Santa Cruz (Ecuador) (AFP)

The Galapagos are famous for their unique flora and fauna, less for their agriculture on a hostile soil of volcanic rocks or their artisanal fishing, sectors where women play a role as essential as it is little known.

"In the fields, there are a lot of women. But it is the man that we see", regrets Maria Elena Guerra, coffee farmer on the heights of Santa Cruz, one of the four inhabited islands of this archipelago of the Pacific Ocean, 1,000 km from the coast of Ecuador.

The petite 54-year-old runs Lava Java, one of the 50 Galapagos plantations which, on 15 hectares, produces around 75 quintals a year of the only Galapagos coffee certified both organic and of controlled origin.

"When I'm looking for staff, it still happens that we introduce ourselves asking to speak to my husband!", She told AFP, laughing and straight in her rubber boots.

But "things are changing" and "being a woman is an issue in any environment", underlines this activist for equal rights for whom, on a daily basis, "the main challenge of agriculture here in the Galapagos is water "dependent on rains, for lack of sources or rivers.

"People are always very surprised that there is agriculture because they see documentaries (...) where everything is dry", adds Heinke Jäger of the Charles Darwin Foundation (FCD), specifying that he there are nevertheless some 755 farms, almost half in Santa Cruz.

- Men more visible -

"Almost 75% of the farms are in the name of the husband, but (...) most of the time it is the women who do the work" on "very rocky ground", "which makes the task very difficult", confirms this ecologist, in charge of a species conservation program involving 40 farmers.

The sun has barely risen, Maria Elena walks through her coffee trees.

Between paths bordered by black rocks removed from the earth, white flowers perfume the air with scents reminiscent of jasmine.

While in the distance the turquoise waters of the Pacific sparkle, she will check the artificial reservoir that waters the greenhouse where, in the shade of scalesias, endemic trees of the archipelago, grow 2,000 plants to transplant.

"Being organic (...) without chemicals" implies constantly renewing them in order to curb diseases, she explains, before inspecting salads, chard and other vegetables that she also sells, concerned about avoid monoculture.

The Galapagos, whose 85% of the economy is based on tourism ruined by the pandemic, has around 25,000 hectares of arable land, of which only 14,000 are exploited.

Only 600 tons of food are produced there each month when it would take more than double to ensure the self-sufficiency of some 30,000 inhabitants, state official figures.

The islanders supplement with products from the mainland, more expensive.

"By the time a lettuce arrives here, it has nothing left of a lettuce," laments Maria Elena, also an accountant to make ends meet.

Further down the island, near the wharf where the blue and white fishing boats are moored, other women are busy at dawn at the Pelican Bay fish market.

- The brains of the fishery -

Among the sea lions, pelicans and iguanas fighting over the waste under her stall, Maria Sabando prepares white tuna and swordfish which will make delicious ceviches or grilled meats.

"I love my job, that customers are happy," the 52-year-old woman with sparkling eyes told AFP.

But the sale is only one facet of artisanal fishing, the only one authorized in the Galapagos marine reserve, around which the industrial trawlers prowl.

Her husband Faustino, 61, goes out to sea once a week for three days.

He couldn't do without Maria to "pack his bag (...) buy fuel, prepare bait".

"And I administer because I know where the money should go!", She emphasizes.

"When we think of fishing, we think of the act of fishing (...) not of what makes it possible (...) food, water, ice because these boats are not refrigerated", adds Nicolas Moity, in charge of an FCD program on gender equality in this sector.

For some 500 fishermen, 95 women are affiliated to cooperatives, of which 50% are their managers.

"But we estimate that this represents about 10%" of reality, he underlines, estimating that it is necessary to "make visible" the work of the women.

In the past, they even faced the ocean.

Some may return to sea, as others run farms.

Because, according to the biologist, "women are the brains behind the entire value chain associated with fishing".

"My role is essential, adds Maria, because my husband is the head of the family, but I am a fundamental pillar!"

fpp / nzg

© 2021 AFP