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In Galápagos, novel conservation approach finds ‘sweet spot’ between production, protection | Conservation International
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In Galápagos, novel conservation approach finds ‘sweet spot’ between production, protection | Conservation International

Conservation International·@HashtagPLUS·about 1 month ago
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Scott Henderson is the vice president of the Sustainable Landscapes and Seascapes program at Conservation International. A visitor to the Galápagos Islands at the turn of the millennium would have found an archipelago booming. The Ecuadorian islands, a UNESCO World Heritage site, were a growing tourist hotspot. But for local communities on the islands, the picture was less rosy. Farms in Galápagos were dying off, as farmers’ children preferred higher-paying jobs in tourism. Tour operators used increasingly frequent flights to bring food from mainland Ecuador, where land, labor and chemicals were cheap — in turn, accidentally importing invasive species that overran farms and displaced native species. The local fishing industry was also struggling. While the islands’ population was growing, access to new fisheries was not, sparking protests by fishers who went so far as kidnapping local scientists to make their voices heard on the mainland. Fish stocks, meanwhile, decreased due to overfishing.…

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