats and land vehicle motors require importation of oil to the islands. Since 2001, several major oil spills have occurred, spilling about 200,000 gallons of oil in total (Kriz, 2004), harming marine and island animals, vegetation, and overall wellness of the islands.
More on oil spills: http://www.darwinfoundation.org/oilspill.html
Solution:
Man-powered transportation, such as bicycles, row boats or walking, emit little to no pollutants. Therefore, we want to continue existing programs of encouragement to minimize use of motor vehicles. Currently, he Darwin Foundation has a community program called “A Day Without Cars” which they advertised, encouraging people to not use their cars. Community projects like these will also be in our conservation education programs.
For motorized land and water vehicles, to reduce the oil dependence and pollution, we plan to replace diesel and gasoline powered vehicles with vehicles run by alternative energy. Alternative energy comes in a variety of sources: battery, photovoltaic, wind, compressed natural gas, and hydrogen fuel cell energy. Vehicles exist that run fully on alternative energy and others called hybrids that rely on both alternative energy and gasoline. These alternative energies produce less pollutants than gasoline, therefore decreasing the pollution stemming from current transportation systems.
Also, in using the alternative energy method, along with our plans for energy, oil will no longer require frequent shipping, thus oil spills will not harm the Galapagos area.
More on structures of hybrid vehicles:
-regenerative braking systems: charge batteries while the vehicle is braking
-engine turns off when vehicle is at rest
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hybrid-car1.htm
Land
transportation: Land
transportation consists of cars, trucks, buses, and motorized scooters. For cars and motorized scooters, we plan to
replace these gasoline run vehicles with hybrid vehicles and complete
alternative energy run vehicles. This
will help reduce the damaging exhaust in the area.
Presently, conservationists have already pushed for hybrids and more eco-friendly vehicles. Response from the locals said that they were too costly (McGrath, 2001). As a result, unless companies donate hybrids, we plan to subsidize these vehicles in exchange for the owner’s present vehicle. The brand and make of vehicle dispersed will depend on companies’ donations and further organization done afterward.
For larger trucks and buses, our plan is to change them to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) rather than diesel. CNG systems create fewer impurities than diesel systems, thus less pollution. On average: 70% less carbon monoxide, 50% less nitrogen oxides, and 90% less ozone-causing pollutants. (Fueleconomy, 2004) Our energy/waste plan for the Galapagos also includes the construction of a biomass facility, which will produce methane, natural gas. Thus we have fuel available for CNG vehicles. And since the biomass cycle requires CO2, CO2 emissions from CNG vehicles will go back into creating more gas. Larger vehicles will be subsidized like the cars and scooters.
We were told that cost was not an issue; however, we did take into some account about costs. We know that the Galapagos people did not want to pay to switch to more environment friendly vehicles and still wanted the convenience of a combustion vehicle. Therefore, we chose to have them subsidized. The cost of the subsidy would depend on how willing private manufacturers wanted to donate their products to the Galapagos.
Alternative cars and scooters available:*
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5805940/
http://www.toyota.com/about/environment/technology/index.html
http://www.motobykz.co.uk/Gilera/Gilera.htm
http://www.toyota.com/about/environment/technology/emissions.html
CNG vehicles available:*
http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/progs/hsearch_type.cgi
Water
transportation: Two main types of boats exist: those with an
outboard motor and those with a built in motor.
Outboard motor boats, being 85% of the boat population in 2000
(Ley,
2001), are generally smaller and hold less weight.
Our plan is to replace current outboard
motors with the more eco-friendly battery powered outboards and four
stroke
outboards. Four stroke outboards,
optimally, are 75% more fuel efficient than two strokes.
Hybridizing small and medium boats is also an option. Sails, solar panels, and electric power are all available for use. However, with their complicated systems, hybrid boats still need a significant amount of oil to run in order to suit people’s needs. Therefore, switching completely to hybrids is not as effective, considering the complexity of hybrid systems without much reduction in oil use. Hybrid boats still are an option we can implace, but for our main method, we choose to switch outboards. Both will be subsidized, like the plans for land transportation improvement.
Until better technology emerges, we will have to leave larger boats running with their current built in gasoline engines. Alternative energy is not yet powerful enough to provide thrust as effective as gasoline systems provide.
Alternative outboards available:*
http://www.pacificboatland.com/motors/yamaha-motors.php
http://www.electriclaunch.com/outboards.htm
http://www.sportfishingmag.com/article.jsp?ID=23611
http://www.stroutspoint.com/honda.html
Hybrid boats available:*
*Note: These are just several brands currently produced
Works Cited
Ley, Debora (2001) “An Assessment of
Energy and Water in the
Kriz, Margaret (2004). “Galloping Growth Threatens the Galapagos.” The National Journal, 1198
McGrath, Susan (2001). “Galapagos Now.” Audubon Magazine
Phrasebase (2004). Ecuador
Information Detailed
Facts and
Statistics about Ecuador URL http://www.phrasebase.com/countries/Ecuador.html (visited
Fueleconomy
(2004). “Biofuel and CNG Vehicles.” URL http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bifueltech.shtml
(visited