Ecuador, Galapagos: An iguana can be seen in this image provided by the Ecuadorian President’s Office.
Image: dpa
The new area is intended to connect the Galápagos Islands with islands belonging to Panama, Colombia and Costa Rica. The aim is to protect the migration routes of rare animal species.
Dhe marine reserve around the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific is growing by 60,000 square kilometers. Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso signed the corresponding decree on Friday in the presence of ex-US President Bill Clinton and Colombia’s head of state Ivan Duque on a ship in the bay of Puerto Ayora. “There are places that have marked the history of mankind, and today we are honored to be in one of those places,” Lasso said. “These islands teach us something about ourselves: what if we acted not as lords of this earth, but as its protectors?”
The new area will connect the Galápagos Islands with the islands of Coiba (Panama), Malpelo (Colombia) and Coco (Costa Rica) and protect the migration routes of rare animal species. The heads of state of the participating countries announced the new marine protection area last year at the world climate conference in Glasgow. So far, around 138,000 square kilometers of sea area around the Galápagos archipelago are under protection.
The islands belong to Ecuador and are located around 1000 kilometers west of the South American coast in the Pacific. The archipelago has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1978 because of its special flora and fauna. Species found only there include marine iguanas, land iguanas and Galápagos finches. In 1835 Charles Darwin visited the islands. His theory of the origin of species received a lot of food for thought there.
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