Prof. Carlos Mena: Trust the Locals, Trust the Science, Protect the Galápagos

About this episode

David Oakes interviews Professor Carlos F. Mena about conservation challenges in the Galápagos and the importance of local community involvement in environmental science.

This episode finds David in conversation with the Galápagos-born geographer, Director of Universidad San Francisco de Quito’s Galápagos campus and Co-Director of the Galápagos Science Centre, Professor Carlos F. Mena (recorded with a chorus of barking sea lions providing an unmistakably local backdrop!) From a NASA fellowship and early work modelling human behaviour in the Amazon, Carlos explains how his research led to a simple, uncomfortable truth: conservation succeeds or fails at the level of families. In places where survival is precarious, the forest becomes a bank account — and any environmental message that ignores poverty, health and education is doomed to stay theoretical. From there, the conversation moves to the Galápagos as a living, inhabited system: a place of extraordinary protection and extraordinary pressure. Carlos describes the islands’ dependence on tourism, the “fortress conservation” model that tightly regulates both people and nature, and the political push to open the archipelago to outside investment. They explore how the Science Centre builds trust with local communities after a history of extractive science, why co-authorship and two-way learning…

People in this episode

Host: David Oakes

Guest: Carlos F. Mena

Topics covered

• conservation
• local communities
• tourism
• environmental science
• COVID-19
• sea lion management

Keywords

• Galápagos
• conservation
• local communities
• tourism
• sea lions
• COVID-19
• environmental science

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Galápagos Science Centre

Places: Galápagos, Amazon, Galápagos Islands

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