From a special issue: A Brief History of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands 1959-198

Smith, G. T. Corley

English

Aquatic Commons

~OTICIAS DE G . .1.LAPAGOS 17 
THE MANAGEMENT OF THE NATIONAL PARK 
PETER KRAMER, 1970-73 
When Peter Kramer. Perry's successor as 
Director. arri\ed v.ith his wife, he already had the 
advantage of knowing the archipelago as he had been 
a junior member of the German Galapagos 
Expedition of 1962/63. He found that human 
predation on the wildlife had somewhat decreased 
since his first visit and that, thanks to the efforts 
of Snow and Perry to improve public relations, there 
was a better local understanding of the need for 
conservation. He pressed forward with Perry's 
educational programme, which he broadened, 
institutionalised and extended to mainland Ecuador. 
Aided by better communications due to somewhat 
more frequent flights to the Baltra airfield (though 
he himself was held up for a month in Guayaquil 
waiting for a passage) he was able to bring continental 
institutions into a working relationship with the 
Darwin Research Station. Until then, scientific 
investigation in the Galapagos had been the virtual 
monopoly of foreigners. Kramer involved Ecuador 
in Galapagos science by offering scholarships to 
enable national university students to work at the 
CDRS. Students were often attached to senior visiting 
scientists to gain experience in field research and live 
for a few months in a scientific atmosphere. This 
may not have been an ideal system but it was all 
that funds would permit at that time and it was the 
beginning of what was to become one of the main 
activities of the CDRS. Over the years, the 
educational programme grew and provided an 
increasingly important link between the Darwin 
Foundation and public opinion in mainland 
Ecuador. Galapagos science became increasingly 
Ecuadorean science and, in turn, gave a stimulus 
to the teaching of biology and geology in the nation's 
schools and universities. The CDRS became more 
and more an Ecuadorean institution. 
A complementary development was the 
establishment, with the support of the Frankfurt 
Zoological Society, of a CDRS information centre 
in Quito. Snow and Perry had maintained excellent 
relations with the authorities on the mainland but 
distance and poor communications made meetings 
rare and irregular. The new centre served to arouse 
official, academic and public awareness through 
contacts with the ministries, the media and the 
educational world, providing information about 
Galapagos conservation and science that was not 
available through any other channel. In the past there 
had been books in many languages about Galapagos 
science but not a single one in Spanish. Juan Black, 
formerly of the GNPS and now in charge of the 
Darwin Foundation's information centre in Quito, 
published the first Spanish natural history of the 
islands, entitled "Galapagos: Archipiclago del 
Ecuador". Copies of this and illustrated brochures 
were distributed to schools and colleges as well as 
being sold to a wider pUblic. 
This period was critical in the development of 
the Galapagos National Park Service. The embryonic 
staff was gradually expanded and in 1972 the first 
Superintendent, Jaime Torres, was appointed. Work 
was begun to provide the service with its own 
buildings, which were situated close to the Darwin 
Station. Co-operation remained as cordial as when 
both organisations were under one roof and led to 
a considerable expansion of conservation activity. 
Although the legal delimitation of the boundaries 
had been completed, squatting inside the National 
Park still continued, particularly on Santa Cruz. But 
now, with the authority of the state behind the G NPS, 
it became possible not only to prevent further 
incursions but also to expel illegal squatters and funds 
were found to settle them elsewhere. The threat of 
farming activities spreading out from the settled 
areas, which had caused so much anxiety in the 
1960's, ceased to be a major concern, though cattle 
strayed across the boundaries, carrying seeds of 
introduced plants. Attention was no longer focussed 
on the protection of the "strict tortoise reserve", it 
was the whole National Park that was to be preserved. 
The patrolling of the park and the protection 
of its wildlife became the prime duty of the GNPS 
and, as direct human predation decreased, control 
of the spread of introduced animals and plants 
assumed greater and greater importance. With the 
Noticias de Galapagos, vol. 49, English version, June 1990
18 ~onCIAS DE GALAPAGOS No. 49 
co-()pCratllln of the CDRS. the park wardens freed 
the arid Island of Santa Fe from the goats that were 
destroying the scanty vegetation and endangering the 
c.xistence of the island's endemic species of land 
iguana. Goats were also eliminated from Rabida, 
\I. here they had recently been introduced by visiting 
fishermen as a source of food. Encouraged by these 
successes, campaigns were begun against the goats 
on Espanola and Pinta, where the problem had 
previously been considered, if not insoluble, at any 
rate beyond the available resources of funds and man-
power. 
Once the GNPS was firmly established, it became 
possible to draw up a comprehensive scheme for the 
management of the National Park. To prepare this, 
a small committee was appointed in 1973, 
representing the recently formed Department of 
National Parks and Wildlife, the National Planning 
Board, FAO and UNESCO (the last represented by 
Peter Kramer). Their report, "The Master Plan for 
the Protection and Use of the Galapagos National 
Park", followed the general lines of the Grimwood-
Snow recommendations but went into much greater 
administrative detail and was a milestone in the 
history of the archipelago. It called for the absolute 
integrity of the 1969 boundaries and the extension 
of the park to include a two mile-wide marine zone. 
No buildings were to be allowed in the park apart 
from discreetly hidden cabins for GNPS wardens 
at sensitive points on three of the islands. (In fact 
these have never been built). The report re-affirmed 
that tourists should be accommodated aboard ships 
and, when landing, should be accompanied by 
qualified guides, trained by the GNPS and CDRS. 
Groups of visitors permitted to land at anyone time 
should not exceed 60. With these precautions it was 
considered that up to 12,000 tourists a year could 
be accepted without harm, though "tourist impact" 
should be constantly monitored. Visitors should be 
charged a fee to enter the National Park and a 
reception centre should be built on the airfield on 
Baltra, an island which should remain a military 
reserve. Transport facilities for both tourists and 
residents should be increased. 
To simplify management, the Master Plan called 
for the zoning of the park for five specific purposes: 
Primitive-scientific Zones: areas that had 
remained essentially free from introduced species 
were to b e given the strictest protection to ensure 
their ecological integrity. 
Primitive Zones: the largest areas of the park 
which, though somewhat altered ecologically, 
needed special protection as the maintenance of 
their primitive character was necessary to 
guarantee the preservation of the Galapagos 
ecosystems. 
Extensive Use Zones: areas Which, although of 
interest to visitors, could not support a high load 
of tourist traffic. 
Intensive Use Zones: a considerable number of 
carefully selected areas, small in extent but of 
prime interest to visitors and capable of 
withstanding substantial tourist traffic. 
Special Use Zones: lands bordering the settled 
areas which had suffered considerable alteration 
but which nevertheless would require careful 
management. 
Some of the Master Plan's proposals required 
further legislation but meanwhile they were accepted 
by the administration as a broad basis for future 
policy. The plan was published in an illustrated 
edition and, with modifications, has determined the 
lines on which the park has subsequently developed. 
During this period there was a steady growth 
of tourist traffic and the GNPS and CDRS organized 
courses to train "naturalist guides" to accompany 
all parties of visitors. The Research Station itself 
became a tourist attraction. It had never been so 
intended, but visitors naturally wanted to see the 
tortoise rearing centre, particularly as tortoises were 
still difficult to see elsewhere. They were made 
welcome and, thanks to the generosity of Mrs. Anne 
Byron Waud, an exhibition and lecture building, the 
Van Straelen Hall, was inaugurated in 1973. The 
Station's library, herbarium and collections of 
zoological specimens were expanded and improved 
and a new house was built for the Director. The 
Noticias de Galapagos, vol. 49, English version, June 1990
\0. ~9 ~OTICIAS DE GALAPAGOS 
new research vessel, Beagle III. arrived from England 
and was registered under the Ecuadorean flag. Work 
went ahead on huilding the headquarters of the 
GNPS. 
Long-term botanical monitoring had begun when 
Tjitte de Vries established the first permanent study 
quadrats (measured plots) in 1966. This initiative was 
expanded and improved by Ole Hamann in 1971-
72 and has been developed by him and a succession 
of Danish botanists ever since. 
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Bull Sea Lion 
Photograph by I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt 
Blue-footed Boobies 
Photograph by Tjitte de Vries 
19 
Noticias de Galapagos, vol. 49, English version, June 1990


The management of the National Park

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The management of the National Park

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