There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things.
-- William Shakespeare
Off the coast of Ecuador lies the Archipelago we call The Galapagos. These islands were formed from the depths of the ocean by volcanic activity, and cut off from the wider world for such an expanse of time that they followed their own, unique evolutionary path. A myriad of species, plants and animals that can be found absolutely nowhere else have lived in the Galapagos for millennia, building up their own, self-contained, ecosystem. The Galapagos of today are are a gift to human kind: an amazing spectacle for tourists, a way of life for residents, and a living laboratory for researchers. They exist as a beautiful evolutionary accident, and give humans a look at a path that our evolution did not take, a sort of what-if that really is.
Insofar as human interest in the Galapagos lies, there also exists human responsibility to protect its ecosystem. It is therefore responsibility of humankind to acquire accurate and comprehensive data and manage it in such a way that the Galapagos can be understood, managed, and preserved for current and future scientists, tourists, and residents. This data will be used to answer questions about how and why the complex Galapagos ecosystem works, and what impacts it, both positively and negatively.
The very uniqueness of the Galapagos is the source of its beauty, but this same uniqueness makes it extremely fragile to outside influence, or change in any way. The data must therefore provide an early-warning system of any environmental change. The environmental impacts of recent developments in the Galapagos will be taken especially into account, since they area shock to the cloistered Galapagos ecosystem by their very nature. Human impacts in the towns and cities will be monitored, as well as tourism, fishing, scientific research, biodiversity, invasive species, endangered species, and the abiotic health of the land and waters. This data will be compiled to form a more complete picture of the Galapagos. It will be applied to forming a better system for humans to live, work, and play in harmony with the environment, and to keep the ecosystem healthy and functioning as a beautiful unit.
Our mission, to monitor the health of the Galapagos, unfolds from these premises. Current programs to protect the Galapagos will be continued, and many new methods of monitoring the health of the ecosystem as a whole will be added. Our plans are described in the following articles, explain how we will collect and manage this data that will then be used to manage the health of the people and environment. It is our hope and that the work done here to will help us to better understand, and therefore better help this accident of nature, this great blessing that we call the Galapagos.