Balancing tourism, conservation, and development: a political ecology of ecotourism on the Galapagos Islands

Abstract

Thousands of tourists venture to the internationally renowned Galapagos Islands each year to admire the same pristine nature Darwin came upon over 150 years ago. While appreciating the landscape, many visitors fail to understand the interconnectedness of the tourism industry, Galapagos conservation efforts, and development on the inhabited islands of the archipelago. This research stems from 6 weeks of in-depth field research on San Cristóbal Island, Galapagos Islands, and demonstrates the ways in which island residents are forced to navigate the complex intersection of tourism, conservation, and development on the most local scale. Conservation political ecology examines the asymmetrical power relations in protected areas. Therefore, to understand the impacts of conservation and tourism on local communities, political ecology frames research findings to illustrate how relationships between conservation, tourism, and development have altered not only the San Cristóbal community, but also locals’ perceptions of various actors, their own agency, and Galapagos nature. The San Cristóbal municipal government aims to implement a version of ‘true’ ecotourism, which would allow residents to reclaim political agency, yet the lack of aid and transparency throughout larger scales of Ecuadorian governance challenges these local ideals.

Keywords:

• political ecology
• commodification
• Latin America
• nature
• parks and protected areas
• wildlife

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Davidson College Anthropology Department and the Environmental Studies Department for their continued support, especially Professor Bill Ringle. I would also like to thank the Galapagos Science Center associated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and the Galápagos Academic Institute for the Arts and Sciences (GAIAS), a remote campus of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) for necessary support for conducting research in GNP. Dr Stephen Walsh (UNC) and Julie Williams (USFQ) played especially critical roles while working in the field. Finally, I would like to thank Dr Diego Quiroga (USFQ) for working with me in San Cristóbal and his pivotal advice regarding the direction of my research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a 2014 Abernethy Research Award through Davidson College.