Day of the blue iguana
Thursday September 14, 2006
Georgina KenyonThe island of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean is home to a species of blue iguana found nowhere else in the world. Scientists and a team of expatriate and local volunteers have brought the iguana back from a critically endangered number of just 25.
This saving of the blue iguana on Grand Cayman ? the largest of the Cayman Islands? three landmasses just 268km northwest of Jamaica ? is being heralded by scientists as a conservation success story.
This is so much the case that the iguana has almost turned into a conservation brand, and it is now a symbol of the need to conserve the wilderness and other animals on the island.
DNA evidence has shown that the blue iguana species is three million years old. Up to five feet long and weighing up to 10 kilograms it is exclusive to the Cayman Islands. It can live for up to 60 years, and its unique trait of turning from a grey hue to bright blue throughout the middle of the day gives it its name.
One of the British expatriates supporting the blue iguana?s cause is the governor of the Cayman Islands, Stuart Jack. Although the governor is not directly responsible for matters of the environment, Jack notes the importance of expatriates understanding and appreciating what is of significance to the natural environment, and to the communities who live in it.
?It is important to conserve the natural environment of the islands, partly because it is part of national identity and pride, and it is also part of the national psyche,? he says.
The Cayman Islands is a British territory in the western part of the Caribbean Sea, where the expatriate community, in a ratio of about 1.3 to every Caymanian, with a total population of 57,800, is a significant source of labour. Most people who move there work in the financial and tourism sectors. It is also a very popular place for real estate speculation and property development by foreign investors.
?There is a need for more people to become involved in supporting the environment here ? especially projects involving young people from both the expat and local communities,? says Jack.
The iguanas have been threatened because, when young, they are vulnerable to predatory animals, such as dogs that have been introduced to the island, and have not evolved to defend themselves against attacks. Furthermore, in the last 50 years, iguana numbers have been depleted by the accelerated deforestation of their natural habitat.
Central to the conservation of the blue iguana is the National Trust?s Blue Iguana Recovery Program (BIRP) on Grand Cayman Island, a partnership of local and international conservation groups established in 1990 to save the blue iguana, primarily through captive breeding programs, before reintroducing adult iguanas into the wild.
BIRP hatches then rears the iguanas in captivity for two years so that they do not suffer the usual high mortality from predators that destroys a year?s hatch. They are then released into the protected areas and tracked by radio as they mature and start breeding.
In this joint effort to save the iguana, community groups are vital.
?We get great support from the local service clubs, especially Rotary, and people from all walks of life get involved volunteering with us. It is vital though that people keep supporting the program financially, whether it be corporate or personal grants, residues of financial vehicles, legacies or simply be sponsoring an iguana,? says Fred Burton, director of BIRP.
Burton himself found a cause as well as a home in Cayman, having grown up in Kuwait as a child. Coming to Grand Cayman in 1979, he sheltered iguanas in his kitchen through hurricane Ivan in 2004.
?As the blue iguana becomes an ever stronger symbol of Grand Cayman, businesses are catching on to its commercial image value,? adds Burton.
For example, Walkers, one of the Cayman Islands? law firms, now uses it as an emblem, distributing iguana toys at financial conferences worldwide.
According to Burton, ?If current trends continue, there will be simply no forests or other natural, wild land left in the Cayman Islands by the end of this century, other than whatever we set aside for protection in the next few years. This is really the time when our islands need to invest in their protected area system, on land, to match what has already been done for the sea. In the long term, it's every bit as important.
?The wild plants, animals and places of these islands are totally unique. Things like blue iguanas and Cayman parrots, thatch palms and ironwood trees, they are the essence of the Cayman Islands, they are part of these islands' core identity,? Burton explains.
According to Dr Matthew Cottam, the Special Projects Officer at Cayman Islands Department of the Environment, by 1998 Grand Cayman was already 37% deforested. ?Endemic species of flora and fauna have gone extinct this century,? he says, ?and a recent Red List of the Flora revealed about half of the 415 native flora species to be threatened with extinction. Invasive species are also a growing cause for concern.?
But some people believe that the dangers to the island are more serious, that tourism to the island is becoming a threat to the natural environment and that there is a significant need for tourism and conservationists to work together. (Grand Cayman is just 35 km in length and with a combined land area of the three islands of just 260km square and over a million tourists annually, according to government figures, the islands have a lot of tourism to support.)
Some say that the Cayman Islands are shifting from a tourist destination based on the natural environment to a destination offering artificial attractions, such as some ships that have been sunk to create scuba diving sites, establishing ?swim with dolphins? attractions, captive bird aviaries and underwater installations such as the Lost City of Atlantis.
These attractions could be seen as constructed at the expense of both the natural environment and cultural heritage of the islands, devaluing the them as a destination for tourists looking for a genuine experience.
Dr Cottam is nevertheless drawn to the Cayman Islands? shoreline. ?I still love the coast here ? the shoreline is very large and very beautiful, the water is always warm, and the marine life remains fantastic. At least for someone from the North of England.?
But he adds, ?It is testament to the poor planning on Grand Cayman that almost the entire vista of Seven Mile Beach [the most popular and highly developed tourist beach] on Grand Cayman?s west coast is now obscured by hotels and condo's constructed on the beach ridge so you cannot see the beach, unless you are actually on it.?
Many conservation concerns may remain for the islands to tackle, but the native blue iguana is one of the Caribbean islands? environmental successes. From almost none, about 120 blue iguanas are now breeding in the wild, having been reared then released into protected areas. The first hatchlings have just emerged in the botanic park on Grand Cayman.
BIRP is hoping to reintroduce 1,000 iguanas into a protected reserve area of Grand Cayman. They cannot be fully reintegrated into the wild due to dogs and cats, so fenced-off reserve areas have been created in the botanic park.
BIRP?s Fred Burton states there are no insurmountable biological, political or social barriers to re-establishing a significant number of animals in the wild. What is required, he says, is simply more money and the continued efforts of the island?s inhabitants, local and foreign.
?It?s a wonderful milestone we?ve reached, so we know we can do this. We can definitely save the blue iguana from extinction. It is simply down to a question of resources; money, land and lots more hard work.?
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