ECUADORIAN GOVERNMENT GIVES PRESTIGIOUS AWARD TO VISIONARY SCIENTIST
The Ecuadorian Government honored Professor Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt with the Condecoracion de la Orden Nacional al Merito en Grado de Comendador award for service to the country, during the opening dinner on 8th April for the UNESCO world heritage site review committee meetings held in Galapagos this week. The Minister of the Environment, on behalf of the Ecuadorian Government, bestowed the award commemorating the 50th anniversary of the efforts by Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt and the late Robert Bowman that led to the establishment of both the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and the Galapagos National Park in 1959.
CDF's executive Director Dr. Graham Watkins underscored the importance of the award stating, "Fifty years ago Professor Eibl-Eibesfeldt demonstrated the importance of leadership in recognising a problem and leading the development and implementation of the solution; our hope is that someone will take up this lesson now, recognise today's problems in Galapagos and move forward with solutions so that Galapagos will be better conserved in 50 years time than it is now."
In 1954, a young German researcher from the Max Planck Institute arrived in Galapagos to study animal behavior as part of a scientific cruise. Although fascinated by the wildlife, the impact of human activities and especially introduced animals caused him great concern. He reported his alarm to the then recently formed International Union for Protection of Nature (IUCN), urging them to establish a permanent research facility on the islands to investigate the native ecosystems and develop solutions to protect the archipelago and its unique species. With UNESCO providing financial and moral backing for a second visit in 1957, Eibl- Eibesfeldt led a four month exploratory tour with other eminent scientists. At a time when the need for wildlife conservation was little understood, the results from this 1957 visit provided the catalyst for a chain of events across the globe that led to the 1959 declaration by the Ecuadorian Government of 97% of the islands to be protected as national park and the creation of the CDF that same year.
Eibl-Eibesfeldt, in a career spanning almost sixty years, is a world renowned animal and human behavior expert and is the author of many books on the subject. He was the co-founder and first president of the International Society for Human Ethology and since 1992 has been the Honorary Director of the Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institute for Urban Ethology in Vienna. He is a long standing member of the CDF general assembly and a regular visitor to the islands.
Eibl-Eibesfeldt's extraordinary vision of 1957 is reflected in the restoration of much of the archipelago's ecosystems today. The PNG and the CDF continue to be world leaders in the management of invasive and endangered species. Today's Galapagos is remarkably improved as a result of the foresight of the early pioneering scientists who set in motion events fifty years ago that today continue to protect and restore this amazing archipelago.
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