Credit Suisse-Ecuador deal for Galapagos conservation

Subject: Environment

Section: Places in news

Concept:

Ecuador has committed to spending millions of dollars annually for 20 years to protect one of the world’s most precious ecosystems, after the Swiss bank bought bonds at less than half of their original value.
Effectively, Ecuador has now bought its own debt back at a knock-down price via a fresh loan from Credit Suisse.
And in return, Ecuador’s government had pledged to spend about $18 million annually for two decades on conservation in the Galapagos Islands.
The remote islands — home to some of the most unspoiled nature in the world — are a UNESCO world nature heritage site, and their animal life was crucial to Charles Darwin’s research before publishing his theory of evolution.

About Galapagos Islands

It is an archipelago of volcanic islands.
It belongs to the Republic of Ecuador that lies 926 km to the east.
The islands are located in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 973 km off the west coast of South America
They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere.
The islands are located at the Galapagos Triple Junction. The Galapagos Triple Junction is a geological area in the eastern Pacific Ocean several hundred miles west of the Galapagos Islands where three tectonic plates – the Cocos Plate, the Nazca Plate and the Pacific Plate – meet.
The archipelago is precisely located on the Nazca Plate (a tectonic plate), which is moving east/southeast, diving under the South American Plate at a rate of about 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) per year.
Mount Azul, at 5,541 feet is the highest point of the Galapagos Islands.
The islands are well known for their distinctive endemic species, including giant tortoises, finches, flightless cormorants, Galápagos lava lizards and marine iguanas, which evolved to adapt to islands’ environments.