| Galapagos
at crossroads: Islands may be downgraded by UNESCO |
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By Steven Edwards UNITED NATIONS: The islands that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution -- Ecuador's Galapagos -- are in danger of being delisted as a Natural World Heritage Site because of government failure to crack down on illegal fishing. Canadian Marc Patry will be part of a UNESCO delegation leaving Sunday to tell the Ecuadoran president: "Protect the islands or risk having them reclassified." If expert studies determine illegal fishing has caused substantial damage to ecosystems, UNESCO could list the islands as an Endangered World Heritage Site, strip them of all Heritage classifications, or issue a schedule for improvements. Any form of reclassification would be bad news for Ecuador, which earns around $200 million US annually from tourists who visit the islands because of their supposed pristine condition and wide variety of plant and animal species. "If the world body that oversees the quality of these sites says it no longer meets the required standards, people might think twice before going to Galapagos," Patry said from Paris, headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The roots of the crisis go back a decade, when fishermen from the mainland began moving to the islands in large numbers after exhausting coastal stocks. They originally sought sea cucumber, but as that species became scarce, many turned to long-line fishing for shark, tuna, swordfish and squid. However, the technique also kills marine life for which the Galapagos are famous, including turtles, seals and sea birds. "Ecuador has recently tightened shark exports at the national level, but on the whole, they have been caught up with other things," said Patry. Commercial fishing is officially banned in the Galapagos Marine Reserve, but rangers have been hard pressed to enforce the law, despite having access to an additional patrol boat lent by the Canadian-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. While the fishing community now makes up a large part of the archipelago's 20,000 population, fishermen have also been quick to mount protests, some of them violent, as they press for legalization of long-line fishing. Sea Shepherd founder and president Paul Watson also says Ecuadoran authorities have succumbed to corruption. "The corruption is just out of control," he said from the society's Farley Mowat vessel off Eastern Canada in the campaign against the seal pup hunt. "The fishermen are getting everything they wanted. And if they legalize long-lining in the Galapagos, it will be the death of the marine reserve." Sea Shepherd began joint patrols with the Ecuadoran rangers in 2000 after publishing a report in 1995 on deteriorating conditions. "Every time we go down there, I confiscate miles and miles of long lines and I intercept long liners," Watson said. "I had our larger vessel there last July and arrested four, and turned them over to the rangers. Our other vessel is intercepting them all the time." The country's leading conservation group, Fundacion Natura, says the problem is linked to a political crisis in Ecuador that has resulted in five environment ministers and eleven Galapagos governors in two years. "We are going through a period of crisis," said Ruth Elena Ruiz, acting director of the group. One protest saw fishermen threaten to introduce goats to one of the islands. Another saw them threaten rangers with gasoline bombs. They have also manned roadblocks and threatened to cut off turtles' heads. The archipelago's World Heritage status will be reviewed by UNESCO's 21-country World Heritage Committee at its annual meeting in July. The archipelago's fishing industry earns only $6 million US a year for the Ecuadoran economy. |