Conservationists and fishermen clash in the Galapagos

Spanish explorers called them Las Encantadas, the Enchanted Isles, and Charles Darwin used his studies of the islands as the foundation for his theory of natural selection. The Galapagos are among the world's most important scientific treasures, a group of stark volcanic islands fringed by deserted beaches and inhabited by unique varieties of giant tortoise, lizards and birds.

Yet life on this idyllic UN world heritage site has turned sour. Pitched battles have broken out between fishermen, armed with machetes, and conservationists. Ecuador, which owns the islands, has sent a naval patrol to quell disturbances, while police last week began arresting local men for rioting and assault.

The controversial director of the Galapagos National Park -- which controls 97 percent of Galapagos land and the marine reserve extending to 64km offshore -- has been sacked, while an air of uneasy tension hangs over the archipelago, as the islanders prepare for next month's election when they pick deputies to represent them in Ecuador's national assembly.

"It's a very tense situation," said Leonor Stjepic, director of the London-based Galapagos Conservation Trust, which raises money to help projects on the islands.

The violence has been triggered by an alarming growth in the islands' population. Puerto Ayora, on Santa Cruz island, housed just 45 inhabitants in the 1950s. Today there are more than 10,000, while the islands' total population is more than 19,000 and growing by 6 percent a year, despite recently introduced laws to limit waves of immigrants fleeing the slums of Ecuador for a life "in paradise."

On top of this, more than 100,000 tourists visit the islands every year.

Such numbers have put the islands' special ecology under intense pressure. Conservationists, backed by the Ecuador government, have replied by imposing strict controls to protect the islands' iguanas, blue-footed boobies and giant tortoises.

These moves have infuriated many local people, however. They want to exploit Pinta Island subspecies of the Galapagos giant tortoise -- and blockaded island ports.

The dispute was defused after the Ecuador government made concessions by increasing fishing quotas, which angered conservationists.

Then, last month, the Ecuador government appointed Fausto Cepeda as the national park's new director, a post that has become a political football for the mainland government. There have been nine directors in the past 18 months.

This appointment was particularly controversial, however. Cepeda was known to have close ties with the fishing industry, and the rangers, who run the national park and marine reserve, rebelled.

More than 300 staged a sit-in at the park's headquarters, barricaded themselves in and prevented Cepeda from taking up his post. After haranguing his staff, Cepeda departed. Later a group of about 100 fishermen, carrying machetes, saws and cutlasses, stormed the park gate and the rangers' barricades. A pitched battle broke out, and at least two people suffered serious injuries. Eventually, Cepeda -- with the fishermen's help -- entered the park.

A few days later, Ecuador Environment Minister Fabian Valdivieso told newspapers that he had decided to remove Cepeda from the post. In his place, biologist Victor Carrion has been assigned the post. A local man, and an experienced biologist, Carrion has the support of the rangers, and may be able to defuse the Galapagos crisis.