Corley Smith, G.T.

English

Aquatic Commons

CHANGE OF EDITORSHIP FOR NOTICIAS
Future issues of NOTICIAS DE GALAPAGOS will be prepared under
the editorship of Dr. Thomas H. Fritts, Department of Biology,
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, U.S.A.
Correspondence relating to submission of articles, photographs and news
items should be sent to the New Mexico address. Until further notice,
donations from CDF supporters may continue to be sent to
G.T. Corley Smith at Greensted Hall, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LD,
England.
* * * * *
LOOKING BACK
Some personal recollections and retlexions on two decades of service with the
Charles Oarwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands
by
G.T. COI./eySmilh
When I arrived in Quito in 1962, I did not know that either the Galapagos Islands or the Charles Darwin
Foundation (CD F) existed, an ignorance I shared with most of the rest ofhumanity. Because of Darwin, a
limited number of scientists had heard of the archipelago but even they were mostly unaware that it
formed part of the Republic of Ecuador. "
In those days it was difficult to visit the islands but early in 1964 the Galapagos International Scientific
Project and the United States Embassy in Quito arranged transport to enable a number of Ecuadorean
and foreign scientists and personalities to attend the official in"iwguration ofthe Charles Darwin Research
Station (CDRS) on Santa Cruz Island. There was not much of a station at that date and no building big
enough to accommodate the party, so we met outdoors among the cactus. The dignitaries, injackets and
ties, had chairs and sat under a scanty canvas canopy, while the less formally attired scientists received the
fuI! benefit of the scorching equatorial sun. Later that year, Prince Philip invited Aubrey Buxton and
myself to accompany him on a short tour of the islands. AlI three of us became "hooked" and ever since
have remained devoted defenders of the Galapagos. One immediate result was that Aubrey (now Lord)
Buxton sent a crack camera team (Alan and Joan Root) to make a remarkable film for Anglia Television,
in which Prince Philip spoke the commentary. This gave millions of people al! over the world their first
introduction to the Galapagos.
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Joan Root making friends with the Galapagos Mockingbirds
while her husband was making his famous 1966 television film "The Enchanted Isles"
Pholographed by Alan Root
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My initial involvement in Galapagos conservation had little to do with the Charles Darwin Foundation as
such. It had no representative in Quito in those days. I did visit the station and knew its successive directors
but, during my five years in Ecuador, the only correspondence I had with lean Dorst, the CDF's
President, was on the subject of a high altitude Andean hummingbird in which we were both interested. It
was in my capacity as Sritish Ambassador that I became involved when I was requested by the
Ecuadorean Government to arrange with our Department of Overseas Development in London to send a
small expert mission todraw up a plan for the development ofthe proposed Galapagos National Park. I
presented the report (by lan Grimwood and David Snow) to President Yerovi Indaburu and for the rest of
my service in Eucador discussed with the authorities h6w best the plan might be implemented. Among its
many recommendations were proposals that a National Park Service should be established; that the
extent and boundaries of the Park should be c1early and speedily defined; that a modest marine zone
should be inc1uded in the Park; and that tours should be organized by ship with the visitors sleeping on
board. Today all this seems obvious. It was not so in 1966.There were many difficulties inc1uding the fears
of fishermen and farmers that their interests would be harmed. The idea of wildlife conservation was
novel and there was great scepticism about the possibility of developing a tourist trade, as
communications with Galapagos were infrequent, irregular and primitive. Sut from the beginning it was
recognized that there could be no long-term prospect for tourism without rigorous conservation of the
islands' only true asset
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the unique wildlife which alone would attract visitors from the four corners of
the earth.
It was largely due to chance that I joined the Darwin Foundation. Shortly after my retirement in 1967, its
executive council happened to be meeting in Charles Darwin's old home, Down House, in Kent, not far
from where I was staying. 1was invited to give its members an account of my recent discussions with the
Ecuadorean authorities. I cxpected to spend an hour with them and had not the remotest suspicion that I
was condemning myselfto twenty years hard labour as Council meínber, Secretary General and editor of
Noticias.
Looking back across these years, I realize with regret that so much of the time and energy of the
Foundation's council used to be spent on raising funds, a task for which it was ill-adapted as its members
were mostly scientists and conservationists. There have been so many desperate financial crises that they
have by this time becomc one huge blur in my mind. The things that stand out in my memory are very
different. Ido not have the spacc, nor is this the moment, to write a history of the Darwin Foundation. I
can only select a few examples from a vast store of memories and this selection, like my views, is bound to
be purely personal.
~
Lert to right:
Roger Perry, CDRS Director (1964-70), Miguel Castro, the first Galapagos Conservation Officer,
and Eric Shipton, mountaineer and explorer
Photo by Sven Gillsiiter
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Noticias de Galapagos v.45 1987
One morning I received a postcard from Mike Harris at the CDRS with the laconic message that a clutch
of Española (Hood Island) tortoises had hatched in the station's incubator. This was a great moment. The
founders of the CDF hoped to halt the long-term degradation of the Galapagos but I doubt whether any
of them believed that they could actually reverse the tide. Yet that was what this news implied. For halfa
century or more, the dozen e1derly survivors of the Española race (Geochelone elephantopus hoodensis)
had failed to breed, perhaps partly from malnutrition but more probably beca use they were too widely
scattered to meet: so the race was doomed to extinction. In 1965, Roger Perry took as many of these
tortoises as he could find to the CDRSand kept them in corrals: there they bred. By trial and error, he and
his successors developed methods of hatching, rearing and repatriating young hoodensis to their ancestral
island. As a result, the tortoise population of Española toda y consists entirely of captive-bred youngsters
and, although I do not enjoy the life expectation of a giant tortoise, I still hope that I may yet receive
another postcard telling me that these products ofthe Darwin Station's captive breeding experiment have
produced young of their own in the wild. This will be a landmark in the history of conservation; the only
other case known to me being the Arabian Oryx, whose wild population today is entirely the result of
captive breeding.
Captive breeding was only one part of the Española success story. It was also necessary to restore the
tortoises' habitat. David Snow, CDRS Director 1962-64, reported gloomily that "only one tortoise was
found on Hood (Española) in the course of searches by three men for two days. The vegetation has been
terribly ravaged by goats; when the tortoise was found it was feeding in company and in competition with
15 goats." At that time, the elimination of goats on such a rugged island was considered impossible. But
after years of struggle success was eventually achieved. The vegetation has since recovered and now
provides food for the young repatriated tortoises. One of my happiest memories is the award of medals to
the team of hardy hunters who finally cleared the island of this introduced species, which was destroying
Española 's unique ecosystem.
The rescue of the Española tortoise is no doubt the most spectacular of the breeding successes of the
Darwin Station and the Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS) but it is only one ofmany. AII the races
of giant tortoise existing when the CDF was established now seem safe for posterity with the exception of
"Lonesome George", the sole survivor of the Pinta Island race. AII the King's horses and all the King's
men, not to mention all the skills of the scientists, could not enable him to continue his dynasty without
female assistance. The success with breeding, rearing and repatriating tortoises is now being repeated with
endangered populations of land iguanas.
Española tortoise emerging from its egg at the Darwin Captive Breeding Center.
Photo by Andy Wilson
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Noticias de Galapagos v.45 1987
The establishment of the purely Ecuadorean "Galapagos National Park Service" in 1968 and the
appointment of a Park Superintendent in 1972, marked another decisive step in the history ofthe islands.
By that time an organized tourist traffic was developing and it was clear that henceforward control
should be visibly in the hands of the sovereign power, as such responsibility was inappropriate to an
international scientific body such as the Darwin Foundation, however useful it might continue to be in an
advisory capacity. That the two organizations have worked side by side is a tribute to all concerned and
has been of critical importance to the promotion of Galapagos conservation. With the organization ofthe
GNPS, it became possible to define firmly the limits ofhuman settlement, leaving 97% ofthe land area of
the archipelago and 90% of its coastlines as National Park, entirely free from residents, private property
or commercial development. It was not until 1986 that a marine resources reserve was established but,
when this was finally decreed, it covered not the one kilometre coastal band originally requested by the
CDF but the entire Galapagos internal waters of 80,000 square kilometres.
A moment I recall vividly was when Eugénia del Pino, a lecturer in the Catholic University of Quito,
congratulated Peter Kramer and the CDF Council on their farsighted policy of instituting scholarships to
enable Ecuadorean students to work at the Research Station, and then gently explained why this scheme
was neither good enough nor big enough. Things have changed since then. Additional resources have
somehow been found and education has become one ofthe main concerns ofthe CDRS. If I had to choose
a single symbol to illustrate change in the Galapagos in the last quarter of a century, it would be a young
Ecuadorean student with a back-pack almost as big as herself, striding off into the wilderness on a
scientific mission.
This is the twenty-fourth and last issue ofNotícias that I shall edil. My worst chore has been compiling the
list of visitors and events at the Darwin Station, which is probably as big a bore for the reader as for the
editor. But do give it a quick glance. At least it shows what a beehive of activity the CDRS has become and
how Ecuadorean youth as well as international science is making use of this extraordinary institution.
Unbelievable twenty years ago!
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Seminar in the Van Straelen (lectu re & exhibition) Hall, CDRS
Conservation and education are only two of the CDF's preoccupations. Another is scientific
investigation; the Station with its laboratories, research vessel, library and other facilities, provides a base
from which visiting scientists from all over the world can study in the islands. Before the CDF was
formed, the Galapagos lslands had suffered a century and a half of degradation but they are still
ecologically the least disturbed of the world's major oceanic groups and the best suited for evolutionary
studies. Until the CDRS was established, few scientists were able to exploit the seemingly endless
possibilities for research but now they arriye in a constan! stream. Years ago, someone calculated that the
Station had received over 500 visiting scientists but goodness knows what the total is now.
14
Noticias de Galapagos v.45 1987
When Charles Darwin made his historic visit, he was lucky to stay as long as five weeks. Today that would
be considered a relatively short spel!. Projects vary but a few, involving research in depth, last for years. A
later issue of Noticias will include a review of Peter Grant's big new book on Darwin finches*; in it he
summarises the results of the first ten years of his research, supported by successive teams of scientists
from Canada and the U.S.A. Fritz Trillmich of the Max-Planck Institute and his assistants have been
studying the endemic fur seals for a comparable periodo On other pages, Andrew Laurie of Cambridge
University sums up his six years of concentrated investigation into the population dynamics ofthe marine
iguanas before handing over the project to successors from the Max-Planck Institute for a further three
years. Such prolonged researches provide a firm basis for conservation policy. Inevitably these long-term
studies are exceptional, but hundreds of shorter projects have resulted in papers publishcd in the specialist
journals and together must form a tremendous contribution to knowledge. In addition there has recently
been a great !lood of books on Galapagos, both strictly scientific volumes and more general works.
These publications have done much to make the world better acquainted with the Galapagos but the main
impact on the popular mind has been through films and particularly television. Heinz Sielman, Alan Root,
David Attenborough and most recently Dieter Plage, to mention only a few of the great wildlife
photographers, have brought the Galapagos into the homes of millions. There is an astonishing contrast
between the ignorance and indifference of twenty years ago and the world-wide concern shown by the
media during the great fire on Isabela in 1985, although I am bound to admit that their reports often
contained more imagination than truth.
~
For some years past I have received persistent laments from well-wishers who were alarmed that tourist
traffic would soon bring ruin to the islands, if it had not already done so. These fears had earlier been a
dominant pre-occupation of the Darwin Foundation and a considerable share of our li!.tited resources
had been devoted to the scientific study of "tourist impact". The conclusion was that the impact has so far
been minima!. In 1986 I paid what was probably my last visit to the CDRS and, while I was there,joined a
commercial cruise to see for myselfwhat the National Par k was like from the tourists' point ofview. I saw
nothing to cause immediate disquiet. Tourists do not visit the vast areas defined as "primitive" or
"primitive scientific" zones. They land only at a number of "intensive use" zones, which are of
outstanding interest to visitors and where they are shepherded by naturalist guides, trained and licenced
by the GNPS. So far, so good. The trouble is that the sites suitable for intensive use are limited and, ifthe
numbers of tourists should increase beyond a certain point, they would begin to destroy the very things
that they go to enjoy, particularly the atmosphere of wilderness. The major tourist organizations are
aware of the dangers. They have shown great responsibility and have co-operated closely with the Park
authorities. Given this community of interest, it should be possible to avoid excessive expansion. At
present, introduced species of alien plants and animals are the most serious threat to the archipelago's
unique ecosystems.
There have from time to time been threats of a much more damaging form of commercial exploitation,
with hotels and conventional beach attractions within the National Park. Any such developments would
definitely be destructive and have hitherto been rejected by successive governments. In the twenty two
years between my first and last visits, the tourist industry has become an important factor in the economy
of Ecuador and the need for increased earnings of foreign exchange, never more acute than in 1987,
naturally provokes efforts to expand the revenues from tourism. The Galapagos have been the key to the
rise of this national industry but the excessive exploitation of the wild but fragile environment of the
archipelago, which alone has attracted visitors from distant lands, could quickly lead to permanent
damage. This would be the equivalent of killing the goose that lays the golde n eggs. The final guarantee
against any such enormity is the great pride of Ecuadoreans in their island possession and their growing
international reputation as leaders in the field 01 conservation.
In 1959, the novel formula for preserving the Galapagos
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an alliance between national government and
international science
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was completely untried. That it has succeeded has been due to a variety offactors.
Of course there have been obstacles, alarms and crises but I see no point in recounting them here as they
have been overcome. There has been a good deal of plain bad luck such as the 1982-1983 El Niño event aná
the great fire on Isabela, not to mention population explosionsi of harmful introduced species of both
animals and plants. On the other hand it is good to remember how much good luck we have had over the
years. First and foremost, the Darwin Foundation has enjoyed the support of successive Governments of
* Ecology and Evolution of Darwin's Finches: Princeton Univ. Press.
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Noticias de Galapagos v.45 1987
the Republic. The tolerance and understanding that the authorities of this developing country have shown
for a body of international scientists, dedicated to conservation rather than to development, is quite
remarkable. It is true that material advantage has followed ,in the form of a growing tourist industry,
scientific education and improved living standards for the people of the islands, but none of this was
evident when the Eucadoreans gave their blessing to the experiment. It is an acknowledgement of their
high ideals that the Galapagos should have been one of the first four natural areas to be awarded World
Heritage status.
The CDF was likewise fortunate in its founding fathers. Its pioneers included Ireneus Eibl-Eibesfeldt,
Robert Bowman and its Honorary President, Sir Julian Huxley; its first commlttee counted among its
members J-G. Baer, Cristóbal Bonifaz, Fran<;ois Bourliere, Harold Coolidge, Jean Dorst, Luis JaramilIo,
S. DilIon Ripley and Peter Scott. The chief architect ofthe organization was its first President, Victor Van
Straelen, whose dynamic force set the Foundation on its course, although he died only days after
inaugurating the Darwin Research Station and signing the basic agreement with the Government of
Ecuador. These founders won international distinction in the world of conservation and those of them
who are stilI with us can look back with deep satisfaction on their achievement. 1am happy that 1was able
to know them. 1am equally happy to have known their successors, a strange band of men and women,
differing in origin and outlook, but held together by a single thread - their devotion to the Galapagos. 1
am proud to have served with them.
'-
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Victor Van Straelen and Robert Bowman at the inauguration of the
Charles Darwin Research Station in 1964
Photo by A. Gille
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Noticias de Galapagos v.45 1987


Looking back: some personal recollections and reflexions on two decades of service with the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands

http://aquaticcommons.org/4668/1/NG_45_1987_Corley_Smith_Looking_back.pdf

Looking back: some personal recollections and reflexions on two decades of service with the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands

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