Overview

World Summit on Island Sustainability

In 2022, the Galapagos Science Center (GSC) and the broader UNC & USFQ Galapagos Initiative celebrated its 10th Anniversary. The GSC hosted the World Summit on Island Sustainability on June 26–30, 2022 at the Galapagos Science Center and the Community Convention Center on San Cristobal Island.

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Galapagos Science Center

In 2011, strategic partners UNC-Chapel Hill (UNC) and the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) dedicated the Galapagos Science Center on San Cristobal Island, a facility of 20,000 square feet that contains four laboratories – Microbiology & Genetics, Terrestrial Ecology, Marine Ecology, and Visualization and Data Science Laboratory – that are supported by a staff of 15 professionals and over 100 collaborative scientists from UNC, USFQ, and global institutions.

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Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands are an oceanic, island archipelago comprised of 11 large islands and hundreds of small islands and islets located in the Eastern Pacific Ocean approximately 1,000-km off the coast of the Ecuadorian mainland. Bifurcated by the equator, the Galapagos Islands’ geographic position has created unique marine and terrestrial environments that welcome warm and cold-water species, native and endemic flora and fauna, and stunning volcanic landscapes.

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The Galapagos Islands are facing increasing danger. Globalization, climate change, and international tourism conspire to threaten island sustainability through local and global forces of change. The critical loss of endemic species, wildlife trafficking, and the unrelenting pressure of human impacts have placed these “enchanted islands” at risk. Further, these islands act as an early warning system to recognize the threats to island ecosystems globally. Saving the Galapagos Islands requires a dedicated and innovative strategy that is transformative, interdisciplinary, and sustained. Together, UNC-Chapel Hill, USA and the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador has leveraged its long-term commitment to the Galapagos Islands by scaling key projects that extend across the sciences to save these islands and, in so doing, have created a template for saving similarly challenged island settings around the globe.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador created the Galapagos Science Center (GSC) in 2011 to advance science and conservation in the Galapagos Islands – and to extend a richer, more complete understanding of island ecosystems and the threats to their sustainability to the world. The Galapagos Initiative, founded by Dr. Stephen J. Walsh of UNC-Chapel Hill and Dr. Carlos Mena of USFQ, aims to save the Galapagos Islands with an innovative, interdisciplinary, and sustainable strategy. UNC Center for Galapagos Studies coordinates UNC’s Galapagos-related research, teaching, and outreach activities in Chapel Hill with the joint UNC/USFQ Galapagos Science Center.

The Galapagos Science Center is the only institution of its kind in the Galapagos and is unlikely to be duplicated by any other research institution in Galapagos. The GSC is a state-of-the-art facility of 20,000 square feet that contains four laboratories – Microbiology & Genetics, Terrestrial Ecology, Marine Ecology, and Visualization and Data Science Laboratory – that are supported by a staff of 15 professionals and over 100 collaborative scientists from UNC, USFQ, and global institutions. The GSC is strategically guided by the jointly appointed UNC/USFQ Advisory Board and represents a unique facility and a special opportunity to make the world a better place by working to understand island ecosystems and the social-ecological threats to sustainability.

The Galapagos Science Center is proud to conduct outstanding and integrative research and education that contributes to protecting Earth’s unique and special places. This includes animals and plants – from the cell to the landscape level – that inhabit the Galapagos and the ecosystems in which they thrive. This work specifically involves the human dimension and the interconnections among the social, terrestrial, and marine sub-systems of the Galapagos Islands. Work in the Galapagos is approached through a rich and varied interdisciplinary and integrative perspective aimed at identifying the proper balance between the natural environment and the people who live in and visit these special places. The location for this work is the Galapagos Archipelago of Ecuador – home to some of the world’s most iconic and unique species and one of the world’s few isolated and largely undeveloped natural habitats. The science required to address this pressing global issue of island and ecosystem sustainability must be integrated and interdisciplinary. The problems the Galapagos Science Center seeks to solve are complex, so they cannot be solved by a single scientist working in a narrow field. They require scientists from different disciplines, working together in teams to fuse studies of the environment with studies of human and animal populations, their health and well-being, and their direct and indirect consequences to understand island ecosystems and the threats to their sustainability.

UNC and USFQ are uniquely suited for this role. One of their greatest strengths as institutions is the interdisciplinary, problem-solving approach they bring to research. Together, they are among the world’s foremost leaders in interdisciplinary research that engages natural, social, spatial, and computational sciences. This is the way UNC & USFQ are wired to work – their DNA. The Galapagos Science Center represents a major commitment by both Universities to put its research strength in these fields into action – to preserve the Galapagos and the beloved species that live there and, at the same time, enable people of the Galapagos and people of the world to experience and sustain this unique ecosystem.

The Galapagos Initiative represents a unique opportunity to make the world a better place and to enrich our understanding of human-natural systems in a world-renowned National Park, Marine Reserve and World Heritage Site, and to extend that understanding to address similar challenges around the globe.

Our vision of globalized learning is to transform research, education, and outreach by creating links to international partners whose ideas and energies flow between UNC, USFQ, Galapagos Islands, global island ecosystems, and world institutions to innovate, enlighten, and transform. The Galapagos Initiative draws from the varied talents and experiences of our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and special friends, and applies the lessons learned and new knowledge generated to the challenges facing our planet. The Galapagos Initiative emphasizes the study of island ecosystems, and by extension, coastal environments, and their direct and indirect linkages to local and global places as well as social-ecological forces of change.

The Galapagos Islands are a highly charismatic place of world-renowned stature and reputation. Iconic species and iconic landscapes, and their accessibility, have justified their placement on most everyone ́s “bucket list” for a future visit and, possibly, for financial and emotional support. With a UNC-USFQ building on one of the most famous and iconic places in the world, the Galapagos Science Center attracts the “best and brightest” scholars by providing our scientists an amazing environmental setting as well as a cutting-edge infrastructure that supports innovative and transformative science and education. While we have come a long way in a relatively short period of time since the dedication of the Galapagos Science Center in 2011, our full potential remains relatively untapped. In the next 5+ years, we will take the necessary steps to accelerate and enhance our capacities in very meaningful and substantial ways to build upon our many successes that benefit UNC, USFQ, Consortium members, Galapagos Islands, and the planet.

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Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands are an oceanic, island archipelago comprised of 11 large islands and hundreds of small islands and islets located in the Eastern Pacific Ocean approximately 1,000-km off the coast of the Ecuadorian mainland. Bifurcated by the equator, the Galapagos Islands’ geographic position has created unique marine and terrestrial environments that welcome warm and cold-water species, native and endemic flora and fauna, and stunning volcanic landscapes. As a National Park, Marine Reserve, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the islands are renowned for their iconic species, including giant tortoises, marine iguanas, hammerhead sharks, flightless cormorants, and Darwin Finches.

With an international reputation for endemism and biodiversity, the Galapagos Islands have also generated a rich history of human exploration, settlement, and exploitation. Historically plundered for its marine resources, such as whales, fur seals, and giant tortoises, the contemporary exploitation has transitioned to the consumption of amenity resources, illegal harvesting of shark fins, harvesting of sea cucumbers and lobsters often beyond sanctioned limits imposed by the Galapagos National Park, and the direct and indirect consequences of the expanding human dimension seen through the importation of food, fuel, and consumer products for home and commercial sale. In 1990, the Galapagos Islands recorded 10,000 residents and 40,000 tourists. By 2019, the number of residents increased to 35,000 and the number of tourists expanded to 275,000. While considerable progress is being made to support the rapidly increasing human dimension in the islands, more still needs to be achieved to address the needed social services as well as the household necessities of life in the Galapagos Islands.

Households in the Galapagos continue their employment in traditional sectors of agriculture and fisheries, but tourism continues to employ a growing share of households, now exceeding 80% of all households in the Galapagos. Employment is increasing in the government sector, including jobs within the Galapagos National Park as well as community government and the Government Council, the provincial authority in the Galapagos. For fisher households, opportunities exist for employment in the tourism industry, particularly working on-board cruise boats. Demographic characteristics, employment preferences, job availability, government restrictions, and household responses to exogenous shocks such as El Niño events, when fish stocks are negatively affected, or economic downturns such as the COVID-19 pandemic, periodically alter job opportunities in both fisheries and tourism.

In 2022, the Galapagos Science Center (GSC) and the broader UNC & USFQ Galapagos Initiative will celebrate its 10th Anniversary. We are proud to announce the World Summit on Island Sustainability scheduled to be held on June 26–30, 2022 at the Galapagos Science Center and the Community Convention Center on San Cristobal Island.

The content of the World Summit will be distributed globally through social media and results documented through papers published in a book written as part of the Galapagos Book Series by Springer Nature and edited by Steve Walsh (UNC) & Carlos Mena (USFQ) as well as Jill Stewart (UNC) and Juan Pablo Muñoz (GSC/USC). The book will be inclusive and accessible by the broader island community including scientists, managers, residents, tourists, and government and non-government organizations.

While the most obvious goal of organizing the World Summit on Island Sustainability is to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the GSC and the UNC-USFQ Galapagos Initiative, other goals will be addressed through special opportunities created as part of our operational planning of the World Summit.

For instance, we seek to elevate and highlight the Galapagos in the island conservation discourse, seeking to interact with other island networks in more obvious and conspicuous ways to benefit the Galapagos Islands, the UNC-USFQ Galapagos Initiative, and the world. We will seize the opportunity to further develop the I2N2 – International Islands Network-of-Networks. Further, we wish to highlight and emphasize multiple visions of a sustainable future for the Galapagos Islands and we cannot do this alone. Therefore, engaging the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Tourism, the Government Council of Galapagos, the Galapagos National Park, and local Galapagos authorities, including government and non-government organizations and local citizen groups, is imperative.

The Galapagos Science Center on San Cristobal Island, Galapagos

Borrowing from Hawaii’s and Guam’s Green Growth Program and the Global Island Partnership, we wish to examine existing global programs that emphasize island sustainability and their incorporation into life, policies, and circumstances in the Galapagos Islands. We will also seek to enhance our connections with the institutional members of our International Galapagos Science Consortium and expand the Consortium through the recruitment of other member institutions. We will also work to benefit islands and their local communities by working with citizen groups as well as important NGOs who seek to improve the natural conditions in the Galapagos and diminish the impact of the human dimension on the future of Galapagos’ ecosystems.

Lastly, we will use the World Summit to benefit UNC & USFQ and our constituencies through a strong and vibrant communication plan about the World Summit, creating corporate relationships as sponsors, identifying funding goals through donors, and benefiting our study abroad program for student engagement in the Galapagos Islands. We plan to develop and issue a Galapagos Sustainability Communique after the World Summit that includes the vision and insights of all its participants for a sustainable Galapagos with applicability to global island settings.

We are eager to hear your perspective and have you join us at the World Summit on Island Sustainability!