WWF - The Galápagos - The world’s most treasured islands

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The Galápagos

The world’s most treasured islands

It is nearly impossible to overstate the importance of the Galápagos as a scientific and natural treasure. These islands hold untold volumes of information on unique species and evolutionary processes. With their sparkling blue waters and jet-black cliffs, the islands are a magnificent sight to behold. They lie in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 600 miles from the mainland. Like all oceanic archipelagos, or groups of islands, the 13 large islands and more than 100 smaller islands, islets and rocks were formed by underwater volcanoes millions of years ago.

International Recognition

In 1959 the Galápagos became Ecuador’s first national park, and in 1978 the area was declared a World Heritage Site. In 1984, the archipelago was added to the World Network of Biosphere Reserves under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program.

Famous Finches: The basics of evolution and adaptation. The Galápagos’ 13 species of finches provided striking evidence for Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Subsequent scientific research supports the theory that finches of a single species arrived and dispersed to different islands, where they encountered different types of food sources. Those individuals with beak shapes that took advantage of the available food were most likely to reproduce and pass on their traits. This process of evolution – called adaptive radiation – continued until each group of finches developed into a different species.

Meet the team!

WWF's vision: To ensure ecological integrity, economic prosperity and social equity for the future of the islands and the people who live here.

The place. An oceanic Archipelago of 13 large islands and more than 100 smaller ones holds the secrets of evolutionary processes. With an array of terrains created by different elevations and wind patterns, the Galápagos encompasses deserts with forests of cacti, subtropical forests harboring giant tortoises, lush cloud forests with towering scalesia trees, and wetlands cloaked in ferns and grasses.
The species. The islands and rich waters are home to nearly 9,000 species, most found nowhere else and adapting undisturbed since prehistoric times—the only penguin in the northern hemisphere, the only ocean-going lizard, plants that reproduce without pollination. Species occur in huge concentrations: Hundreds of marine iguanas and up to a million birds can be seen at once.
The people. People are the new species here, having first set foot on the islands in the 1800s and arriving in greater numbers in the 1920s. Local livelihoods—farming, fishing, and tourism—depend on nature. Today, in response to a burgeoning tourism trade, more and more people are migrating to the islands. Since 1980, the population has increased tenfold and is now over 28,000.