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Community & Human Health

This is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach — working at the local, regional, national, and global levels — to achieve improved human health and well-being. Our approach identifies the inhabitants who are most vulnerable due to a lack of material wealth, water and food insecurity, and gender-related issues. We recognize that the health and well-being of local inhabitants is key to the conservation and sustainability of the Galapagos, like many other ecologically sensitive places.

Our projects include topics in: Epidemiology, Public Health & Policy, Gender Studies, Tourism, and Food Security & Nutrition and Pollution. 

Let’s meet the researchers and their impactful projects:

ANDREI DANIEL MIHALCA

  • Dirofilaria immitis: yet another threat for the endangered Galapagos sea lion?

LAIA MUÑOZ

  • Assessment of mercury and lead in coastal food webs in Galápagos and public health implications. Using genomic tools in marine commercial fishes.

NATALIA VILLEGAS RODRÍGUEZ

  • Understanding young adults’ (18-24 years of age) risk and protective factors related to youth pregnancy and violence in the Galapagos.

JILL STEWART

  • Lessons from the Environmental Resistome in Galápagos: A One Health Perspective.
  • The Dual Burden of Disease in the Galápagos, Ecuador: An Interdisciplinary Study of Food and Water on Isabela Island.
  • Water, Food, and Health in San Cristóbal: The Healthy Family Study.
  • Water Quality Assessments on San Cristobal Island, Ecuador.

AMANDA THOMPSON

  • Water, Food, and Health in San Cristóbal: The Healthy Family Study.
  • Food Environments in the Galápagos: Geographic and Behavioral Determinants of Diet and Health.
  • The Dual Burden of Disease in the Galápagos, Ecuador: An Interdisciplinary Study of Food and Water on Isabela Island.
  • Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies: The intergenerational effects of maternal stress in the Galápagos Islands.
  • Feasibility of Educational Support Measures for Parenting Skills and Mental Health Symptoms in Mothers of Young Children in the Galapagos.

VALERIA OCHOA

  • Lessons from the Environmental Resistome in Galápagos: A One Health Perspective.

  • Long-term water quality monitoring program in San Cristóbal, Galapagos.

KHRISTOPHER M. NICHOLAS

  • Social and environmental determinants of metabolic dysregulation in the Galapagos.

PAUL CÁRDENAS

  • Effect of a Lupinus mutabilis sweet snack nutritional complement on the gut microbiome from schoolchildren in Galapagos 2022-2023. A pilot study.

RENATO LEÓN

  • The use of the Gravid-Aedes Trap (GAT) for a better monitoring and control of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, main vector of dengue chikungunya and Zika in the Galapagos islands.

SONIA ZAPATA

  • Circulation of Toxoplasma gondii in the Galapagos archipelago.

JOHN BUSE

  • Diabetes Prevention & Management – Tailoring Global Models to Galapagos.

ENRIQUE TERÁN

  • Water, Food, and Health in San Cristóbal: The Healthy Family Study.
  • Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies: The intergenerational effects of maternal stress in the Galápagos Islands.

MARGARET BENTLEY

  • Water, Food, and Health in San Cristóbal: The Healthy Family Study.
  • Food Environments in the Galápagos: Geographic and Behavioral Determinants of Diet and Health.
  • The Dual Burden of Disease in the Galápagos, Ecuador: An Interdisciplinary Study of Food and Water on Isabela Island.
  • Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies: The intergenerational effects of maternal stress in the Galápagos Islands.

CINDY FRAGA

  • Youth Perceptions of Living in the Galapagos: Relationships, Health, and the Future.

SUSANA CÁRDENAS

  • Evaluating and measuring impacts at Tourist Visitor Sites of the Galapagos National Park with an integrated and adaptive approach.

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USFQ

UNC Center for Galapagos Studies

USFQ Galápagos

Univeristy of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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In 2022, the Galapagos Science Center (GSC) and the broader UNC & USFQ Galapagos Initiative will celebrate its 10th Anniversary. We are proud to announce the World Summit on Island Sustainability scheduled to be held on June 26–30, 2022 at the Galapagos Science Center and the Community Convention Center on San Cristobal Island.

The content of the World Summit will be distributed globally through social media and results documented through papers published in a book written as part of the Galapagos Book Series by Springer Nature and edited by Steve Walsh (UNC) & Carlos Mena (USFQ) as well as Jill Stewart (UNC) and Juan Pablo Muñoz (GSC/USC). The book will be inclusive and accessible by the broader island community including scientists, managers, residents, tourists, and government and non-government organizations.

While the most obvious goal of organizing the World Summit on Island Sustainability is to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the GSC and the UNC-USFQ Galapagos Initiative, other goals will be addressed through special opportunities created as part of our operational planning of the World Summit.

For instance, we seek to elevate and highlight the Galapagos in the island conservation discourse, seeking to interact with other island networks in more obvious and conspicuous ways to benefit the Galapagos Islands, the UNC-USFQ Galapagos Initiative, and the world. We will seize the opportunity to further develop the I2N2 – International Islands Network-of-Networks. Further, we wish to highlight and emphasize multiple visions of a sustainable future for the Galapagos Islands and we cannot do this alone. Therefore, engaging the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Tourism, the Government Council of Galapagos, the Galapagos National Park, and local Galapagos authorities, including government and non-government organizations and local citizen groups, is imperative.

The Galapagos Science Center on San Cristobal Island, Galapagos

Borrowing from Hawaii’s and Guam’s Green Growth Program and the Global Island Partnership, we wish to examine existing global programs that emphasize island sustainability and their incorporation into life, policies, and circumstances in the Galapagos Islands. We will also seek to enhance our connections with the institutional members of our International Galapagos Science Consortium and expand the Consortium through the recruitment of other member institutions. We will also work to benefit islands and their local communities by working with citizen groups as well as important NGOs who seek to improve the natural conditions in the Galapagos and diminish the impact of the human dimension on the future of Galapagos’ ecosystems.

Lastly, we will use the World Summit to benefit UNC & USFQ and our constituencies through a strong and vibrant communication plan about the World Summit, creating corporate relationships as sponsors, identifying funding goals through donors, and benefiting our study abroad program for student engagement in the Galapagos Islands. We plan to develop and issue a Galapagos Sustainability Communique after the World Summit that includes the vision and insights of all its participants for a sustainable Galapagos with applicability to global island settings.

We are eager to hear your perspective and have you join us at the World Summit on Island Sustainability!