Galapagos Islands - A threatened hotspot?

Are the Galapagos islands a typical example of a threatened biodiversity hotspot? What is this nature of the threats and how is their management effective?

A biodiversity hotspot is an area or region with a significant range of species, which are threatened with distruction. There are 25 hotspots placed worldwide, mainly based in the tropics, near the equator or in coastal areas. According to Myers, a hotspot analiser, a region must contain at least 0.5% species as endemics (unique to that area) and has to have lost at least 70% of it's primary vegetation. Succession is the proccess of growth in plants, from small primary vegetation to large trees in secondary vegetation.

Due to the high profile of biodiversity hotspots, they have recieve criticism from papers such as Kareiva and Marvier for not adequatly representing and protecting the areas of declining biodiversity. Some companies that work with the hotspots are; The World Wildlife Fund, Alliance for Zero Extinction, The National Geographic Society and Conservation International all have a say in how biodiversity hotspots are managed.

The Galapagos Islands are one of the 25 hotspots are the world, situated off the west coast of America. These islands are part of the Equadorian province. The Ecuadorian government technically restricts access to the islands so that if you want to get there as a tourist you should go through a registered agent. That said, there are numerous operators who visit the islands without any permits. The Galapagos Islands were made a World Heritage site in 1978, as were the waters between them. Government of Ecuador is unable to effectively police tourism, illegal immigration, fishing or anything else of concern on the islands. Rapid growth in tourism due to the expanding demand for marine products like sea cucumbers and lobster, has led to a rise in migration and with these activities have come an increased amount of feral species, both plant and animal.
Because the islands are so small and many of the species are native to only one island, a high proportion (at least 60%) of vertebrate species are already endangered and 25% of plants are extinct.

Conservation efforts are of being made, but the local authorities are unable to keep up with the arrival of new species from unregulated planes and and boats arriving daily.

The Government of Equador are trying to encourage conservation by enabling people to volunteer to help using media like internet and adverts to get international help.

CRACYP is a Equadorian conservation organisation. Their Galapagos Islands conservation project focuses on supporting the control of selected introduced species in the Galapagos Islands, as well as the sustainable development of the local communities through organic agriculture.

Many Galapagos reptiles are at risk of extinction. For example; the giant tortoise and the marine iguana, which is the only sea-going lizard alive. This is loss of species is very typical of biodiversity hotspots and which make the Galapagos Islands an official biodiversity hotspot.

While there are a great number of issues and problems facing the fragile environment of the Galapagos, there are success stories and potential solutions as well. The introduced eradication program, though slow going, has eliminated feral goats from several small islands. Dogs are now absent from the island of Isabela. The efforts to reintroduce and repopulate species such as elephantine tortoise have increased their numbers dramatically. Environmental education efforts on the Islands help their inhabitants understand the larger picture and need for conservation, and responsible tourism and enforced park guidelines help preserve the Galapagos for the future. But there are seemingly endless needs for the park's preservation, and always limited funding.

http://www.all-about-reptiles.com/galapagos-islands.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiversity_hotspot

http://www.progresoverde.org/galapagos-eng.html

http://www.galapagosislands.com/html/environment.html

Introduction to Geography

For those of you who didnt do Geography in school, i just have to tell you, that Geography is about EVERYTHING.
I will chat about different topics that i happen to be studying at the time, and give you questions to think about by yourselves, or you can post your opinions in the comment box, as i would love to here from you!

Lets start off with a topic most of you should know about:

Topic 1: Renewable Energy.

We all know this business about global warming, which is basically the warming of the earth due to an increase in greenhouse gases from our cars and essentially cow pat. If some of you are still confused about greenhouse gases, just think of a greenhouse. The glass is our atmosphere and the earth is getting warmer and warmer inside from the sun. This global warming is melting our polar ice caps and all the cute little baby penguins are running out of land! We dont want that now, do we?
This is all happening from using too much energy sources like oil, gas and coal. Some people know of nuclear energy as a bad thing, but let me correct you. When nuclear energy goes right, its the cleanest and most efficient of all energy sources, using Uranium for nuclear fission with big explosions, and they harness the energy from the nuclear fission. Unfortunately i am not a scientist and dont know the details. But when nuclear energy goes wrong, it goes VERY wrong.
Some of you may have heard of Chernobyl in Russia. Basically it was a nuclear powerstation, that didnt get enough water to cool down the reactor due to what they think is human error, and it blew sky high! Sheep 100 miles away can't graze on the land from the radiation. Basically, it was very bad!
So, if like Greenpeace, you are against nuclear energy and the use of fossil fuels... then what else could we use?
Well, we could use wind energy? If anyones seen the big white fans in feilds, you'll know what i mean. The wind spins the fans to power the generator and get energy. Simple. But, they are very expensive and not that efficiant and retaining energy. Birds are even known to fly into them! Some might find that funny, but im sure the birds wouldn't!
We could use sun power. I'm sure everyone's seen a solar panel in their life. They absorb the energy from the sun's waves for power. But if we think about it, what happens at night?
We could use coal... Essentially the burning of air between rocks. But there is alot of transportation needed and the mining is pretty extreme. The greenhouse gas emissions are very high, so we'd possibly be going backwards a bit there.
Theres hydroelectric energy. They can turn rivers into dams and use the power of gravity on the water to turn the turbine and get energy. But it can dangerously effect the habitation of fish and small mammals. The poor little fish can get sucked into the turbine. Not pleasent. There is also an increased flood risk further upstream as the water has no where to go. Vigerous landscaping is involved in creating the dam using pipes etc. So is it worth it?
We could use Gas. Natural gas burning from oil and gas "feilds". The greenhouse gas emissions are less than coal, but gas in toxic to humans and must be kept in storage in huge underground caverns. But if you left it alone for thousands of years, it would essentially turn into lead, seeing as lead is the most balanced of particles...
Theres biomass, the transformation of organic matter into energy. This sounds like a good plan, but unfortunately the fertiliser added to the plant to speed up it's growth damages the soil and the greenhouse gas emission from the burning of the organic matter is the highest of any renewable resources.
Wave energy could be useful. This is the use of the sea to turn turbines as the waves break on the beach. But animals can be affected by this, and the building of platforms at sea is dangerous for sea creatures.
Geothermal energy is the use of warmth from the earths core to spin a turbine for energy. The drilling of holes to release the heat is very extensive and affects land stability. But the greenhouse gas emissions from this are very low.

So which do we use? Solar, wind, nuclear, coal, hydroelectricity, gas, biomass, wave or geothermality.

Let me know your opinions in the comment box!