The History of Human Settlement on the Galápagos Islands

Between the Years of 1930-2019 (Present):

Human’s Impact on the Biological Makeup of

Inhabited Islands and the Introduction of Invasive Species

Sydney Barrington

Ecuador Study Abroad Independent Study: History

4 February 2019 Barrington 1

Throughout the Galápagos Island’s history, many different groups of people have entered the island’s borders. The Galápagos Islands, officially named the Archipiélago de Colón, consist of 18 main islands, 3 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. Only 5 of these islands are inhabited by people: Santa Cruz Island, San Cristóbal Island, Isabela Island, Floreana Island, and an airport on Baltra Island. The islands are one of the few places in the world without a native population and the introduced people are a mix of ethnicities that include Ecuadorian Mestizos,

Spanish descendants, and American descendants. Many different groups have visited the islands, including Charles Darwin, whalers, and pirates, however, none of these groups has impacted the islands as much as the permanent settlers. In the period between 1930s and present day, people immigrated and started to officially inhabit the islands permanently. Many successes and failures determined which of these people would thrive on the islands and those who would retreat back to the mainland or their countries of origin. Since the time of the first inhabitants, non-native species have been introduced to the Galápagos Islands, often with severe consequences to the biological composition of the land. Many of the species introduced, such as rats, dogs, cats, and goats, are not rare or deadly in themselves, but when placed within the fragile biology of the islands where life took years to adapt, they have caused dramatic effects. Once people settled,

Galapagueños were forced to look at the human impacts made on the islands before them and to realize that they are the people who would have to further protect these islands from more degrading impacts and restore them to as close to their original state as possible.

Early in the 1930s, the first permanent settlers arrived from Europe to settle on Floreana

Island, and, eventually, they then also moved to San Cristóbal and Santa Cruz. These settlers ​ ​ were not the first people to ever visit any of the islands and were not the first to stay there. They

Barrington 2 were however the first long term settlers who were making a new life. Any persons whom these new settlers would’ve encountered would have been “the archipelago’s labor force [which] was mostly comprised of conscripted vagrants, political dissidents, and prisoners condemned to one or another of the notoriously inhumane penal colonies that existed at various times on Floreana,

San Cristóbal, and Isabela”.1 Most immigrants who were coming to the islands were leaving their traditional lifestyles and seeking a simper, more pioneer way of life. “Prior to the advent of organized tourism, Galápagos was a rustic, little known outpost, except in the scientific world”2 because of Darwin’s research for his Theory of Evolution. Tourism would not take off for a few decades, so the groups of people that were picking up their lives and moving to the islands were going to be relying on the land and their agricultural income to support themselves. Mostly from

Norway and Germany, these new islanders took over the lands without much thought towards any sort of conservation, even though the government of Ecuador designated part of the ​ Galápagos as a wildlife sanctuary in 1935. However, at this time, the Ecuadorian government didn’t promote any laws in holding up the islands aesthetics either. Instead, the laws gave immigrants “possibility of receiving twenty hectares each of free land, the right to maintain their

Norwegian citizenship for as long as they wished, freedom from taxation for the first ten years in

Galápagos, and the right to hunt and fish freely on all the uninhabited islands where they might settle”.3 While this didn’t immediately affect the islands and biology, every small impact that fishers and hunters made impacted the future of the islands.

1 Bruce Epler, “Tourism, the Economy, Population Growth, and Conservation in Galápagos” (Sept. 2007) ​ www.Galápagos.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/TourismReport1.pdf?fbclid=IwAR395l8PcOBJoeVDcAlRY5aW Vxj7jLPQMOwRBBu8JOFE4iZfljZviqigla0. 2 Ibid. ​ 3 Jacob Lundh, “Galápagos: A Brief History.” ​ web.archive.org/web/20110720084818/http://www.Galápagos.to/TEXTS/LUNDH-3.HTM.

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Some of the first ever settlers on Floreana Island were Friedrich Ritter, a German physician, and his lover, Dore Strauch, both of which had abandoned their partners in Germany and decided to make a new life for themselves in this tropical “paradise”. Another German couple, Heinz and Margret Wittmer, were inspired by the German physician and decided to try and create a new life for themselves. The two couples were not fond of each other, and so they each took on a different part of the island, furthering their damages on the wildlife and ecosystem. When the two couples had begun to tolerate each other, another person came upon the island. The person was Eloise Wehrborn de Wagner-Bosquet, a “self-proclaimed Baroness”4 and her two lovers, Robert Philippson and Rudolf Lorenz. With all of these people on the island, they had to use lots of resources from the land, especially the Baroness, who had decided to build a hotel on the island. The families also had to obtain resources from passing tourists in boats, therefore introducing fruits, animals, and other human products to the island. Floreana Island is not a large island, and under the influence of these three parties, it suffered greatly from all the hunting, fishing, and land use.

Pirates and whalers had already compromised some of the biological diversity and landscapes of the Galápagos by taking these species and having them live on their boats for months on end as a food supply, so even before the permanent settlers started to use the land, 3 ​ of the 14 races of tortoises were gone and populations of others were vastly reduced. Feral goats, like those released by during the pirate era, along with pigs, burros, and cattle, were defoliating the inhabited islands.5 Four goats had been introduced to the Santiago Islands in the early 1800's, and they were left to roam freely, so it is now calculated that their population had grown to

4 Nikki Vargas, “The Mysterious Murder That Rocked the Galápagos Islands.” (6 Oct. 2017) ​ theculturetrip.com/south-america/ecuador/articles/the-mysterious-murder-that-rocked-the-Galápagos-islands/. 5 “Galápagos Geology”, www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/GalápagosWWW/Colonization.html. ​ ​

Barrington 4 nearly 100,000. The goats diet ability to feed on nearly any plant made them solely responsible for the extinction of up to 4 or 5 species of native vegetation, and they were one of the first species that competed with the Galápagos tortoises for their food source. Along with the few races of tortoises, the native rice rat, one of the few indigenous Galápagos mammals, was also already extinct on many islands, and some plants introduced on the settled islands were replacing the unique native species. The people that settled in the 1930s introduced multiple species that were brought over as pets, livestock, or as a food sources, and in turn, these animals would then eat the eggs or young of the native birds and reptiles, which lead to a large amount of devastation in the native species.

By the 1940s, WWII was at large when more people started to inhabit the islands. The

United States had made an agreement with the Ecuadorian government and built Base Beta, a.k.a. “The Rock”, on Baltra Island to protect the Panama Canal after the Battle of Pearl Harbor.

About 2,400 servicemen and 750 civilians lived on the inhabited islands of Santa Cruz, Floreana, ​ Baltra, and San Cristóbal. The base’s construction began in 1942, and, “within months, Base

Beta had two air strips and 200 buildings, which included barracks, offices, hangars, a cinema and a beer garden…[Also,] the base’s demand for water, fish and other supplies provided jobs for local Galapagueños”.6 Tourism was not yet a large part of the islanders life, for the islands were not yet designated as a World Heritage Site and, therefore, were not a tourist place of interest. After World War II had ended, the U.S. turned the air force base over to the Ecuadorian government and the buildings were dismantled in 1946, yet there is still slabs of concrete laying on the red rock landscape that interferes with the island’s natural aesthetics.

6 “Galápagos Geology”, www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/GalápagosWWW/Colonization.html.

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Also during the 1940s, a plant species called quinine was introduced to Santa Cruz

Island, and it is still one of the most invasive woody species in Galápagos, impacting native vegetation. Quinine is considered a “transformer” species, meaning it has changed the species composition and biological structure of the Santa Cruz highlands.7 The Galápagos National Park

Directorate (GNPD), are trying to use both manual and chemical control methods, however, neither are long term responses to the problem. In addition, research has revealed that these control methods may result in more harm than good. Current research focuses on improving the effectiveness of these techniques, while exploring other control options.

In 1959, the Galápagos was declared a National Park by the Ecuadorian government and

“the last penal colony, on Isabela, was closed in 1959, after a violent revolt by inmates”8, meaning the permanent settlers were the only persons left inhabiting the islands. Until this time, the inhabitants were, more or less, entirely dependent on the islands’ natural resources. A cargo boat would visit the archipelago perhaps every six months, so islanders relied on cultivating and raising animals in their backyards. Of course, sea food was also always readily available for everyone.

Beginning in the late 1960s, yachts were introduced to the islands and the Baltra airstrips were reconstructed, thus allowing tourism to kick off. The increase in tourism attracted a steady stream of migration from the mainland. During 1972, about 1000 tourists were allowed onto the islands, and there were 3,500 inhabitants living on the islands who were working in tourism and agriculture. New fisheries, especially for lobster and sea cucumber have encouraged many

7 “Galápagos Colonists.” Galápagos Conservancy, ​ www.Galápagos.org/about_Galápagos/about-Galápagos/history/human-discovery/colonists/. 8 Bruce Epler, “Tourism, the Economy, Population Growth, and Conservation in Galápagos” (Sept. 2007) ​

Barrington 6 migrants to arrive and start a living in this industry which is often in conflict with conservation efforts.

In 1964, the Darwin Research Center facilities were established so that scientists could use the station as a base for their research on the Galápagos Islands. Their research was, and still is, used to advise about the actions that should be carried out by the Galápagos National Park

Directorate. The research center is meant for managing conservation, restoration and sustainable development projects that would ensure that the archipelago is well-maintained. The research efforts are organized into three main categories: marine environments, terrestrial environments and ecosystem restoration. One year after the establishment of the center, the research station began a program of collecting tortoise eggs and bringing them to the research station where they would be hatched and raised to an age where they had a reasonable chance for survival. In the

1960s, invasive mammals had started to consume turtle eggs and drastically brought down the species population. In order to help the tortoises survive through the eradication of the invasive animals, humans had to step in and reverse their damage.

During the 1970s migration to the islands, the wild blackberry, a.k.a. mora, was introduced as an agricultural plant and eventually spread throughout much of the islands, devastating forests in the highlands of Santa Cruz, Isabella, Floreana, and San Cristóbal - all of the inhabited islands. “On Santa Cruz alone, where wild blackberry covers 15,000 hectares, only

1% of the original Scalesia forests remain intact. Scalesia forests are found only in the Galápagos and provide habitat for a variety of bird species, including the woodpecker finch and vermillion

Barrington 7 flycatcher”.9 Even currently, efforts to control wild blackberry have been unsuccessful in an overall scale.

International tourism to the Galápagos exploded in the 1980s and 1990s after the

Galápagos Islands were named one of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization (UNESCO)’S World Heritage Site along with 12 other places in 1978.

Consequently, after being named a World Heritage Site and having such a large increase in tourism, it lead to more migrants coming to the Galápagos. The immigrants moving to the islands were looking to take advantage of all the direct and indirect employment opportunities.

Work on the islands offers higher salaries up to 50 percent higher than those on the mainland; although the Ecuadorian government tries to contain the islands' population growth, any extra jobs are hard to resist. “With the opening of Galápagos to the world, and the incorporation of activities such as tourism and conservation into the local economy, the demand for goods and services increased. Cargo boats started to come more frequently, airplanes supplemented the transportation of merchandise and people, and cable TV, Internet and air conditioning became modern ‘necessities.’”.10 15,000 people were living in the Galápagos during this time, and the number was slowly increasing; unfortunately, the number of permanent inhabitants and visitors strains the sustainability of the island’s ecosystem.

When migrants do not find work in tourism, they often find jobs in the fishing industry.

The sea cucumber and sharks of the Galápagos have become large targets, due to both species being popular in Asian markets for their delicacies and medicinal purposes. When the population of marine species made a large decrease in the early 1990's, an Executive Decree made by the

9 “Invasive Species & Biosecurity.” (6 Oct. 2016) ​ aboutGalápagos.nathab.com/conservation/introduced-species-and-Galápagos-biosecurity/. ​ 10 “Living Permanently in the Galápagos.” (2 June 2017) www.islandconservation.org/Galápagos-gloria-salvador/. ​

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National Park Service banned all fishing of sea cucumbers in the Galápagos.11 Galapagan fishermen were not filled with enthusiasm, and even when the ban had been replaced by a quota, there were still strikes from the fishermen. In April 2004, angry fishermen took over the Charles

Darwin Station and demanded the right to use larger equipment so they could catch more fish and better support themselves and their families. The strike ended with an agreement signed between César Narváez (Ecuador's Minister of the Environment) and the Galapagan fishermen.

The problem is not over, but new solutions are being talked about.

Introduced in 1988 was the invasive wasp, polistes, which is now found throughout the archipelago. The wasps prey on large numbers of native insects (especially moth and butterfly larvae), compete for food with insect species, and indirectly affect other ecosystem processes, such as pollination.12 Polistes can cause severe allergic reactions in humans. The Charles Darwin

Research Station constantly searches for solutions to the problem of the introduced species, which is in large numbers at visitor sites, local vegetable markets, and on farms.

Presently, four islands are inhabited now: Floreana, Isabela, Santa Cruz, and San ​ Cristóbal. Tourism drives the economy, but also leads to population growth that could be a risk factor if not properly controlled. New laws introduced in 2007 by President Correa include ways that the number of Galápagos inhabitants is being well controlled and that, for now at least, the future of the Galápagos as an international tourist destination is secure. Under the Special Law for Galapagos (signed into Ecuadorian Law in 1998 and revised in 2008), the government is attempting to limit migration, control development, and protect native species/ecosystems.

11 “Charles Darwin in Galápagos” www.Galápagosislands.com/info/environment.html. 12 “Invasive Species & Biosecurity.” (6 Oct. 2016) aboutGalápagos.nathab.com/conservation/introduced-species-and-Galápagos-biosecurity/.

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Nevertheless, despite conservation efforts, the World Heritage Committee added Galápagos to

UNESCO's List of World Heritage Sites in Danger in 2007.

The island’s human inhabitants, mostly Ecuadorians, live in settlements on San Cristóbal,

Santa María, Isabela, and Santa Cruz islands. Some of the islands are virtually untouched by humans, but many have been altered by the introduction of nonnative plants and animals, the growth of the local human population, and tourist traffic. Tourism, fishing, and agriculture are their main economic activities that settlers engage in, and the consequences are often overlooked.

There are up to 30,000 inhabitants in the Galápagos presently - Floreana island only has

121 people total, and yet they manage to survive with what local resources are available: fish is brought to towns by local fishermen, tomatoes, plantains and yucca are cultivated by farmers in the highlands, and fruit trees are growing everywhere, even in the protected areas.13 The

Galápagos population has increased over 300% in the past few decades, with the 1990 census marking the population at 9,735, and today, more than 25,000 people live on the Islands. The population is still climbing each year as people migrate or more children are born. Aside from the pressure put on the natural resources, this affects the archipelago in a number of means. The park service regulates the licensing of guides, as well as designating low-impact landing sites.

The National Park service charges a $100 entrance fee on foreign tourists, yet receives only 25% of the profit. The National Park Service must to deal with the conservation problems that motor yachts and their trash bring to the island. This large growth means that most of the garbage is dumped in an open air site and burned with no sort of treatment or separation. Additionally, garbage not even made on the islands still ends up on hidden beaches untouched by humans and

13 Maria Trimarchi, “How the Galápagos Islands Work.” (28 June 2018) ​ https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/evolution/Galápagos-islands.htm

Barrington 10 inhabited shorelines. In 2001, approximately 80,000 visitors came to the island and while the number has increased and decreased, visitor numbers have remained generally the same. With the large numbers of people visiting the islands, a second airport was built on San Cristóbal and also a small airline strip on Isabella Island.

In the 1990s, the Galápagos Inspection and Quarantine System (SICGAL) was established to inspect goods arriving on cargo ships and the luggage of newly arrived tourists with the goal of catching any insects or seeds that could prove harmful. This also includes the sanitizing of a person’s shoes as they step foot on the island. Today, a “massive overhaul of the cargo supply chain and quarantine system is underway which, when complete, will reduce the risk that new invasive species will be introduced”.14 Efforts to control invaders include the practice of biological control, which involves introducing the natural enemies of the invasive species into the Galápagos ecosystem. For example, “after years of extensive research, the

Australian ladybug was introduced to combat the invasive cottony cushion scale, an insect that threatened more than 60 native plants. Currently, the ladybugs have managed to control cottony cushion scale numbers with no apparent negative impact on other species”.15 Dogs, cats, and rats are continually threatening marine iguanas and seabirds on many islands and are constantly being eradicated. The island of Alcedo is home to the largest population of tortoises and, up until this time, had been little affected by humans or feral animals. In the last 10 years, the number of goats on Alcedo has increased explosively, and there are now between 50,000 and 100,000 goats

14 “Galápagos Colonists.” Galápagos Conservancy, www.Galápagos.org/about_Galápagos/about-Galápagos/history/human-discovery/colonists/. 15 “Invasive Species & Biosecurity.” (6 Oct. 2016) ​ aboutGalápagos.nathab.com/conservation/introduced-species-and-Galápagos-biosecurity/.

Barrington 11 there. The introduced eradication program, though slow going, has eliminated feral goats from several small islands, and are still working on others.

Project Isabela is perhaps the most successful invasive species control initiative to date.

In 2006, tens of thousands of feral goats were eradicated from the island of Isabela, allowing the restoration of native habitat on the island to commence. The Galápagos Special Law of 1998 that provided islanders with specific restrictions and obligations to control immigration and regulate access to the protected areas that cover 97% of the terrestrial territory of the islands.

Recently, in January of 2019, on North Seymour Island, the Ecuadorian government decided to eradicate the black rat and Norwegian rat with the use of poison displaced by drones and park rangers. The use of drones was “accurate, it also increases the feasibility and reduces the costs of eradicating the invasive rodents in small and medium-sized islands,"16 according to

Karl Campbell, the director of the Island Conservation organization. 3,000kg of poison was scattered around on the island to save the biology of frigatebirds and the earwig seagull’s breeding grounds. North Seymour Island was the center of another project: returning iguanas to

Santiago Island. Santiago Island last had iguanas when Charles Darwin visited because iguanas were wiped out by invasive species like the feral pig. A project initiated by the Galápagos

National Park authority lead to about 1,400 land iguanas being taken from the North Seymour

Island and released on Santiago Island, specifically around Puerto Nuevo and Bucanero because of the similar ecosystem to their original habitat, in early January 2019. The land iguana population declined after the introduction of invasive and feral species like cats, rats, dogs, and pigs that would consume young iguanas and eggs and also eat their food sources. According to

16 “Ecuador Eradicates Galápagos Rats Using Drones.” (28 Jan. 2019) ​ www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2019/01/28/ecuador-eradicates-Galápagos-rats-using-drones/.

Barrington 12 the Galápagos Conservation Trust, “The reintroduction initiative... was developed in response to the depletion of vegetation like the cactus on North Seymour Island, threatening the some 5,000 iguanas' food source”17. As a part of the program, some iguanas were left to populate on North

Seymour Island to avoid compromising its existing vegetation. The initiative has been put into place, by now an observation period will consist of monitoring the introduced iguanas and determining whether they're thriving by creating nests and finding sufficient food. Authorities will also be watching the iguanas interaction with rodents and ants to prevent them from disturbing the iguanas transition.

Superior education was a privilege that few could afford by going to live on the mainland in the 1940s and 50s, but now, environmental education efforts are available to islanders to help the inhabitants understand the larger picture and need for conservation. Additionally, the knowledge of responsible tourism and enforced park guidelines help preserve the Galápagos for the future. There are seemingly endless needs for the park's preservation, and always limited funding that can be discouraging, but the islands have come a long way from what they were.

Other than what little budget it receives from the Republic of Ecuador, the National Park relies entirely on funding from philanthropists, fundraising efforts of the Charles Darwin Foundation,

Inc. and other private organizations. Any non-native species introduced to the islands -- whether today when a plane touches down or hundreds of years ago when explorers landed -- compete with endemic wildlife for food. With conservation and restoration efforts ideas such as dogs being absent from the island of Isabela and the reintroduction and repopulation of elephantine

17 “Iguanas Reintroduced to Galápagos Island after 200 Years.”(8 Jan. 2019) ​ www.cnn.com/travel/article/Galápagos-island-iguanas-scli-intl/index.html?utm_source=Today in Latin America&utm_campaign=161572a13a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_01_09_03_17&utm_medium=email&utm_ter m=0_73d76ad46b-161572a13a-15290959.

Barrington 13 tortoise have become a reality. Humans have made a large impact on the unique biological composition of the Galapagos, but are now trying to undo as much of their damage as possible. It is a slow process to eradicate invasive plants and animals, but with the help of tourist money, the government funds, scientists, and the Charles Darwin Foundation, improvement can be seen on every island.

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