Massive tourism threatens the Galapagos -24 June 07

It's home to some of the world's rarest species. But the Galapagos Islands may not be able to survive a modern onslaught. Ecuador, of which the Galapagos is a province, says massive tourism is threatening the islands; the South American nation is now asking Unesco to add the habitat to its endangered list. Graham Watkins is a Galapagos environmentalist. Here's his view on how the islands can be preserved.

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News & Politics

Tags:

• Tourism
• threatens
• the
• Galapagos

[km0t0]

Hello, I am doing a project, and would like to cite this video.. where did you get it?

[TeamDarwin1809]

check out the Galapagos Island's on google earth, pretty cool stuff

[Atheneoftheocean]

Don't worry - the park guides are self-regulating the tourism threat by making it very clear that people who genuinely love the islands are not welcome. They do this by enticing teenage boys into paedophilia activities and by torturing by telepathic anal rape (believe me, it has happened to me) and other means parents such as myself who have questioned the Tomala guides who give out 'business cards' on the cruise ships... Be warned.

[notasamba]

Who pay you, because you know the problem is the tourisims. compare 25.000 inhabitants vs. 130.000 Tourist every year. Who you think you talk?

[jhobbz45]

Continued.. Many of the residents don't really care about the islands, they simply want to survive since the living conditions there aren't the greatest. As of now Ecuador simply doesn't have the knowledge or power to take care of the islands

[jhobbz45]

I was just in the Galapagos and Tourism isn't the problem. It's primarily Ecuador and it being a nation on the rise isn't on top of taking care of an ecosystem such as the Galapagos. Ecuador has made a law stating that residents already on the island or born there can reside there. That was a good thing. When I was in the cities there on the islands there was litter everywhere.

[sk8terdan]

The Galapagos is a true gem in the world today. The only way to preserve it is by stoping tourism period! Cheers

[rtsteiner]

When we engage in such dramatic intervention, the question we should ask ourselves is whether--in the end--we will have succeeded in preserving the environment or constructing a man-made theme park.

[rtsteiner]

An important point to make is that conservation, particularly in the case of Galapagos, is not non-intervention, but involves dramatic detailed and planned interventions aimed not simply at eliminating the effect of human beings but on reconstructing the environment to resemble what it was like before human contact.

[rtsteiner]

I was in the Galapagos in December and conservation involved such surprising techniques as hunting non-indigenous species (namely goats which were introduced by sailors as a food source) from helicopters.