Benítez-Capistrós, F.

Hugé, J.

Koedam, N.

Open Marine Archive

Environmental impacts on the Galapagos Islands: identification of 
interactions, perceptions and steps forward  
Benítez-Capistrós Francisco, Jean Hugé and Nico Koedam  
Plant Biology and Nature Management (APNA), Faculty of Sciences and Bio-engineering Sciences  
Vrije University of Brussels, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium 
E-mail: fbenitez@vub.ac.be   
Environmental impacts due to anthropogenic pressures are reaching critical levels worldwide and 
are more noteworthy on small oceanic islands. The reduced area, isolation, exposure to natural 
disasters, fragile ecosystems, and shortage of natural resources, demographic pressure and 
economic fragility make the environmental problems of islands very serious. The Galapagos Islands, 
known as a unique place of ecological diversity and of evolutionary importance in the world, has 
also become a place of societal development that today harbours more than 25,000 inhabitants. In 
the past decades important socio-economic activities (e.g. fisheries and agriculture) have developed 
and are attributed the growth in the number of tourists (173,000 per year) and the tourism industry 
which generates more than 65% of Galapagos GDP. As a consequence, socio-economic growth has 
created and triggered environmental degradation in the fragile ecosystems of the Archipelago. 
Certainly, the evaluation of environmental impacts on islands will require multiple indicators 
appropriate for measuring the state and interactions of the interrelated social and environmental 
variables. However, in many cases, the selection of such indicators is not correctly addressed. 
Societal and environmental indicators are analysed separately with no assessment of 
interconnections. Consultation processes that should involve a wide spectrum of stakeholders, 
capable of better representing context specific indicators, are not taken into consideration. As a 
consequence, the distance between decision makers and local population increases, and 
environmental impacts mitigation strategies ultimately do not yield results. The present research 
proposed a participatory approach to understand the perception of environmental impacts and to 
develop responsive impact mitigation strategies in the Galapagos Islands. The Drivers-Pressures-
State-Impact-Responses (DPSIR) framework provided an analytical lens, while the Delphi approach 
was chosen to involve selected Galapagos experts in the process. The Delphi approach allowed a 
systematic collection of the experts’ opinions on the environmental and societal issues and 
structured through the DPSIR framework. The Delphi consists of a sequential set of questionnaires, 
interspersed with feedback from earlier responses and organised in two or more rounds. After the 
first round of open questions of the Delphi, 55 indicators and 28 interactions of environmental 
impacts were determined in total. Together they represented the causal chain of events of the DPSIR 
framework. Finally, after the second and third round of the Delphi 37 out of the 55 indicators, 
organised under a five point rating scale (1=non important to 5=very important), reached statistical 
consensus (qi≥3.5 and Q≤0.5); whereas 7 out of 28 interactions of environmental impacts were 
selected as the most important ones (Mean≤0.5 and CV≤0.5) during the second and third round. 
Findings of this study highlights the potential of the Delphi to develop locally supported and 
context-specific indicators that will hopefully allow Galapagos decision makers to deliver policies 
that properly address environmental impacts, in order to move towards sustainability and towards 
the proper management for the conservation of the islands. 
 
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Environmental impacts on the Galapagos Islands: identification of interactions, perceptions and steps forward

Environmental impacts on the Galapagos
Islands: Identification of interactions, 
perceptions, and steps forward
Sponsors of the research
The Galapagos Islands and mainland Ecuador. Left: Galapagos satellite image 
(Nasa 2002). Right: Ecuador mainland map (Source: own research)
Objectives
• To propose a detailed methodological approach
that focuses on mitigation strategies for
environmental impacts on the Galapagos
Islands, Ecuador
• To identify and characterize environmental
impacts associated with anthropogenic
activities, typically addressed in environmental
impact assessment (EIA), in the particular
context of the Galapagos Islands.
• To investigate whether crucial environmental
information is lacking, how impacts interact with
each other and how multiple stakeholders in
Galapagos perceive these impacts and what
solutions they have to offer to further guide and
facilitate a better sustainability and protection of
the archipelago.
Methods
Results
Discussion and Conclusions
Plant Biology and Nature Management (APNA)
• The present research proposes a participatory
approach to understand the perception of
environmental impacts and to develop
responsive impact mitigation strategies in the
Galapagos Islands.
• The Drivers – Pressures – State –I mpact -
Responses (DPSIR) framework provided an
analytical lens, while the Delphi approach was
chosen to involve selected Galapagos experts
in the indicator selection process.
• The Delphi consists of an iterative set of
questionnaires, interspersed with feedback
from earlier response and organized in two or
more rounds.
• After the first round of open questions of the
Delphi, 55 indicators and 28 interactions of
environmental impacts were determined in total
and represented the causal chain of events of
the DPSIR framework.
• Finally after the third round of the Delphi, final
consensus was reached for 37 out of the 55
indicators (Figure 1), (qi≥3.5 and Q≤0.5);
whereas 7 out of 28 interactions of
environmental impacts (Figure 2) were selected
as the most important ones (Mean≤0.5 and
CV≤0.5).
• The final indicator set (DPSIR), will benefit from further discussions and new ideas to ensure
that environmental impacts and anthropogenic related activities are correctly weighted in the
context of sustainability for proper conservation of the Islands.
• Findings of this study highlight the potential of the Delphi approach to develop locally supported
and context-specific indicators that will allow Galapagos decision makers to deliver policies that
properly address environmental impacts, in order to move towards sustainability and towards
proper conservation management.
3 PE indicators
9 DFED indicators 7 interaction of impacts
25 Response indicators
Authors: Francisco Benítez-Capistrós, Jean Hugé and Nico Koedam 
Figure 2 . 7 interactions of impacts
Figure 2 description: Proposed interaction of impacts
for Galapagos. The arrows represent the flow of
interactions of impacts obtained as selected by
participants (i.e. introduction of species causing:
Biodiversity loss with mean=0.66 and CV=0.12 and land
use change with mean=0.51, CV=0.24).
Figure 1. The DPSIR framework for the Galapagos Islands. 
Figure1 description: The black arrows represent the casual and systemic chains of event
between the different levels of the DPSIR framework. Thus, DFED causes PE, PE causes EI,
and EI generates Responses. The Blue arrow represents the different indentified responses that
have to be implemented to systematically mitigate DFED, PE and EI.


Environmental impacts on the Galapagos Islands: identification of interactions, perceptions and steps forward

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