Tourism and Population Growth on the Galapagos Islands by Maja Pankowska

Dangers Uncontrolled tourism and population growth was among the 15 issues identified by the World Heritage Committee. Up until the early 1970s, residents numbered approximately 4,000. Between 1991 and 2007, the resident population more than doubled to more than 20,000. Since 1960s, tourism has been the most important factor contributing to population growth.

The Income Over the past 15 years, gross income generated by tourism has increased by an average of 14% each year. This growth is reflected in the increase in available beds (in both hotels and on tourist boats) from 1,928 in 1991 to 3,473 in 2006 And the rise in the number of visitors to Galapagos from 40,000 in 1990 to more than 145,000 in At present, Galapagos tourism generates $418M annually, of which an estimated $63M enters the local economy (equal to 51% of the Galapagos economy) This resulted in the growth of local small enterprises, which, in turn, contribute to increased immigration.

Laws The Galapagos Special Law of 1998 laid out immigration protocols which sought to limit the size of the resident population.

Management system for visitors 1. Zonification of Public Use classification of visitor sites into different management categories to ensure their conservation and visitor satisfaction. 2. Acceptable Visitor Load goes beyond the simple number of visitors in managing the impact of tourism on visitor sites. The characteristics of each site, infrastructure, tourist behavior... are all essential for its conservation. 3. Tourist Monitoring system of continuous monitoring of terrestrial visitor sites since It has become increasingly more sophisticated over the years to ensure adequate management of the impact of tourism in the natural protected areas of Galapagos. 4. Itineraries organization of itineraries for visits to places of public use in the protected area from authorized tourist boats.

Impacts of population growth At the larger protected areas and at visitor sites, the impact of increased numbers of visitors and residents has been fairly well managed through standard protected area management techniques. The impacts in the inhabited portions of the archipelago have been much more pronounced. Increasing numbers of visitors and residents have resulted in a rapid growth in physical infrastructure and ever-increasing demands for public services.

Impacts As the human population in Galapagos has grown: the number of airports in the islands has increased from one to three, the number of flights from the continent have increased, the number of cargo ships and the amount of cargo continue to increase, and increasingly more fuel is brought to the islands increasing the risk of oil spills such as that of the cargo ship Jessica in Commercial flights to Galapagos increased by 193% from 2001 to 2006…

Why is it bad? Any increase in flights, new access routes, and cargo ships will potentially bring an increasing number of invasive species – the greatest threat to the archipelago. While progress is being made in the area of population control, it is generally believed that the pressure for more illegal and temporary immigrants to help serve the tourism sector will continue until tourism is better managed and more efforts are made to build the capacity of the local workforce.

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