Cloned cow controversy

industry, posing an increasing threat to the unique and fearless wildlife studied by Darwin. While the island officially only had 17,000 inhabitants in 2000, many more arrived unrecorded, and some saw the national park as a nuisance and resorted to arson to clear land for their own use. The Galápagos Islands became Unesco's very first World Heritage Site in 1978, attracting yet more visitors. In 2007, Unesco's World Heritage Committee, following an application from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), included the archipelago in its 'Danger List' of threatened sites, responding to concerns about the growth in population and tourism, overfishing (especially of sea-cucumbers), and the introduction of invasive species. The Ecuadorian government took action to address these concerns, such that now, at a meeting held in Brasilia at the end of July, the World Heritage Site Committee decided to remove the islands from the red list of threatened sites. In a statement, the Committee declared that significant progress had been made by Ecuador in addressing these problems. It welcomed the government's continuing efforts to strengthen conservation measures, especially in dealing with introduced species. Environmental organisations such as the IUCN criticised the step. Tim Badman from the IUCN said that the islands " should not be removed from the Danger List as there is still work to be done […] and the situation in the Galápagos remains critical. " IUCN director general Julia Marton-Lefèvre also told the press that it was " premature " to remove the islands from the list. However, the Ecuadorian government under President Rafael Correa welcomed the move and vowed to ensure that the islands won't have to be listed as threatened again. Among other measures, the government has tightened the rules governing the numbers and itineraries of visitors, and it has evicted 2,000 illegal settlers from the islands. In his weekly radio programme, Correa announced that after this decision his government will " continue the work to improve the situation on the islands with equal enthusiasm, as a lot remains to be done. " Environment minister Marcela Aguiñaga called the red-listing a " punishment " and said that all agencies involved would work together to avoid it in the future. New arrivals in the list of currently 34 threatened World Heritage Sites include the Kasubi Tombs in Uganda, the burial sites of the rulers of the ancient kingdom of Buganda, which were …