The Galapagos National Park Service is in the middle of a legal
battle to halt the construction of this building, on the grounds
that it is a hotel, and not a private residence. The
owner filled out the paperwork for a construction permit with the
municipal government of Puerto Ayora last year, indicating he was
building a house. Houses do not need to meet strict
environmental standards, and do not need ministry of tourism
approval. The owner started building his house,
and soon, witnesses were reporting to the park that a hotel was
under construction. After investigating the site, the
Park, which is in charge of certifying that environmental standards
have been respected when a hotel is built, requested and obtained a
stop work order from the local judge. A few
months later, the Park was notified that the owner had ignored the
stop work order and had started up construction again.
The Park obtained another stop work order which has been in place
since. But the owner turned around and charged, before
the courts, that the Park did not have the authority to interfere
in the construction of his "house".
This week, the court responded in support of the park, indicating
that the electrical works in the building is not compatible with
that of a house and concluded that the owner was in fact building a
hotel. This information, along with pictures of the
building, led to the court's decision.
This decision is a positive step in the application of the law
in Galapagos. Such situations in the past often
resulted in the courts deciding in favour of those trying to
circumvent environmental laws. Over recent years, much
effort has been invested in strengthening the judicial processes in
Galapagos, particularly those related to environmental
issues. CNH Tours applauds the efforts of the
Galapagos National Park Service, along with those of the judges
involved in this case. While cruise ship tourism
was finally tamed in Galapagos after many years of lax regulation
(no additional capacity has been granted to the cruise ship fleet
for the last 10 years), land based tourism is still in the "wild
west" phase, as exemplified by this case. The
government of Ecuador has been working at regulating land based
tourism over the past few years - though some progress has been
made, more needs to be done. CNH Tours is keen on
seeing a well ordered tourism industry in the islands - one that
focuses on the respect of the law, the application of safety
standards and the removal of tourism pirates - those who operate
non-authorized services and undermine legitimate, law abiding
businesses. All visitors to Galapagos should double
check on the legitimacy of the businesses with whom they are
considering entering into a transaction.
