Renowned anthropologist and Stanford University professor Bill Durham has conducted more than 40 trips to the Galapagos Islands.

Just as scientist Charles Darwin’s visit to the Galapagos Islands brought substantial insight into the processes of natural selection and evolution, the Galapagos Islands of today continue to offer lessons about the social and cultural changes necessary for humanity to coexist with the natural resources of the planet.

Addressing these topics, Stanford University anthropology professor Bill Durham will present his lecture, “The Galapagos Challenge: Stewardship in an Evolving Socio-ecological System,” at 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, on Penn State’s University Park campus. The lecture will also be available worldwide on Mediasite Live.

Durham, a MacArthur Fellow who has taught human biology and anthropology at Stanford since 1977, has conducted approximately 40 trips to the Galapagos. His lecture will focus on the evolution of a novel co-management system for the sea cucumber and lobster fisheries of Galapagos, which could become a stewardship example for the archipelago — and possibly the world.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the Interinstitutional Center for Indigenous Knowledge; the University Park Allocation Committee (UPAC); the Travel and Tourism Graduate Student Association; Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment; Latin American Studies; and Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management Seminar Series.

The full Penn State News article about this upcoming lecture is available online.