#9 August 8^th 

In an ideal world, the responsibility to alleviate the conditions caused by the social issues in the Galapagos would be of the Galapagans. The social issue I’m addressing is the difficulty of having a sustainable relationship between humans and their environment.

In the past, Galapagans have been blamed for exploiting the resources of their own island to such an extent that they have caused the extinction of certain species. But the environmental predation started far before Galapagos belonged to Ecuador. Pirates used to take refuge in the islands and whalers hunted here until it was no longer a profitable zone since they killed most whales. Now, the number of tourists is way larger than the amount of permanent residents which has exposed the islands to the whole world.

Our world is intertwined and to alleviate issues in the Galapagos such as the spread of invasive species, the extinction of endemic or native species, deforestation and lack of proper healthcare and education, a multiple party solution is necessary. Although the Galapagans need to spearhead the movement for change, tourists and volunteers are also responsible for joining in the efforts and being aware of the impact they have.

 Galapagans are already creating change for themselves through projects such as Jatun Sacha, by organizing the farmers, and by having the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Park involved. I think that there should be stricter requirements or an educational workshop given to tourists who wish to travel to Galapagos. Not only do the Galapagans need to be educated on their own unique and delicate environment, but also the tourists and volunteers need to be exposed to more information so they don’t ignore actions that may be harmful to the environment.

#7 Tuesday August 7th, 2012

Now that I have been here for almost 5 weeks, I have sort of “seniority” status and I have started to give orientation to new volunteers and answer questions for other volunteers. Also, since I am a native Spanish speaker and a lot of the other volunteers come to Ecuador without speaking a lick of Spanish, I have being doing some interpreting and translating work. I feel really useful in this way. Although it does not necessarily have anything to do with conservation work, I feel that my observation and language skills are something that I can uniquely contribute. Since a lot of the volunteers are not fluent in Spanish, they don’t always understand the reason behind the work that we do or how are some decisions made. I feel that I can bridge the communication gap between Ecuadorians and Europeans or other foreigners and make our efforts in the station more successful.

It’s hard to do manual labor without knowing the importance of it. It would be like slavery, almost. Also, a lot of volunteers complain about the inefficiency and illogical ways of Ecuadorians, and they are not always wrong, but it is worst if there is not good communication between them. So I have been helping other volunteers understand more about the sustainable agroforestry and biological importance of the work that we are doing and I feel helpful.

I only have a little bit less than 2 weeks left and I feel that in this time I can keep learning as much as I can and transmit this knowledge to other volunteers and specially to those volunteers that will be staying for longer. I will work harder in the field, and try to talk to as many people from Galapagos and from abroad about the conservation work that we do.

# 6  Monday August 6th

On a daily basis I measure success on how much work I am able to get done. If on a single day we can plant all the coffee plants the coordinators have brought or if we can finish clearing all the land they have allotted for us, then it’s successful. Also, I think it’s a successful day if I learn something new about the Galapagos environment or conservation in general on top of doing physical labor.

My host agency, Jatun Sacha, measures success if they finish the projects that the National Park or the Ministry of Agriculture has given them in an appropriate and timely fashion. Some projects last months, like planting 4,000 coffee plants around the area we work in, and some projects have been ongoing since the start of the station, such as eradicating the mora (blackberry). Also, they consider their work successful if the are able to revive for a long period of time a certain native or endemic species that was threatened by an invasive or non-native plant. An example is the miconia forest that was almost extinct because of the mora but it has been reforested. This forest is very important because the plants retain water and keep the soil fertile.

My daily successes help the station come a little bit closer to finishing their short term projects. I think staying for a longer period of time than most of the volunteers has allowed me to see that I am actually making a difference. It’s hard to tell if you are only here for a week or a couple of weeks. I have been able to see the progress we have made since I started. From clearing a field, to making holes and planting, to watching those plants grow. But sometimes it just seems that we are doing monotonous work and are not getting anywhere.

#8 August 2nd, 2012

Today we were doing work as usual. We had to plant coffee in a field in our property and I didn’t wake up feeling particularly motivated to do manual work. It was cloudy and cold and I didn’t want to be outside but I was helping out by measuring distances between the holes for the plants. There is one staff member who was with us, Eduardo, who is from Galapagos and always jokes around with us. He was saying that he was going to build a house on this field since it had a really nice view and the breeze felt nice. I don’t know if he caught that I wasn’t really feeling work on that day but afterwards he said to me: ‘You’re gonna come here in the future, with your husband and kids and you’re going to  show them this field filled with coffee and endemic plants and say that you did this, you helped in this project.’ In Spanish obviously. Then he walked away. I knew he didn’t say that sarcastically and I was very touched. I hadn’t really thought about it in that way. About what this field might look like in the future. He gave me perspective and I was really thankful. After that I worked with more eagerness. I have spoken with Eduardo about more serious topics such as religion and I know that he has strong sentiments about the work that we do since he is from this island. Although I don’t think the nature of my relationship with Eduardo will change after today, I know that he cares deeply about conservation and that I can talk to him about it since we have this in common. I think that this will change my relationship with the work that we are doing outside everyday and I place a higher value on it.

#5 Tuesday July 31^st

Today was particularly productive since we had good activities in the morning and in the afternoon. I think it was a very important productivity since the station director is not here this week and the old volunteers said that productivity goes down but it has not so far.

In the morning some of the new people went to get coffee plants from the turtle nesting place and the rest of us stayed and measured the land and made holes for the plants. By the time we finished making the holes the plants arrived and we literally took 20 minutes to plant 200 plants. We did not have enough plants to fill all the holes we made earlier in the morning but we will bring more plants tomorrow.

The afternoon was surprisingly productive since we went to work on the vegetable garden. It was really a coincidence that I wanted to work on the garden and we did today. One group planted and harvested yucca and the group I was on plowed, made holes and planted seeds for corn, cucumber, lettuce and cabbage. We worked until 4 pm. It was great to have so much activity today.

I felt that it was a success for me, the person in charge of the volunteers this week and the station.

It is hard to motivate myself to do manual labor after 3 weeks of being here but today I felt good since I had energy and the weather was really nice. Also one of the staff members said something that motivate me this morning. He said: Maybe you’ll come back in a couple of years with your kids and husband and the coffee plantation will be huge and you’ll tell them that this is what you worked on when you were young. I don’t know if he was trying to encourage me to work but it did.

 The person in charge of us this week was able to coordinate all the activities and keep us occupied so I’m really glad that things are working out. Finally, our productivity benefits the station since we worked in our land today and the vegetables we planted are for self consumption and the coffee is also processed here.

#4  Friday July 27^th

There is definitely more downtime than I expected. I was used to the Engineers Without Borders schedule we implemented of starting work at 7 am, having one hour lunch break and ending at 5. Here we start work at 8, we have a snack break at 10 and then lunch at noon and then “siesta” until 2pm. We work until 4 pm. There is a LOT more downtime than I expected but it still is tiring work.

I expected work to be more related to gardening or agriculture practices and for us to work more with the local community members or more staff to work with us. Right now, the staff consists of only 3 people on the field plus the cook. We do some work in the same property that requires no interaction at all with the surrounding community and our work consists more on trimming and planting.

Since the volunteers have all different timelines here and most of them stay for short periods of time such as 2 weeks it makes more sense for this station to use the number of people to do massive work such as planting 400 coffee plants or getting rid of the invasive mora in a plot of land instead of creating a relationship between the volunteers and the community or developing different projects. The station follows directions from the National Park and mainland Ecuador so the projects are part of years of study and a larger scale plan.

Volunteers could develop their own personal projects if they wished. For example, we started a bird catalog which entails taking pictures of the birds on different zones and identifying them as well as the tree or bush they feed from.

I want to learn more about the different organic pesticides and medicinal plants they have around here. I have previously learned about them but I have never made them or used this knowledge. I also intend to interact more with the local people. It’s really easy to just fall back on the company of the group of volunteers and speak English all the time but I have tried to avoid that and talk to the neighbors and staff. I have really enjoyed joking around with them, hearing different stories and learning about local traditions and history. (Apparently one of our neighbors is a pirate descendant and there are treasures buries on his property…). I have to keep this in mind throughout the rest of my service.

#3 July 15^th

It was interesting to hear that the main problem here is globalization. I think this is true but I just had never thought about the name “globalization.” I assumed that the number of tourists and all the outside resources that had to be brought to the islands were the main part of the problem.

After talking to the station director, I realize that conservation does make a lasting impact when it includes the local people. The Projects Abroad country director, William Puga, told me that for decades other countries have come here to invest a lot of money on conservation programs that ONLY focus on the environment but forget about the people. It’s the locals who can make the lasting impact and keep the projects going. It’s evident in Galapagos, after 10 years of work, that local people and governmental institutions can initiate positive change. The farmers are more aware of the need to take care of the native species and the environment in general. There are many strict laws in Galapagos that regulate everything from population to fish catching and building construction to keep the current resources available in the future.

I also realized that not all introduced species are bad for the conservation projects. The National Park and our station, Jatun Sacha, help farmers plant non-endemic coffee to provide a source of income. The pound of Galapagos organic coffee is sold for $10 or $15. There is a difference between introduced, non-endemic and invasive species. Introduced means that it does not grow here naturally, non-endemic means that it grows or lives here naturally but also in other places of the world, and invasive means that it was introduced and spreads like crazy. The good thing about planting introduced coffee (the endemic coffee is non-eatable) is that it needs shade to grow so invasive species, like mora (blackberry), can’t grow in those areas but endemic plants can. So there are benefits for the endemic environment if non native plants are grown. It’s a difficult balance to keep track of!

 After my talk I appreciate more the work that this station has done and the work of the neighboring farmers.

#2    July 12th, 2012

I have spoken with the one of the station coordinators, Cesar. He has worked in this biological station in Galapagos for 10 years (The station is 11 years old). He is from continental Ecuador and he is very knowledgeable about the issues and nature of Galapagos. He explained to me that the Ministry of Agriculture along with the Galapagos National Park have held workshops for the local farmers to explain about the importance of conservation of the islands. The farmers have organized in a farm commune (Comuna Campesina) and they are now supporting reforestation efforts. The volunteers are here to help them reach their goals. The farmers want us to get rid of invasive species on their land and plant endemic or native species along with commercial plants such as coffee. The National Park controls all projects.

Cesar wants to involve the local community more. He says that during December and local school holidays they bring local students to learn about the station and work here. Usually, only about 3% are from Ecuador. Most of the volunteers are from Europe or the US. He wants more Ecuadorians and galapagans (“?) here.

Here are some more translated quotes from my conversation with Cesar:

The social problem is divided into 3 parts: children, middle age and grown ups. Here is different than the continent. The social problem is globalization. We have many cultures and there isn’t authenticity. Because we are on an island the 3 parts are much more limited than in the continent (to medicine and education). The young local people cant find things to do as much as in the continent . Drugs, accessibility to drugs. I’m not accusing that the foreigner consumes more but they have more liberal views and in their countries they can consume.

In relationship with the environment. Its not much. We know we have to protect it and take care of it. You see, I’m not from here but I’m trying to bring some of the change here. There is not much poverty here. There is nobody who is panhandling on the street.

Another social problem is the unawareness of the real problems that is affecting the islands. You ask someone from here: Is the guayaba good or bad? Super good! They will reply. But that’s not true. To not know the effect of having invasive species. Doing workshops and trying to change people’s mentality. How are we contributing? With change. We want to show that yes we can! Many people in the national park say that its impossible to get rid of the mora. It may be but im not going to be one of them. If you don’t grow anything , of course they are going to come up.

We are planting non endemic coffee to reactivate the economy. We do agroforestal projects. If you tell a farmer to plant endemic plants they wont do that. You know to plant coffee and tell them that you need shade and grow escalacia (endemic). More than what im doing, its you guys. The willingness to work.

#1    July 3rd, 2012

I will be working in one of the five inhabited islands in the Galapagos, Ecuador for a period of six weeks as part of the conservation efforts that are trying to combat the spread of invasive species, deforestation, and unsustainable agricultural practices. I will help ameliorate the consequences that certain human actions have had on the ecological environment of the islands. Actions such as careless tourism, deforestation for cattle raising, and general exploitation of the natural resources of the Galapagos.