Galapagos Organic Rescue: Sustainable Control of Introduced
Plant Species
This Galapagos Islands
conservation project, "Galapagos Organic Rescue"
focuses on
supporting the control of selected
introduced
species in the Galapagos Islands, as well as the
sustainable development of local communities through organic
agriculture. Other
projects focus on introduced species in the National
Park,
but without
controlling them in the private land (3% of the islands), the problem
continues due to
‘recontamination’ from seeds carried by the wind or
by birds, so we focus on this private land.
For example, guava and 'mora' (a kind of black raspberry)
spread rapidly and have
invaded the
pasturelands of the Galapagos farmers.
The Galapagos project
involves a
series of strategies:
-
The creation of a system to
extract the
selected species from private Galapagos
farmland;
-
The
construction of a small mobile plant to process this vegetable
material; and
-
The
production and sale of a variety of organic products from the Galapagos
Islands, including
craft products, essential oils, colourings, plant extracts and herbs;
with
the profits generated by these products, we plan to achieve:
-
The
seeding of the cleared Galapagos farms with permissible organic crops.
Organic agriculture will provide
the farmers with a more economically
beneficial and environmentally friendly source of income, and
prevent
the re-growth of
the problem species on the islands;
-
An
increase in the programme of reforestation with native species; and
-
Education
for the Galapagos community about the problems facing their unique
environment,
which will improve their ability to protect and conserve it.
The use of
organic alcohol as fuel and as the
extraction agent in processing will avoid damage to the unique
ecosystem of the Galapagos islands because it is
environmentally
inoffensive and any spills will leave no residue.
Other eradication
projects have suffered problems with
sustainability, but our transformation of the biomass of
the problem
species into saleable organic products ensures a viable and
sustainable economic resource for the life of the project. To
prevent any unintended disincentive to eradication,
the Galapagos farmers already understand that they
will not participate in
the
benefits
from the weed extraction, only from the ongoing market for permitted
crops and their products, for example organic cheese and yoghurt, etc.
The
unique relationship with the market for these
products will actually control the results, with each purchase
directly influencing the rescue of the Galapagos habitat.
For example, an organic, limited-edition lipstick
made
from natural colouring will be ideal for environmentally-aware
consumers with a sense of social justice. The majority of
these
consumers will probably be in developed countries.
The
use of organic
alcohol guarantees the highest possible quality of environmental
care and will be fairly traded from
CADO,
a cooperative of rural farmers in an area of
extreme poverty in mainland
Ecuador, creating social and environmental benefits.
Galapagos
Islands Conservation:
Sustainable
Organic Control of Introduced Species in the Galapagos Islands
is a
Green Progress project from CRACYP, promoting organic agriculture
to protect the fragile Galapagos ecosystems and
provide development opportunities for the island communities.
