Recent rapid increases in tourism, migration, and the spread of invasive species have escalated local tensions between conservation and development to a global level, with the Galapagos Islands placed on the United Nation's list of World Heritage Sites that were "In Danger" in 2007. A number of political and environmental leaders have generated a new vision for the islands, hoping to rewrite past policies that separated pristine nature from people by focusing instead on participatory environmental management. Attempts to resolve this crisis, however, must be negotiated among a wide set of stakeholders with diverse perspectives and interests, including local residents, conservationists, scientists, tourists, and the tourism industry. Set in the context of a crisis moment in the Galapagos Islands, this doctoral dissertation research project will use the giant tortoise, an emblematic species and contested symbol of the archipelago, as a lens through which to explore changing relations among science, nature, and society. The doctoral student conducting this project will position the tortoise at the center of debate among these stakeholders by exploring answers to the following questions: (1) How does the giant tortoise's history reflect changing human interactions with and valuations of nature? (2) How do different valuations of the giant tortoise today reflect competing designs for the future of the islands? (3) How are tortoises and their relations with people and the environment being remade by recent shifts in science and conservation? Archival and ethnographic methods will be used to address these questions, including research at natural history museums, surveys and in-depth interviews across stakeholder groups in the Galapagos, and participant observation of evolutionary and ecological tortoise science and conservation programs.
This project takes a trans-disciplinary approach to understanding the complex entanglements of nature, society, and science at the heart of debates about sustainability and environmental management. Although sustainability and participatory environmental management are popular policy goals, their realization has often remained elusive. This project will contribute important theoretical insights for understanding the challenges of achieving sustainability in the context of increasing development pressure and conflict that threatens iconic endangered species and preservation sites around the world. Through dissemination to academics, Galapagos conservation officials, and local communities, project findings will have a potential impact on how conservation and development policies are formulated in the Galapagos. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.
Even before Darwin wrote about riding on the backs of the Galápagos Islands’ "antediluvian" giant tortoises, the archipelago was known for its largest inhabitants, whose leathery skin and well-worn armor seemed to be a holdover from a prehistoric era.[1] Today, the Galápagos continue to be celebrated as a "lost world"—one of the best-preserved ecosystems on Earth, and a place where scientists and tourists alike can glimpse nature as it was before the influence of man. Yet obscured in these narratives are the complex ways in which the pursuit of pristine nature has produced new landscapes; this dissertation focuses on the Galápagos’ most iconic species, the giant tortoise, to explore how "pristine nature" is not "natural," but produced through the work of science, conservation, and tourism. Drawing on 16 months of archival and ethnographic fieldwork, this dissertation shows that far from being a holdover of prehistoric nature, giant tortoises have been profoundly shaped by projects of scientific study, breeding and repatriation, and ecotourism. Research has included data collection through ethnographic and archival methods both in the Galapagos Islands and in natural history museums, zoos, and other government and international archives. This has included more than 70 in-depth interviews with scientists, conservationists and national park employees, and local residents in the Galapagos as well as a survey of 20 tourists in the Galapagos. Through archival research I have collected more than 45,000 pages of relevant documents. Although data coding and analysis are on-going, preliminary findings address the following key points: 1) In Galapagos, conservation efforts revolve around protecting "pristine" nature from a variety of threats – from introduced exotic species to development. My research on the giant tortoises, the islands’ iconic "prehistoric" species, shows that the ideal nature which conservationists seek to protect and recreate is not "natural" but a particular moral construction of the archipelago created over the past century. Similar approaches have been taken regarding the creation of national parks in the United States and Africa. What my research shows is the role of scientific moral constructions in how Galapagos nature is now popularly understood--reflected in portrayals of the islands as "Darwin's natural laboratory of evolution." 2) This idea of Galapagos as a "natural laboratory" has influenced both conservation and development patterns in the islands—particularly as conservationists seek to protect the archipelago’s natural isolation. This is reflected not only in biological classifications of endemic, native, and introduced species, but is also a reflected in legal and cultural patterns of human social organization. For example, in both recent citizenship and residency restrictions as well as popular sentiment among human residents that long-term residents are "endemic" to the islands while newer migrants are "invasive species." These human stratifications reflect a unique articulation of scientific classificatory discourse, social class relations, and citizenship rights. 3) My research also explores how rationalities and methodologies of giant tortoise conservation have changed over the past hundred years. This area of research has revealed three distinct periods of conservation: a) natural history collection, during which the best way to "preserve" a species was its literal preservation as a specimen in natural history museums; b) a period of ex situ breeding in which giant tortoises were taken from the Galapagos to be cared for in American and British Zoos, and ideally, to reproduce there; c) as the national park in the Galapagos developed, a period of in situ captive breeding and return to native habitats. These three periods demonstrate a profound shift in the technologies and geographies of animal management and conservation over the past century. Scientifically, this is important for understanding the specific practices through which broadly shifting (and much-discussed) conceptions of nature over the past 100 years have impacted a specific species. 4) Finally, focusing on the third period of conservation breeding, my work questions what a "wild" animal is by investigating the socio-technical processes of breeding giant tortoises. I find that restoring pristine nature is, in practice, a matter of human mediation and resourcefulness that reflects – and is limited by – particular human understandings of the past. Taken together, my research in these four key areas challenges the strict dichotomy between nature and culture that has long influenced conservation management in the Galapagos. By approaching the giant tortoises as socio-natural productions, I provide an alternate framework for approaching the management of endangered charismatic species, whether tortoises in the Galápagos or elephants in Africa. [1] Charles Darwin, Journal of Researches. 1845, p. 346.
