Mangrove forests provide valuable coastal protection from erosion, habitat for terrestrial and marine species, nursery grounds for commercial fisheries and are economically important for tourism. Galapagos’ mangroves usually grow directly on solid lava and fragmented rocky shores, thereby stabilizing the sediment and facilitating colonisation by other plants and many animals. However, until very recently, only inaccurate data described mangrove coverage and its distribution. We mapped mangroves using freely available Google Earth Very High Resolution images based on on-screen classification and compared this method to three semi-automatic classification algorithms. We also analysed mangrove change for the period 2004–2014. We obtained an area of 3657.1 ha of fringing mangrove that covers 35% of the coastline. Eighty percent of mangrove cover is found in Isabela island, and 90% in the western and central south-eastern bioregions. The overall accuracy of mangrove classification was 99.1% with a Kappa coefficient of 0.97 when validated with field data. On-screen digitization was significantly more accurate than other tested methods. From the semi-automated methods, Maximum Likelihood Classification with prior land-sea segmentation yielded the best results. During the 2004–2014 period, mangrove coverage increased 24% mainly by expansion of existing mangroves patches as opposed to generation of new patches. We estimate that mangrove cover and growth are inversely proportional to the geological age of the islands. However, many other factors like nutrients, currents or wave exposure protection might explain this pattern. The precise localization of mangrove cover across the Galapagos islands now enables documenting whether it is changing over time.

Galápagos is one of the most pristine archipelagos in the world and its conservation relies upon research and sensible management. In recent decades both the interest in, and the needs of, the islands have increased, yet the funds and capacity for necessary research have remained limited. It has become, therefore, increasingly important to identify areas of priority research to assist decision-making in Galápagos conservation. This study identified 50 questions considered priorities for future research and management. The exercise involved the collaboration of policy makers, practitioners and researchers from more than 30 different organisations. Initially, 360 people were consulted to generate 781 questions. An established process of preworkshop voting and three rounds to reduce and reword the questions, followed by a two-day workshop, was used to produce the final 50 questions. The most common issues raised by this list of questions were human population growth, climate change and the impact of invasive alien species. These results have already been used by a range of organisations and politicians and are expected to provide the basis for future research on the islands so that its sustainability may be enhanced.

La conservación de las AAPP del Archipiélago de Galápagos ha alcanzado un sinnúmero de reconocimientos: Patrimonio Natural de la Humanidad, Reserva de la Biosfera, Santuario Marino, Sitio Ramsar, etc. Esto gracias a, entre otras actividades, al conocimiento técnico/científico generado a partir de instituciones como la Fundación Charles Darwin (FCD). Este conocimiento provee a la autoridad ambiental local (DPNG, Dirección del Parque Nacional Galápagos) de evidencia científica para la toma de decisiones en el manejo de la Reserva Marina y del Parque Nacional. De acuerdo a las tendencias actuales, existe el reto de tener una mayor accesibilidad a la información, específicamente a la investigación científica de la FCD. El concepto de ciencia abierta que se pretende implementar se basa en el trabajo colaborativo y datos FAIR, siendo este el ideal de hacia donde la gestión de la información apunta. Este artículo pretende presentar los inicios hacia la ciencia abierta por parte de la FCD. Un visualizador de los proyectos científicos institucionales y un geoportal de datos sobre el Plan de Desarrollo Sustentable y Ordenamiento Territorial del Régimen Especial de Galápagos (Plan Galápagos 2030); han sido los primeros pasos concretos para poner a disposición el libre acceso a la información. En segundo lugar, se realizará una evaluación del impacto de la apertura de esta información: es decir se analizarán las percepciones de los visualizadores publicados; lo que permitirá identificar los retos hacia la implantación de la ciencia abierta para la producción científica de la FCD.