From the Galapagos Frontlines:
CDF Manifesto to UNOC 3 Delegates
CDF Manifesto to UNOC 3 Delegates
Today, in the Anthropocene—an epoch marked by humanity’s unprecedented influence on Earth’s life-support systems—the ocean bears the clearest imprint of accelerating change. From our scientific hub in the Galapagos Islands—a microcosm of marine splendor and vulnerability, and the world’s 1st UNESCO World Heritage Site—the Charles Darwin Foundation has spent more than six decades documenting how intensifying anthropogenic pressures are reshaping the Eastern Tropical Pacific. The central challenge before us is to safeguard ecosystem integrity while ensuring that the essential services these systems provide can still meet society’s escalating demand for food, climate regulation and livelihoods.
As delegates convene for the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference, we present the following evidence-based perspective and call to action.
We recognize that:
- Marine ecosystems—including pelagic and benthic zones, seamounts, coral reefs, mangroves and estuaries—deliver critical ecosystem services: from climate regulation to nutrient cycling, food security and cultural identity.
- Unsustainable extraction, pollution and unplanned development accelerate biodiversity loss, magnify climate-change impacts and degrade ecological integrity.
- Human wellbeing depends on the functional health of these systems; billions rely directly on their services.
- Knowledge gaps—especially in mesopelagic and deep-sea habitats—persist because exploration and monitoring remain technologically and financially demanding.
- Oceanic biological and genetic diversity is an irreplaceable natural capital that must be conserved as a common heritage for future generations.
These perspectives impose a scientific and moral duty on society to maintain ecosystem structure, function and resilience. As such, the Charles Darwin Foundation, as the oldest and largest scientific research organization in the Galapagos Islands, expresses its profound concern for:
- The proliferation of unplanned coastal and marine development that exceeds ecological carrying capacity and ignores integrated spatial-planning principles.
- Persistent illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, particularly using non-selective gear such as longlines, within and adjacent to marine protected areas, including within the Galapagos Marine Reserve..
- Disconnect between policy rhetoric and practice in the regulation of tourism activities in fragile ecosystems such the Galapagos Islands, which drive deterioration of unique biodiversity.
Consequently, the Charles Darwin Foundation calls for the adoption of more comprehensive and robust regional public policies, that effectively:
- Assure the protection of UNESCO World Heritage Sites such as the Galapagos Islands, and the conservation of sensitive marine ecosystems in the region, including deep seas, seamounts, coasts, coral reefs, mangroves and estuaries.
- Ratify and implement the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) and other multilateral instruments that regulate anthropogenic activity in seascapes of socio-economic and ecological importance.
- Strengthen surveillance, compliance and enforcement capacities to eliminate IUU fishing and other unsustainable exploitative practices that threaten ecological integrity.
- Align tourism with ecological thresholds by instituting adaptive, science-based visitor caps and governance mechanisms that guarantee net-positive conservation outcomes.
- Advance circular and regenerative economies via low-impact infrastructure, waste minimization, renewable-energy transitions and responsible urban planning in coastal zones.
- Incentivize innovation and behavioral change that replaces fossil-fuel–intensive and ecologically harmful practices with climate-smart, nature-positive alternatives.
- Invest in environmental literacy and local stewardship, empowering coastal communities with knowledge, rights and responsibilities essential for sustaining high-biodiversity seascapes.
Our commitment
In light of these challenges—and the opportunities that decisive leadership can unlock—we reaffirm our commitment to generating and sharing robust science, fostering inclusive partnerships, and building on-the-ground capacity for future generations. The Charles Darwin Foundation will keep delivering the data, analysis, and community engagement needed to facilitate stronger ocean policies in the Eastern Tropical Pacific region, so that marine biodiversity—and the benefits it provides—can endure and flourish for generations to come.
Lessons from our Galapagos “backyard” remind us that protecting the world´s oceans is not an option—it is the pre-condition for any future in which humanity and nature can coexist in harmony. We invite all UNOC 3 delegates to match the urgency that the science—and the sea—demand.