Galapagos: Both Sides of the Coin

A living archipelago. A human history. A choice about the future.

The Galapagos are often imagined as a world apart: volcanic islands where giant tortoises move through the highlands, marine iguanas feed beneath the sea and wildlife meets people with extraordinary trust. That vision is true—but it is only one side of the coin.

The other side is a long human story. Accidental visitors, pirates, whalers, colonists, scientists, fishers, conservationists and tourists have all changed the islands. Their choices have shaped what survives, what has been lost and what the Galapagos may become.

A companion to the book

This website is a companion to Galapagos: Both Sides of the Coin by Pete Oxford and Graham Watkins. Through photography and narrative, the book sets the islands’ natural wonder beside their social, economic and political history. It asks us to see the Galapagos not as a museum frozen in time, but as a living place whose future depends on people.

Explore the two stories

Wild Galapagos

Meet the animals, habitats and evolutionary relationships that make the archipelago exceptional.

People in the islands

Follow five centuries of discovery, extraction, settlement, science, tourism and change.

The future of Galapagos

Understand why conservation depends on governance, education, livelihoods and responsible choices.

“The natural history of these islands is eminently curious, and well deserves attention.”

— Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle

Why it matters

The Galapagos remain one of the world’s great natural laboratories and one of its most powerful symbols of conservation. Their wildlife, ocean currents and volcanic landscapes reveal evolution in action. Yet isolation also makes island systems unusually vulnerable. Introduced species, overharvest, pollution, climate disruption and poorly managed growth can unravel ecological relationships built over millennia.

The central message of the book—and this site—is hopeful but demanding: the islands can be conserved, but only through choices made together by residents, Ecuadorian institutions, visitors, businesses, scientists and the wider world.

Begin with The Book →