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Food supply system dynamics in the Galapagos Islands: agriculture, livestock and imports

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2018

Carolina Sampedro ,
Francesco Pizzitutti ,
Diego Quiroga ,
Stephen J. Walsh  and
Carlos F. Mena Open the ORCID record for Carlos F. Mena [Opens in a new window]
Carolina Sampedro
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography, Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), Quito, Ecuador
Francesco Pizzitutti
Affiliation:
Galapagos Science Center, USFQ-UNC, San Cristobal, Galapagos, Ecuador
Diego Quiroga
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography, Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), Quito, Ecuador Galapagos Science Center, USFQ-UNC, San Cristobal, Galapagos, Ecuador School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), Quito, Ecuador
Stephen J. Walsh
Affiliation:
Galapagos Science Center, USFQ-UNC, San Cristobal, Galapagos, Ecuador Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Carlos F. Mena*
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography, Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), Quito, Ecuador Galapagos Science Center, USFQ-UNC, San Cristobal, Galapagos, Ecuador School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), Quito, Ecuador
*
Author for correspondence: Carlos F. Mena, E-mail: cmena@usfq.edu.ec
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Abstract

Like many other oceanic islands around the globe, environmental conditions, social circumstances and forces of globalization combine to challenge the sustainability of the Galapagos Archipelago of Ecuador. This paper describes a food-supply system in Galapagos that is mainly controlled by population growth, weak local agriculture, imports from mainland Ecuador and the influence of a growing tourism industry. We use system dynamics (SD) as a modeling technique in this paper to identify the main driving forces operating on the Galapagos food system to create a series of future scenarios and to examine the subsequent implications across the supply system structures. We model the supply side of the food system using secondary data collected from governmental and non-governmental sources. We find that the consumption profile of the local inhabitants of the Galapagos is on average higher than consumption in the Ecuadorian mainland. This fact, plus rapid growth of the local population fueled by the tourism industry, has created a decrease in per capita local food production and an increase on food import dependence that now, challenges the sustainability of the archipelago. Imports are the largest source of food in the archipelago. Approximately 75% of the agricultural food supply was transported from the mainland in 2017. Our model projects that this fraction will increase to 95% by 2037 with no changes in food policy. Moreover, any plan to increase tourism arrivals must be accompanied by a plan to address the subsistence needs of the new population that the tourism industry attracts. Policies to promote local agricultural growth should be central to the development strategy implemented in the Galapagos.

Keywords

Food supply systemGalápagos Islandssystem dynamicstourism
Type
Research Paper
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , June 2020 , pp. 234 - 248
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018

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