>Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 14:46:17 -0500 (EST)
>From: "Marc L. Miller" <mmiller at law.emory.edu>
>X-Sender: mmiller at serv2
>To: Galapagos Coalition <galco at law.emory.edu>
>Subject: Galapagos Coalition Report
>Message-Id: <Pine.NXT.3.91.960216143147.28679B-100000 at serv2>
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
>
>
>
>To: Galapagos Coalition Members & Friends
>
>From: Greg Aplet, Matt James & Marc Miller
>
>Date: February 16, 1996
>
>Subject: Report on the Galapagos
>
>
> This Report describes recent developments in the Galapagos.
>Obtaining accurate and complete information remains a challenge for anyone
>interested in Galapagos conservation. The challenge of obtaining accurate
>information has been particularly apparent over the past two months as
>several developments deserving of detailed examination and analysis can be
>described only in general terms.
>
> This Report describes the following three events:
>
>1. The decision in December (1995) by the UNESCO World Heritage Site
>Committee NOT to declare the Galapagos a World Heritage Site "In Danger."
>
>2. The arrest of 8 sea cucumber fishermen (pepineros) in early January
>(1996) for violating the prohibition on sea cucumber fishing and the
>subsequent, brief seizure of the Galapagos National Park (PNG) office on
>Isabela by protesters.
>
>3. The grounding of the large tour boat "Galapagos Explorer."
>
>4. Reports of decreased tourism.
>
>
>++++++ NOTE ++++++
>
>We welcome the new members and friends of the Galapagos Coalition. The
>Galapagos Coalition listserver is used only for occasional Reports issued
>by the Coalition, and not for ongoing discussions. Please do not respond
>or send messages to this list.
>
>All prior Galapagos Coalition Reports and other materials on the Galapagos
>can be found on the Galapagos Coalition Web Pages.
>
> http://www.law.emory.edu/PI/GALAPAGOS/
>
>Usage of the Galapagos Coalition Web pages is increasing as the address is
>listed on various indexes. We continue to encourage the participation and
>assistance of members and friends of the Galapagos Coalition with the Web
>Pages. Please send advice or information, or requests to change, delete,
>or add e-mail addresses to this list, direclty to Greg, Matt or Marc at
>the addresses listed at the end of this Report.
>
>This message may be reposted to other lists.
>
>++++++++++++++++++++
>
>
>1. UNESCO World Heritage Site Committee decided not to declare the
>Galapagos a World Heritage Site "In Danger" (Berlin, December 1995).
>
> On December 5, 1995 in Berlin, at its annual meeting, the UNESCO
>World Heritage Site Committee rejected a proposal to add the Galapagos to
>a list of World Heritage Sites "In Danger." This was the second year in a
>row the World Heritage Site Committee had considered and rejected the
>listing of the Galapagos as a site "In Danger." We understand that the
>Ecuadorian government submitted a strongly worded report rejecting the
>premises and need for such a listing.
>
> In an interesting contrast of national environmental policy, at
>the December 5 meeting the US Yellowstone National Park was listed as a
>World Heritage Site In Danger. Not only did this listing occur without
>opposition from the Clinton administration, but according to allegations
>in a December 13, 1995 press release by US Senator Don Nickles, the Chair
>of the US Senate Republican Policy Committee, the US Department of
>Interior and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt "opened its arms" to
>the Committee during a September visit to Montana and "tried to pay all
>the expenses for the U.N. delegation to visit Yellowstone, a move blocked
>by Montana Senator Conrad Burns." According to the press release, Senator
>Burns called the Committee vote a "[T]hinly veiled attempt to push a
>radical environmental agenda upon westerners and all Americans who enjoy
>Yellowstone National Park."
>
>
>2. Pepinero Arrests and new protests (Isabela, January 1996)
>
> Galapagos National Park (PNG) wardens arrested 8 of 30 sea
>cucumber fishermen (pepineros) they discovered fishing in Bahia Urvina on
>the west side of Isabela on January 12, 1996. According to separate
>reports, PNG wardens also seized and incinerated 80,000 sea cucumbers.
>Perhaps these arrests and the destruction of the sea cucumbers were a
>response to Ecuador's assertion to the World Heritage Site Committee of
>the existence of both rules to protect the Galapagos and a willingness to
>enforce them.
>
> In response to the arrests, according to BBC reports, "50 angry
>fishermen" marched on the PNG office on Isabela and seized it. (The
>seizure of the office was not an effort to release the arrested pepineros,
>who had been taken on the PNG patrol vessel Guadalupe River to San
>Cristobal). Apparently the protestors left the offices 8-12 hours after
>seizing it without any action by the Ecuadorian government.
>
> This incident comes almost exactly a year after the initial
>protests and seizure of Galapagos National Park and Charles Darwin
>Research Station offices in Puerto Ayora following the closure of the
>experimental sea cucumber fishery in the Fall of 1994. If nothing else,
>this recent incident suggests the unresolved nature of the basic dynamics
>spurring conflict between conservation and development, and between local
>residents and the national government.
>
>
>3. "Galapagos Explorer" grounding.
>
> One of the largest of the Galapagos tour ships, the 2,204 ton
>"Galapagos Explorer," ran aground as it approached Puerto Baquerizo Moreno
>(San Cristobal). Reports seem to agree that while the engine room
>flooded, the diesel fuel tanks were not punctured and no substantial
>spillage of fuel or oil occurred. Naval authorities removed the 72
>passengers and emptied the fuel tanks before repairing the hull
>sufficiently to move the ship into the port.
>
> This incident raises questions about the use of large cruise ships
>and the risk of future spills. What was the cause of this accident? Are
>all of the large cruise ships designed in ways to minimize fuel spills?
>
>
>4. Decreased Ecuadorian and Galapagos tourism in 1995.
>
> A report on the January 8, 1996 BBC Summary of World Broadcasts,
>describing a January 3, 1996 report by Ecuadoran Voz de los Andes radio,
>stated that, according to Tourism Minister Armando Espinel, tourism in
>Ecuador fell by 25 percent during 1995. Espinel attributed the decrease
>to the border conflict with Peru, the political and energy crisis, "and
>the strike in the Galapagos Islands which causes terrible damage on the
>inter national level, namely because the strikers threatened to take
>tourists visiting the islands as hostages." Ecuador's income from tourism
>dropped from $250 million in 1994 to $188 million in 1995. In 1994,
>according to Espinel, tourism was Ecuador's fourth largest source of
>foreign currency.
>
> ********************
>
>To contribute ideas or materials for subsequent reports or for the
>Galapagos Coalition web pages, or to change an e-mail address or to be
>added or removed from this list, please contact:
>
>Dr. Gregory H. Aplet
>Senior Ecologist
>The Wilderness Society
>900 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
>Washington, D.C. 20006
>Ph: (202) 429-2684
>Fax: (202) 429-3959
>Greg_Aplet at tws.org
>
>Prof. Matthew J. James
>Dept. of Geology
>Sonoma State University
>1801 E. Cotati Ave.
>Rohnert Part, CA 94928
>Ph: (707) 664-2301
>Fax: (707) 664-2505
>matt.james at sonoma.edu
>
>
>Prof. Marc Miller
>Visiting Scholar
>Stanford Law School
>Stanford, CA 94305
>Ph: (415) 725-7038
>Fax: (415) 723-8230
>millerm at leland.stanford.edu
>mmiller at law.emory.edu
>
>

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416