Galápagos Islands

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The Pacific archipelago inscribed in 1978 among the very first entries on the World Heritage List. In 2007 the Committee placed it on the List of World Heritage in Danger over invasive species, unregulated tourism growth and overfishing; on 28 July 2010 it removed it again, finding that Ecuador had made significant progress. That removal was itself contested — IUCN, the Convention's own advisory body on natural properties, and the Galápagos Conservancy both argued it was premature. Galápagos is the counter-example to the delistings: it shows the danger list working as designed, as a lever rather than a verdict, while also showing how contestable the judgement of 'recovered' is.