Galapagos Matters Autumn Winter 2020 - Galapagos Conservation Trust

OUR RESPONSE TO THE
IMPACTS OF THE PANDEMIC
With your crucial support, we
ramped up our educational and
outreach activities in a bid to stop
people turning to illegal activities;
we provided funding for essential
PPE to safeguard locals when
producing food; we were able
to continue vital funding of our
ongoing species projects; and we
are doubling our efforts to support
the creation of newly protected
swimways in response to the
threat of industrial fishing fleets on
the boundary of the Galapagos
There is a risk that lockdown will have affected the survival of animals such as Galapagos
giant tortoise hatchlings which are threatened by invasive species © GTMEP
community. “Local farmers distributed
products door-to-door and fish was always
available,” says Ainoa Nieto Claudin, wildlife
veterinarian and researcher at the Charles
Darwin Foundation. “Our diet changed
since we were not able to find the same
variety, but also improved as we ate more
local and organic food.” But there was a
dark side to the lockdown too, she notes.
“Violence against women and children
increased dramatically during lockdown,
with a woman killed by her partner in Puerto
Ayora. There have been protests against the
local authorities due to the economic crisis
and some people are taking advantage of the
situation for their own benefit.”
The most widespread impact of the
shutdown, however, has been the interruption
to international tourism, the sector that
underpins the majority of livelihoods in
Galapagos. “With no tourists we have had
to close our office, our boat is at anchor in
the bay and our employees have no work,”
says Manuel Yepez Revelo, the owner of
Galapagos Sharksky Travel and Conservation,
a small tourism company based on San
Cristobal. With the business losing money,
Revelo had to be inventive to make ends
meet. “I started a new business, selling fish
from my scooter house-to-house.”
By mid-June, the incidence of COVID-19
in the Islands had stabilised, the curfew
and other restrictions were easing, and
researchers and conservationists were
beginning to return to work. However, the
interruption to fieldwork could have longterm
impacts on the wildlife of Galapagos.
“My main concern is the unknown, and likely
negative, consequences on the survival or
restoration of species or populations such as
the mangrove finch, vermilion flycatcher and
giant tortoise hatchlings. Disruption of data
collection for long-term studies may render
some data sets useless for analysis,” says
Guezou. Disruption to funding streams could
also impact key conservation initiatives,
she says, including the project to restore
Floreana and the research into the impacts
of the invasive parasitic fly Philornis downsi
(see Box).
Another concern is that in the wake of
the virus there could be an increase in
uncontrolled development in an effort to
compensate for lost earnings. “I am afraid
that the pandemic will be used to support
management decisions that will go against
conservation,” says Nieto. In fact, the
upheaval has created new opportunities
that must be seized, she says. “Lockdown
has given us the perfect scenario to start
over and do things better. We need to learn
from our experiences and create new rules
to ensure social and ecological sustainability
for Galapagos.”
Birgit Fessl, coordinator of the Galapagos
Land Bird Conservation Plan at the Charles
Darwin Foundation, agrees that now is the
time to increase protection. “I consider
invasive species to be the biggest threat for
the wildlife in Galapagos. More support must
be given to strengthen biosecurity at the
borders of Galapagos and stop new species
getting in either by accident or by people
bringing them in.”
For GCT Ambassador Godfrey Merlen,
the absence of the usual human bustle
We need to avoid an increase in unsustainable activities
due to many people losing their jobs © Eva Horvath-Papp
has allowed him to see these Islands in a
way he’s never seen them before. “The sky
has been swept with a deeper blue. The
mangroves stand out with even brighter
greens. The waves crest with a dazzling
white and the crashing sound is louder in
my ears. There is bird song everywhere,”
he says. “The adversity posed by sudden
cessation of the never-ending arrival of
visitors has brought many in the Galapagos
community closer to each other and to
the precious natural world around us.”
Now is the time to increase protection
against invasive species such as
blackberry © Ana Mireya Guerrero
10 GALAPAGOS MATTERS