Galapagos: Preserving Darwin's Legacy

Preface

Prologue: A World Flagship of Inspiration

Tui De Roy

HALF A CENTURY AGO a bold vision was born: to celebrate 100 years since the publication of Charles Darwin's revolutionary book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, the world would join forces to preserve the islands that had helped formulate his ideas, and which in turn had changed scientific thinking forever. In 1959, the government of Ecuador declared the Galápagos Archipelago its first national park, while scientists and naturalists from around the world created the international Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF). Thus, 97% of all land areas, excluding small enclaves already colonized by a few hundred settlers, would be preserved forever, and a permanent research station would gather the knowledge needed to support the government in the wise administration of the islands.

Thanks to this unique collaboration between Ecuador and the world, many aspects of the Galápagos ecosystem are in better condition today than they were back then. Endemic species on the brink of extinction have been bred back to healthy numbers, and destructive introduced animals have been removed from many of the islands, returning them to a near-pristine state in several cases. Numerous scientific discoveries have also come to light -- and continue to do so at an astonishing pace -- including a bevy of new species and the rediscovery of some plants and animals once believed extinct. Together, these accomplishments have earned the Galápagos Islands the reputation as a world flagship of conservation.

Nowadays the pace of the work has vastly accelerated, with ever moreambitious projects undertaken, and formidable new challenges emerging and multiplying. As the CDF and the Galápagos National Park (GNP) pull together to tackle increasingly demanding tasks, it is time to pause and celebrate. On the occasion of four combined anniversaries -- the 50th year of both the GNP and the CDF, 150 years since the publication of Darwin's tome on evolution, together with Darwin's 200th birthday -- this book aims to illuminate many of those ground breaking accomplishments, along with sobering lessons applicable to the future.

Surprisingly perhaps, much of the initial international impetus to conserve Galápagos first emanated from faraway Belgium, which has hosted the permanent legal home of the CDF ever since. From the outset, the Belgian government, with its long tradition of scientific exploration in Africa, Antarctica and beyond, through the CDF established a Belgian scientific mission in Galápagos. A half-century later, it has again provided generous support to make the publication of this book possible.

Coincidentally, my own roots, too, originate in Belgium. In part inspired by many of those grandfathers of Galápagos conservation, in 1955 my parents left my birth country, before I was two years old, to join a handful of pioneers already living in the islands. So it is perhaps fitting that my profession has followed a path in conservation photography and writing, much of it focused on Galápagos.

When I began to approach long-standing researchers and conservation experts for contributions to this book, I was unprepared for the overwhelmingly positive responses I would receive. These were people who have dedicated their lives to Galápagos -- unraveling its natural mysteries as well as mapping out solutions to the ever-mounting threats looming ahead. Little did I realize that in the subsequent months of editing I would find myself immersed in a wondrous world of discovery about a place I thought I knew so well. Each contributor has written a special essay, revealing in his or her own words their most outstanding contributions to our understanding of -- and ability to care for -- these magical islands.

My intimate familiarity with Galápagos enabled me to work very closely with the authors, the resulting email correspondence adding up to more than 2000 messages, many of them fascinating, in-depth exchanges of ideas. In some cases, our daily flurries of communications took on a breathless pace as we bounced questions and answers back and forth, both sides admitting to finding the process itself to be a stimulating and thought-provoking experience. I even had the satisfaction of learning that some of my reasoning helped generate new directions for future research. Chapter after chapter, a myriad facets of Galápagos research and analysis emerged that had not previously been publicized to the lay audience, beginning with Sarah Darwin's reflections upon a family history of Galápagos research -- from her great-great-grandfather Charles Darwin to her own work on threats to the endemic Galápagos tomatoes.

On these pages the reader will travel from the deep inner workings of 'hotspot' volcanoes to how the convolutions of our atmosphere have molded an ecosystem designed around feast-or-famine conditions. We peek into past species' compositions by exploring fossil records in caves, and decipher rainfall records encrypted in lake-floor sediments. We learn of baffling extinctions, whether natural or man-induced, and are enthralled by the recent discovery of hundreds of species new to science, from lichens and mollusks to the enigmatic pink iguana, whose genetic lineage places it at the dawn of Galápagos time scales.

For the first time, we can follow the oceanic wanderings of hammerhead sharks, revealing an island-hopping 'golden triangle' across the eastern tropical Pacific, and begin to appreciate the reasons why the majestic waved albatross has recently slid into the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN's) 'critically endangered' category. We see the evolutionary process remolding species of Darwin's famous finches, even as we mourn the disappearance of an equally diverse product of adaptive radiation in the bulimulid land snails, both processes happening right before our eyes. On the behavioral front, we confront the harsh world of fur seal pups and booby chicks, sacrificing their siblings in their bid for survival, while females rule the roost among both endemic hawks and flightless cormorants. Some mysteries endure, like why albatrosses take their eggs for a wander while incubating, or the storm petrels whose nests have never been found. Inevitably, we encounter some contradictory conclusions between authors, whose very different studies lead to divergent interpretations, for example, climate predictions and whether lost forms of Darwin's finches represent species extinctions or just lost island varieties.

These accounts also remind us again and again of the extreme fragility of Galápagos. There are heartrending details about the ravages wrought by alien diseases, climate change and the first-ever oil spill, counterbalanced by the exhilarating story of successfully applied biological warfare. The re-emergence of an endemic mammal believed extinct for nearly a century, and likewise the presence of tortoise hybrids long gone from their original islands, fill us with renewed hope for 'lost' species. The tide turns on ecological devastation when we read about the world's largest successful feral animal eradication project, or the restoration of the Española tortoise, from a mere few survivors to a wild population that is now self-expanding after more than 30 years of captive breeding and repatriation. And finally, we ponder the future, listening to the advice of experts on how to avoid a very plausible biological holocaust due to ever-increasing contact with the rest of the world.

This unique collection is an evocative, authoritative anthology to nurture the curious mind and to stretch our imaginations. Above all, it is a glorious celebration of what we have learned about Darwin's famed 'natural laboratory of evolution,' and what it will take to preserve it.

Foreword: Galápagos Research

A Family Tradition

Sarah Darwin

I felt very honoured when Tui De Roy approached me to write the foreword to this important and remarkable book. We share a fascination for the Galápagos Islands, but Tui brings a unique perspective of the archipelago, as she spent nearly 40 years -- and indeed was raised -- in Galápagos. This rich immersion in the flora, fauna and culture of the islands, as well as her dedication to this enchanted place, shows throughout Tui's work. In 1831 a young and enthusiastic Charles Darwin boarded the HMS Beagle as companion to the captain. The voyage was sponsored by the British Navy in order to map the southern oceans. No one could have guessed that, in time, this journey would be instrumental in forever changing the world view of life on earth, while making the small islands of Galápagos famous.

It was while he was in the Galápagos Archipelago that Darwin noted small differences in the mockingbirds from different islands. Also pointed out to him by the local governor were the island variations among the giant tortoises. Later, the finches that were eventually named after him became one of the other triggers for his thoughts on evolution.

When Darwin made his Galápagos field collection he did not separate the finches according to their original islands, but when the ornithologist John Gould classified them in March 1837 he found there were 13 separate species with different beak shapes and other features apparently corresponding to differing life habits. It was later that year that Darwin wrote in his notebook that he believed evolution had taken place in the Galápagos birds, and indeed in all living things, including humans (Browne, 2006).

In the 170 years since that momentous turning point, the ensuing fame of the Galápagos Islands has become a double-edged sword. On the one hand, this has attracted funding and researchers from around the world in efforts to document, understand and preserve the natural history of the islands and their surrounding waters. On the other, tourists in their thousands have been drawn to this unique and beautiful archipelago, along with a steady flow of entrepreneurial settlers. Sadly, this influx has come to exert huge pressures on the fragile island ecosystems, and threatens to damage the very situation the visitors seek to experience.

Even so, the Galápagos Islands remain, to a large degree, nearly intact. Unlike many other island groups, they have experienced few species' extinctions. As such, they represent a global example of science and conservation working together to stem -- and even reverse -- a tidal wave of threats to their world's biodiversity. Lessons are being drawn on how to seek ways to minimize the impact of tourism and associated industries. Meanwhile, world-class programs and innovative methods to eradicate invasive species are proving extremely successful.

The first large collection of Galápagos plants was gathered by my great-great-grandfather Charles Darwin. Among these were two species of endemic Galápagos tomatoes. During the past few years I have been working as a botanist on these taxa at the Natural History Museum in London and University College London, and I have been studying Charles Darwin's very specimens. Working on Galápagos plants has given me insights into the fragility of the islands' biota, and the many threats the flora is facing. Even though the islands may look relatively untouched, this process has been underway since the first sailors began hunting tortoises on these wild shores centuries ago, setting fires and leaving behind a trail of destructive alien species. Charles Darwin could not have known that among the new species described from his Galápagos collections there are some endemic plants that would never again been seen alive.

In my conversations with people interested in Galápagos, I often find that there is confusion about the true nature of the archipelago. This is, I think, in part due to the many television documentaries covering just one of two extreme views of the islands: either the remarkable beauty and near-pristine nature of the islands or the devastation from human impact. I hope that this book will redress this balance and reaffirm to the world the importance of the Galápagos Islands and why they need to be conserved -- now more than ever.

Charles Darwin's account in The Voyage of the Beagle was my first literary impression of Galápagos. However, it was Tui's photographs that provided my first visual experience of the islands. What Tui has managed to do here so expertly is to marry harmoniously the current work of the scientific and conservation community with fantastic photographs. The scientific community and indeed the world have been waiting for a book such as this for a long time.

An acclaimed list of authors have each contributed their own story, some having lived in the islands for many years and all having worked there to become experts in their chosen fields. From internationally distinguished scientists to local natural historians, all the authors have a unique perspective to share. Their accounts are written in such a way as to be accessible to all and a joy to read.

Once you have experienced Galápagos, your life may never be quite the same. For many people, Tui's photographs will be their only encounter with this enchanted place, and this is no bad substitute as she truly captures the spirit of the islands and their wild inhabitants in this exceptional book.