PONSACS

The Galapagos Islands

In 1995-1996 a series of protests erupted in Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands. Tensions between the fishing community and the science/conservation community first rose in the early 1990s following a moratorium on the archipelago’s lobster fishery, and later exploded when the government tried to stop an even more lucrative sea cucumber harvest aimed for Asian markets. This produced an economic and demographic boom that drew in hundreds of immigrant laborers. Efforts to stop this and related resource destruction led to violent disputes, and drew in other sectors of the islands’ population as well as populist politicians.

In late 1996, the Charles Darwin Foundation requested the assistance of PONSACS to analyze and make recommendations towards resolving the dispute. The subsequent research indicated that, while charismatic political figures expressed some genuine and generalized discontent, they did not accurately channel the specific, underlying concerns and sentiments of the population. Most residents, including many who did not support the highly-publicized "actions" (strikes, stoppages and demonstrations) were deeply concerned about existing patterns of decision-making, from which they had been excluded. Partly out of frustration, residents funneled their resentment onto the outcome of decisions --i.e. the rules-- rather than the process --i.e. rules making-- which produced them. The research suggested that the source of the dissent among the most vocal was, in fact, shared by nearly all of the Archipelago’s residents.

The PONSACS research report, Conflict in the Galapagos Islands: Analysis and Recommendations for Management, suggested that much of the discontent rested on the residents’ sense that all rules were alien, imposed, and inappropriate. So the researchers recommended support for a general process that would: 1) draw all local trade and labor organizations and government institutions into new working relationships, 2) allow them to proceed toward local "rules-making" and, 3) move toward institutionalization of the local groups onto a formally recognized civic body.

Subsequently, the Galapagos National Park Service, the Charles Darwin Research Station, the local Tourist board, and the islands’ fishing cooperatives requested PONSACS’ support in designing a June 1997 joint planning/conflict management workshop. At that workshop, the participants formed a multi-stakeholder "working group" charged with overseeing the participatory planning for the Marine Reserve’s revised management plan.

For over nine months the group worked to incorporate all interest groups of Galapagos into a participatory process, that would draft the marine management plan and incorporate the marine reserve within the national system of protected areas. The work led to the creation of a permanent "Participatory Management Committee" for the Marine Reserve and assured local participation in the development of a new "Special Law for the Galapagos" promulgated in 1998. In doing so a broad-based community body was transformed from an ad hoc gathering to a widely accepted and quasi-official body mandated to manage resources and conflicts at the same time.