Managing the Galapagos National Park: A Systemic Approach Based on Socio-ecological Modeling and Sustainability Indicators

The assessment of the sustainability should be tackled with a systemic perspective that enables an integrated analysis of the environmental, social, economic, and institutional factors and their interactions characterizing protected areas, as well as other complex socio-ecological systems. An integrated framework for such assessment is presented with the following key components: (i) the hierarchical definition of sustainability goals and indicators; (ii) a dynamic system model taking into account the key socioeconomic and environmental factors and their interactions, in which the most representative indicators and their sustainability thresholds are integrated; (iii) the analysis of vulnerabilities to exogenous drivers (scenario analysis) and the exploration of available management and planning options (policy assessment); (iv) a multicriteria procedure, in which indicators, sustainability thresholds, model outputs, and scenario and policy analysis are integrated to guide decisions for an improved sustainability in complex socio-ecological system. The whole framework integrates a participative approach, mainly for the initial and final steps. In this chapter, some of these components, specifically indicators, dynamic model, and scenario analysis, are applied to one of the most valuable and challenging protected sites in the world: the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador).