Galapagos National Park

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador - Galapagos National Park officials say that the volcano, La Cumbre, began spewing lava, gas and smoke on uninhabited Fernandina Island on Saturday after four years of inactivity.

The park said in a statement the eruption is not a threat to people living on nearby Isabela Island, but it says lava flowing to the sea is likely to affect marine and terrestrial iguanas, sea lions and other fauna.

Scientists say Fernandina is the island with the most volcanic activity in the archipelago.  La Cumbre last erupted in May 2005.

Source:  The Huffington Post

April 1, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador - The roughly 90 hectare wildfire that struck the Cerro Verde highlands on the island of Isabela was reportedly contained over the weekend.

Unfortunately, another fire has broken out on the island of San Cristobal.  The roughly four hectare fire is said to have been accidentally started by people burning trash, but high temperatures and drought conditions have helped the fire to spread.  No details on injuries or environmental damages were provided.

Source:  The Latin American Herald Tribune

In recent weeks, Britain’s Prince Charles and U.S. actor Richard Gere have paid visits to the Galapagos Islands, along with China’s Vice-Premier, Hui Liangyu.

Prince Charles, 60, and his wife Camila stopped in the Galapagos during a 10-day tour of South America to promote sustainability and action on climate change.  Charles has used the tour to deliver warnings that the world must act if it is to prevent irreversible harm from climate change.  He first raised such issues two decades ago.  “If now people are beginning to realise perhaps, after all, I wasn’t talking complete nonsense, then I am delighted,” he said.  “All I have been trying to do is remind people that we have to live and work in harmony with nature if we are to have any chance of surviving on this planet,” Charles said, “We are, I fear, at a defining moment in the world’s history.”  Island chains like the Galapagos are especially at risk to the affects that global warming will have on sea level.

Richard Gere also made headlines recently when he visited the archipelago.  Galapagos National Park spokeswoman Vanessa Garcia says that during a visit to the Ecuadorean islands, Gere, 59, offered to speak out publicly for their conservation.  “He was very enthusiastic about the Islands and offered, for nothing in exchange, to become a spokesperson; that he would allow us to use his voice and image whenever needed for the Galapagos cause”, said Garcia.  According to the sources, Gere was trying to go unnoticed on his visit to the Islands, but was surprised to be caught by cameras.

The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) played host to Hui Liangyu, Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China on February 14th.  Over the hour-long visit, Matthias Wolff, Director of Sciences of the CDF, and Edgar Muñoz, Director of the Galapagos National Park, accompanied the Chinese Vice Premier and his 30 member delegation on a tour of the tortoise breeding center.

Sources:  The Sydney Morning Herald , Merco Press, and Friends of the Galapagos, New Zealand.

Thursday, March 26, 2009 - According to Galapagos National Park personnel on site, the fire that broke out on Isabela Island last Saturday has consumed roughly 70 hectares.  The fire is centered in the agricultural zone in the Cerro Verde area of Santo Tomás, in the highlands above Puerto Villamil, southeastern Isabela.

At the moment, the Galapagos National Park Service, in coordination with the Ministries of Government, Environment, and Defense, is bringing in additional heavy machinery to extinguish the fire.

According to sources, the fire does not represent any danger for Galapagos species.  The Cazuela area, some seven kilometers distant, is the nearest site to the conflagration with a population of giant tortoises, but is not currently considered at risk because prevailing winds are blowing in the opposite direction.

Source:  The Galapagos Conservancy

After a short illness, David Snow, a leading ornithologist, one of the founders and the first director of the Charles Darwin Research Station, died on the 4th February aged 84.

David was instrumental in introducing conservation programs to protect the islands’ remaining giant tortoises from further decline.  With his wife, Barbara (who died in 2007), he made a huge contribution to our understanding of the evolutionary consequences of fruit-eating in birds.

The Daily Telegraph’s obituary described David Snow as “a kindly but diffident man whose interests lay in field observation rather than administration.”  Yet in the Galapagos he organized enforcement of a ‘strict tortoise reserve’ for the Santa Cruz tortoise and a survey which revealed that members of two other species, thought to be extinct, were still alive.  This included one tortoise which, Snow reported, had been found on Espanola, “feeding on a fallen Opuntia in company, and in competition, with 15 goats.”  Among his parting recommendations was the eradication of goats on Espanola and Santa Fe islands.

David will be remembered for the major contribution he made to our understanding of the importance of Galapagos and the measures necessary to conserve the archipelago.  His autobiography, Birds in Our Life, was published in 2008.

 Sources:  The Galapagos Conservation Trust and The Guardian