the galápagos islands are often considered to be “one of the most fascinating places on earth.” it was deemed the first of twelve unesco world heritage sites due to its unique flora, fauna, and contributions to the scientific community. 

while spending seven days traveling the islands with lindblad expeditions, one contribution was stated over and over again: 97% of the islands are conserved as national park land, and only 3% are available for human habitation. being such a unique and beautiful place, the galápagos islands are highly sought out as a tourism destination. i began to question my own positionality, and how tourism affects the land and people who reside there. 

tourism in the galápagos archipelago has drastically increased since 1995, applying pressure to the archipelago’s ecosystems and wildlife. with 97% of the total land being conserved, infrastructure for locals to live or for tourists to stay during their visit is only allowed on the remaining 3%. i had all of these questions swirling in my head about how tourism plays a role in the small 3% of the islands where human habitation and development are permitted.

aboard the national geographic gemini, i was grateful to get to know two individuals who are local to galápagos islands: christian saa of santa cruz island and ivan vasquez of san cristobal island. 

changing landscapes

“i have lived here my whole life,” saa said. “i work in tourism, conservation and activism. i was born in the perfect time to see how tourism started in the galápagos islands and how this activity has been growing exponentially throughout the years.” 

“local people that have been here a long time, who grew up in pristine areas surrounded by unique animals, understand the real value of galápagos,” saa said; on the other hand, there are people who “see the galápagos as a place to make money and want to commercialize it.”

papers, articles, and stories from locals have painted the picture of an ever-changing galápagos islands. areas of the islands that may have once been considered pristine are rapidly changing, not just with an increase of tourists, but with an increase in hotels and other commercial developments. tourism infrastructure on the islands is regulated by the galápagos special regime governing council (gsrgc), a body enacted by the ecuadorian national government but functions only on the islands. one of the many roles of the gsrgs is reviewing and deciding developmental permits based on their alignment with sustainable development. 

the gsrgc holds minimally two spots for locals to be on the governing council. locals who have worked in the tourism industry have commented on the need for a shared vision of the future of tourism. saa further emphasizes on the need to “draw the future of galápagos.”

“if you check the statistics [regarding biodiversity and tourism] in the last 40 years and how [the galápagos] has changed, what is to come in the next 40 years?” saa asked. “it’s not going to be galápagos: it’s going to look like cancun. no more galápagos like you and i are knowing right now. but i am hopeful that we can preserve and conserve what we have now for future generations.”

the fight to protect

in response to the numerous challenges brought about by commercialization and industrialization, galápagos locals have not stood idly by.

saa recalled a childhood memory of accompanying his father to prevent construction of a road between the town of puerto ayora and tortuga bay — “one of the most beautiful beaches we have here,” saa said. saa’s story was a testament to the generational activism that has taken place on the islands over the years.

vasquez of san cristobal shared another story of community organizing in the face of increasing commercialization. vasquez told me about an ongoing battle between locals and a corporation called hogalapagos that seeks to build a resort-like complex on the beach of punta carola. punta carola borders the galápagos national park and is home to many flora and fauna that contribute to the unique biodiversity of the area. building a large resort-like complex could negatively alter the beach by damaging the ecosystem that holds many plants and animals native to the galápagos.

the gsrgc denied the building permits to hogalapagos, but the intent to get this complex built didn’t stop there. “because the land is private, the company was trying to find a way to make it [constructing the hotel] happen still,” vasques said. according to vasques, organizing on a local level was another factor that has helped halt further construction. “the owner of the land and the [anticipated] hotel wanted to build an alternative road to that area [punta carola], but they stopped because people went to protest against it,” vasques said in explanation.

the san cristobal community assembly, a community organization, has taken both legal and on-the-ground action to fight against hogalapagos, including filing to have the land be protected. activists hope that turning the land into public utility would make it protected against development and open for public use.  

as of now, there have not been further developments in the legal battle. with drastic changes in the ecuadorian government, vasques, and saa both commented on the administration’s ability to exploit the galápagos islands.

the current administration and its role in the future of the galápagos

ecuador’s president daniel noboa won a special election in october 2023, to finish the term of his predecessor, and was recently re-elected in april 2025 for a full four year term. “he’s our president now and they basically try to make the most profit off of natural resources,” vasquez said. “he just passed a law in the ecuadorian assembly that allows for building to happen in national parks so we’ll have to see what happens here in galápagos.”

as explained in an article from the amazon frontlines, “on june 14, 2025, the government of daniel noboa, with the intent of commodifying nature, sent its proposal for the ‘law for the recovery of protected areas and the promotion of local development,’ to the national assembly.” ultimately, this new law allows for private companies to exploit ecuador’s natural resources and in areas that this once was never allowed. 

just one month after the new law was passed, and two days after i left the galápagos islands, president noboa eliminated the ministry of the environment, water and ecological transition, and turned it into the ministry of energy and mines. vasquez’s comments ring true, as their president is putting profit over people and place.

the minister of the environment position was chairman of the galápagos special regime governing council (gsrcg). what does the elimination of this office mean for approval of building permits on the islands, especially for a case like punta carola? what will be noboa’s forward knowing the islands hold a great deal of economic incentive in regards to tourism? 

many questions remain unanswered, but what is known now is that the people of ecuador and the galápagos are ready to stand their ground for the protection of nature as has happened for many generations.

“we understand that from time to time, every five, 10, 15 years the central government wants to trade or commercialize it [natural resources], but this is nothing new for us… the benefit would be the locals and that we fight everyday to conserve and protect it [the land],” saa said, with emotion.

editor’s note: lindblad expeditions, our planet forward storyfest competition partner, made this series possible by providing winners with an experiential learning opportunity aboard one of their ships. we thank lindblad expeditions for their support of our project.

the relationship between manoomin and anishinaabeg is strong through generations of knowledge transfer, but the decline in manoomin from the settler colonial system and increasing climate change poses a threat to that relationship. by anishinaabeg continuing to carry on the legacy of generational stewardship, they are actively combatting outside forces that have attempted to weaken that relationship.

take a moment to envision an alternate reality that encapsulates the past while imagining the future. personally, when i see collective and community controlled food systems, i see happy, healthy people who can cultivate and harvest food on a local level that works in alignment to the natural world, rather than against it. indigenous communities around the world have been engaging with their food systems in this way since time immemorial and continue to do so through the passing of intergenerational knowledge.

as indigenous communities in north america are sovereign nations existing within a settler colonial nation, their fight to enact food sovereignty has been and continues to be ongoing. food sovereignty can be described as the “right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.” 

while attending the united nations world food forum (wff) at the food and agriculture organization (fao) headquarters in rome, italy, i had the immense honor of attending a session called, “safeguarding indigenous people’s food systems for better nutrition.” the session brought together three indigenous panelists from around the world to talk about their efforts and experiences in enacting food sovereignty within their own communities.

after the session, i was able to meet daryl kootenay, the global indigenous youth caucus focal point for fao, to learn more about his specific community’s food sovereignty practices and how it ties them to their place of being, fosters nutritional practices, and overall brings people together through connection to food.

daryl kootenay and his food sovereignty efforts

kootenay is from the iyarhe nakoda nation in southern alberta, a part of treaty 7 territory, and is also a part of the navajo nation in new mexico. he is a land based educator, a singer, dancer, culture keeper, husband, father and so much more. as he states, “i hold many different roles. i teach as a faculty member at the university of calgary and the banff centre for indigenous leadership. i co-founded a nakoda youth council that we take annually to the un permanent forum on indigenous issues, and i’m also the co-executive director for the howl experience.” 

kootenay began his introduction with an explanation of the people and places he comes from. this is very common in indigenous communities, as doing so honors relationships to the people and places that make someone who they are. 

the iyarhe nakoda, or stoney nakoda, communities are the original “peoples of mountains.” “iyarhe nakota, we’re mountain people and are well known for big game harvesting,” kootenay said. elk meat is one of the many indigenous game foods that kootenay specifically relates to and educates others on. part of his role as an educator is to engage both indigenous and non-indigenous folks in food sovereignty. he does that by coordinating camps as a part of the howl experience, as he knows it takes collective community efforts to successfully accomplish these types of traditional activities.

land dispossession and conservation practices as a challenge for food sovereignty

due to settler colonial violence, such as forced removal of indigenous people from their homelands, enacting food sovereignty has been no easy feat. one reason that indigenous peoples, like daryl’s community of the iyarhe nakoda nation, have been forcibly removed is through the creation of parks canada. the creation of banff national park led to the removal of stoney nakoda from their homeland, in turn causing disruption to their ways of being and traditional practices of hunting and gathering.

there is a distinct difference between indigenous communities and settler societies, and the ways in which each believes people should interact with plants, animals, and other non-human beings. the conservation method of parks canada is rooted in the belief that nature should be untouched and exists separate from humans, whereas indigenous communities believe in reciprocal and respectful interactions with their environment. this belief is central to the ways in which food sovereignty practices are carried out. 

these ideas are spoken of in an article that highlights the voice of a nakoda elder, sykes powderface. powderface declares that, “it denied our ancestors from accessing an area that has sustained who we were from time immemorial… the so-called conservation/preservation, particularly for wildlife, what does it mean? it means something different to us than the western world. to the western world it means money, to us a belly full. that’s what it means.”

indigenous people and foodways are resilient

despite colonial systems working against indigenous peoples’ efforts to maintain food sovereignty and community connections to land, indigenous people and their foodways continue to thrive. creating spaces where people can connect to their food on a deeper level is one way this is done, but also by using intergenerational knowledge to carry forth ways of being into the future.

kootenay spoke about recreating a type of learning environment where knowledge that’s shared is based off of the way stoney people operated their harvest camps in the past. this type of knowledge is based on long-standing connection to a place. indigenous knowledge itself is scientific and the ways of knowing are created through the lived experience.

this is further described in a journal which states, “traditional foodways are based on an intimate and spiritual connection to the land and entail a reciprocal relationship that must be actively maintained… indigenous knowledge derives from traditional teaching, empirical observation, and spiritual insight.”

none of this work could be done without the head and the heart. while at the wff, kootenay commented on how he notices that in these spaces there is a lack of people leading with their hearts. he beautifully describes, “i think that’s primarily the main cause for how things are taking the wrong turn today, because there’s a lot of policy, there’s a lot of academia that requires a lot of your brain and your head and lack of love.”

kootenay was given a native american name, wocantognake itancan, which is lakota for “the one that leads with his heart”, and as he states, that is exactly as he tries to do while engaging internationally and within his local community. the wff was about bringing people together for their love and knowledge of foods. kootenay’s food sovereignty efforts and his role as an educator really embody the goals of what wff is all about.