https://reasonstobecheerful.world/galapagos-going-green-sustainability/
"Just three blocks up from a seafront packed with hooting and howling Galapagos
sea lions — adolescents chasing each other through rock pools, alpha males
snoring in the midmorning sun and mothers teaching their pups how to swim — the
daily market on the island of San Cristóbal is serving up its own endemic
specialities.
Piles of ruby-red tomatoes, pinkish papayas and hulking great oranges line
Marina Herrera’s stall. Beside them are bunches of thick plantains, sweet,
finger-sized local bananas, as well as chunky chili peppers and heads of fresh
lettuce.
“They’re all grown within a few kilometers of here,” says Herrera, a
73-year-old Galapagueña trader known by locals as Chambita. “The oranges come
from Cerro Verde [a nearby mountain]. It’s cheaper than imported food. And it’s
tastier.”
Herrera and her fellow stall holders are part of a community-led effort to
transform the Galapagos Islands into a model of self-sufficiency, with their
initiatives ranging from localized food systems to nature-based water
treatment, renewable energy production, and a more equitable approach to the
archipelago’s ecotourism.
The Galapagos Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is the second-largest
marine reserve in the world, and its remarkable abundance of wildlife found
nowhere else on the planet inspired Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking Theory of
Evolution.
The so-called Enchanted Isles are home to thousands of species, including more
than 15 varieties of giant tortoise, the world’s only marine iguana, the only
penguins found north of the equator, the ocean’s highest concentration of
hammerhead sharks, pink flamingos, as many as 50,000 sea lions, and unique
flora such as the lava cactus, a hardy species that is the first to grow after
a volcanic eruption."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
