CDF Supports the Actions and Decisions of Today's INGALA Council

Press Release
Puerto Ayora, Galapagos – August 21, 2007

The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) supports the actions and decisions presented in today's meeting of the INGALA Council in Galapagos. After the meeting, Graham Watkins, Executive Director of CDF, expressed his support for the decisions of President Rafael Correa's government to strengthen the role of the INGALA Council as the decision making body in Galapagos and to ensure technical leadership through the appointment of Eliecer Cruz as the Governor of Galapagos. Cruz is an administrator who has worked in park and NGO management. With a strengthened INGALA and an apolitical appointment as the provincial leader, it will be possible to move toward sustainable development in the islands and to become a "conservation model" in the words of the President. During the meeting, the Council took several important steps toward solving the problems in Galapagos including approving the Plan for Total Control of Introduced Species – a set of strategies to manage invasive species – and the resolution that all planes arriving in Galapagos must first pass through the Galapagos quarantine systems in Quito or Guayaquil. In addition, the President signed the Special Regulation for Residence in Galapagos –a critical document for immigration control– and a decree that modified the Special Regulation for Tourism in Protected Areas – which will allow increased access for the local population to tourism businesses. In this INGALA Council meeting, the first in which a President of Ecuador has participated, there was clear recognition of the institutional complexity of the province, a problem for which the President asked the Council to provide effective and collaborative solutions. In this context, "it was also important that there was recognition of the need to analyze the existing tourism model and develop a model that was more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable" said Watkins. For CDF, the decisions taken today are stepping stones toward building the social capital of Galapagos that in the future will need additional training, trust building, and institutional strengthening. "Only by doing this can we create a virtuous cycle in which local people are the managers and beneficiaries of a new economic model that will ensure the long term conservation of Galapagos," concluded Watkins.