Galapagos article

From 10/8 LA Times...

Galapagos expels citizens as a flood of tourists threatens islands

Steve Stroud / Los Angeles Times
Sea lions bask on Espanola, one of the Galapagos Islands. The isles
off Ecuador are a living laboratory of unique species that inspired
Darwin and now draws affluent tourists.
Growth in population and tourism contaminate the islands' environment
with alien species and pollution. But some say tourists, not citizens,
should be kept out.]

By Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 8, 2008

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, ECUADOR -- A few weeks ago, 19 Ecuadorean citizens
detained on these world-renowned islands were marched onto a plane and
sent back to the continent under armed guard. Their crime? Illegal
migration.

So far this year, the government has expelled 1,000 of its citizens
from the Galapagos -- a living laboratory of unique animal and plant
species -- who were there without residency and work permits. It has
also "normalized" 2,000 others, in effect giving most of them a year
to leave.



Galapagos sightseeing

Seeing the Galapagos Islands

The migrants are attracted not by the tortoises or blue-footed boobies
but by the islands' booming economy, which offers plentiful jobs and
good pay. Typical wages run 70% higher than on Ecuador's mainland, the
public schools are good, and violent crime is nonexistent.

Last year, Ecuador was stung by a United Nations warning that the
islands, whose human population has doubled in 10 years to about
30,000, are at risk from overcrowding and mismanaged tourism.

Priming the economy is the apparently insatiable demand by foreign
tourists for a close-up look at giant tortoises, elephant seals,
flamingos, marine iguanas and other species in their native habitat.
As a result, scientists warn, that habitat is becoming increasingly
less pristine.

The 2007 report issued by UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural arm,
placed the islands on its "in danger" list, a designation upheld in
July.

The rising tide of tourists, residents and suppliers has introduced
alien species, including rats, goats, cats and, more recently,
mosquitoes and fire ants, UNESCO's Marc Petry said by telephone from
Paris. Such intrusions, as well as sewage and oil discharged from
boats, threaten the islands' plant and animal life, he said.

The expulsion of Ecuadorean nationals has sparked a debate about
whether the government should be more concerned with imposing a cap on
tourism than culling residents.

Scientists at Galapagos National Park want to see a limit on visitor
traffic, which in the last decade has grown 13% a year on average.
Tourists visiting the park this year are expected to total about
180,000, more than officials say they can keep up with.

"When visitors reached 50,000 a year, we said to ourselves, this
really is the limit. We can't handle any more. But now it's triple
that figure," said Sixto Naranjo, the park's coordinator and former
director.

The government of President Rafael Correa has resisted any move to cap
the number of visitors. Environment Minister Marcela Aguinaga said in
a September interview that there was no sign that tourism was
"oversaturated." Migration controls, resident training and the
development of a new "tourism model" are the answers, she said.

"President Correa declared the islands in danger four months before
UNESCO and already had taken several measures to confront the
problems," Aguinaga said.

The new tourism model, which is being studied for a report due by
mid-2009, might try to freeze visitation levels with strategies such
as raising the entrance fee for foreigners to $300 or more from $100.

The government has also launched a training program designed to reduce
the number of fishermen. Too many are plying the waters for too scarce
a resource, especially since overfishing in the 1990s decimated the
stock of sea cucumber, a delicacy in Asia. Shark and lobster
populations also have been illegally exploited.

The management of Galapagos tourism is a sticky issue for Correa, a
self-described green president who briefly taught college economics.
Galapagos tourism generates an estimated $200 million a year in
revenue, about one-fourth of which ends up in the pockets of local
ship captains, cooks, guides and other suppliers living on the
islands. The rest goes to airlines and tour packagers on the mainland.

Despite rising prices and global economic downturns, the number of
visitors has increased tenfold since 1980, with middle-aged Americans
and Europeans making up the fastest-growing market segment. These
tourists, in contrast to the shoestring-budget backpackers of two
decades ago, are increasingly affluent.

Nearly half the Galapagos visitors this year will be from the U.S.,
and most will spend $2,000 to $3,000 for a four-to-seven-day boat tour
of selected islands, on top of the not-inexpensive airfare. Half the
islands' visitors have annual incomes of $50,000 or more and one-third
are older than 50, said Fabian Zapata, director of INGALA, the
regional planning agency.

Most will emerge as amazed as naturalist Charles Darwin, whose 1835
visit inspired his "The Origin of Species," the tract in which he laid
out his theory of evolution.

UNESCO declared the archipelago a World Heritage Site in 1978, the
inaugural year for the designation.

Correa's government was the first to strictly enforce laws that
require formal "visas" for Ecuadoreans to visit the Galapagos. The
papers of all arriving at the islands' two airports are checked. Many
with limited-stay tourist visas simply remain to look for work.

Checkpoints and patrols have become routine on Santa Cruz Island, home
to the port town of Puerto Ayora, at 20,000 residents the Galapagos'
largest city and the embarkation point for most tours.

But the undocumented still slip through security and now represent an
estimated 20% of the islands' population.

Businesses say they are besieged by undocumented Ecuadoreans looking for work.

"I put up a sign to fill a waiter position today and I got five
applicants, none of whom had papers," said Hernan Herrera, owner of
the popular Cafe Hernan in Puerto Ayora.

"It's a privilege to live here," Herrera said. "But also a responsibility."

chris.kraul@latimes.com