Social Issues in the Galapagos Islands: A Participatory and Exploratory Study

In its landmark Our Common Future (1987) report, the Brundtland Commission defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development [WCED] 1987, p. 41). This report’s definition has been carried forward into the present day and future via the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and this Agenda’s constitutive Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are undergirded by five key foci: people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership. Of central interest to this paper are the first three foci: people, planet, and prosperity. The emphasis on people (SDGs 1–6) pertains to ending poverty and hunger, in all their forms and dimensions, and ensuring that human beings can fulfill their potential with dignity and equality in a healthy environment. Prosperity entails ensuring that all human beings can enjoy prosperous and fulfilling lives and that economic, social, and technological progress occurs in harmony with nature (SDGs 7–11). The third element, planet, centers on protecting the planet from environmental degradation, including by ensuring sustainable consumption and production, sustainably managing natural resources, and taking urgent action on climate change, so that the planet can support the needs of the present and future generations (SDGs 12–15). Collectively, these undergirding foci constitute a clarion call to balance the needs of human beings with the imperative of protecting the environment.