A fierce rearguard action is being fought to prevent the Galapagos – the world’s most renowned wildlife site – being damaged by development.
A fierce rearguard action is being fought to prevent the Galapagos – the world’s most renowned wildlife site – being damaged by development. Hotels, discos, and new townships have sprung up on several of the islands, and the population has doubled in 10 years. Darwin’s pristine wilderness is now a permanent home to 30,000 people, plus 173,000 visitors each year.
Although 97 per cent of the islands form a national park in which development is banned, towns outside the park have mushroomed. They have become a Mecca for young Ecuadoreans arriving from the mainland on cheap air tickets. Their demand for discos and beaches could turn parts of the archipelago into the Ibiza of the eastern Pacific. The islands, 600 miles from the mainland, are battling several huge problems at once. There are the hordes of visitors, which have quadrupl