Eriks Janelsins
History 58
2-24-00

Origin of Destruction: A Environmental Micro History of the Galapagos Islands

The islands of the Galapagos are not an undiscovered entity. Their history is well documented and their beauty something of legends. Darwin and Melville have both written about the beauty and splendor of the small chain of islands. The Galapagos Islands are a group of semi-desert volcanic islands that lie on the equator, approximately 600 miles west of Ecuador. They consist of thirteen major islands, six minor islands and 40 some smaller rock formations and reefs spread out over 17,000 square miles of ocean. The Galapagos Archipelago attractive to historical ecologists because of their celebrated biota and because their site is well suited to the study of climatic change.
Historical ecology suffers from an endless conflict of interests, between the necessity for using fossil data to reconstruct climate and the need to know climate in order to understand the community of fossils. The earliest pollen samples that have been collected are older carbon dating can tell. From the time the islands first broke through the ocean floor, some 7-9 million years ago, the Galapagos have remained a very active site of volcanic activity. This activity has changed the environment over time. It is believed that the islands have never been a part of South America. The flora and fauna of the islands have traveled through the wind, in the sea, or have been brought my humans. This is the reason that Darwin found the species on the islands to be slightly different from those on the mainland.
The first visitors were sailors of the Chimu culture form northern Peru during the rule of the Inca ruler, Tupac Yapanqui. The official discovery of the islands wasn't until March 10, 1535 by Fray Tomas de Berianga who was a Spanish bishop. Pirates used the islands for much of the next century. Groups of people through out history have visited the islands bringing with them animals and plants, some knowingly and others not. These introductions to the ecosystem have changed the islands forever.
Since islands are isolated, the ecosystem is more unstable than that of the mainland. In only a decade, the population of goats on the islands went from 10 to 100,000. The goats have destroyed the environment of the native tortoises that are now on the verge of extinction. The recent climatic changes have not been helpful for an already struggling island group. El Niño has changed the coral, plants, and animals, possibly forever. Did humans cause these climatic changes also? Something has to be done to save one of the richest habitats on earth.
At a time when the archipelago needs help, the country of Ecuador itself can barely survive. The banks in the country have been frozen. Inflation, unemployment, and poverty are uncontrollable so many of the citizens want to move to the islands where life is better and jobs are available. The islands are already struggling to support the 20,000 inhabitants. Immigration to island would be devastating.
Ecotourism seems to many in the country to be the solution to the economic problems. Tourists are eager to bring money to a part of the world that really needs it. Ecuador is in the middle of making regulations to control tourism and immigration to the Galapagos before humans totally destroy nature's wonderland. The history of human's effect on the Galapagos is disturbing. The studies that are being done on the islands will hopefully help in the preservation of many of the world's other biomes.

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