Monday 7th December, 2009 Posted: 15:51 CIT (20:51 GMT)

The UK government’s advisory body on conservation has awarded Fred Burton, director of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme, the new annual Blue Turtle award for his work in preventing the extinction of one of the world’s most endangered species.

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee presented Mr. Burton with the award for his work in Cayman on the blue iguana programme last Wednesday in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

Mr. Burton is the inaugural recipient of the Blue Turtle Award for nature conservation in the Overseas Territories and Crown Territories.

Peter Bridgewater, chairman of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee said there had been several nominees, but that Mr. Burton’s accomplishments were “outstanding”.

Mr. Burton has worked in the conservation field in Cayman for more than 20 years, and received an MBE in 2007 for his efforts in the conservation of endangered species. He has been director of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme since 2000.

Four years ago, the blue iguana was considered extinct in the wild, but due to the work done by the recovery programme at the National Trust’s Blue Iguana conservation facility in the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, there are now more than 570 of the endangered iguanas roaming in the wild.

Mr. Bridgewater, who was one member of the panel of judges for the award, said: “It is not often that one person’s efforts contribute so much to bringing a species back from the brink of extinction, but in Fred’s case this was absolutely the case.

“There are many examples of extraordinary professional and enthusiastic work being done to conserve and manage the biodiversity of our Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies by the local populations, often with little fanfare.”

He added: “JNCC wanted to help by, once a year, rewarding the work of a particular individual or group. For 2009, Fred was the unanimous choice of the judging panel.”

Gina Ebanks–Petrie, director of the Department of Environment, said of the programme: “The Blue Iguana was once referred to as the most endangered rock iguana on the planet. Through Fred’s work, a very successful captive breeding programme was established and blue iguanas are being re–introduced to the wild.

“Fred has taken the programme from a backyard project to a fully–fledged captive breeding facility which produces over 100 young iguanas for release into protected areas each year. The programme has been so successful that it serves as a model for other regional projects.”

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee is the statutory adviser to Government on UK and international nature conservation.

According to the committee, The Blue Turtle Award was presented based on the following criteria: nature conservation benefit/added value; innovation; community involvement; and links to a specific project, or demonstrating long–term commitment and dedication.

Any individual, or group of individuals, including governments, from and working on an Overseas Territory or Crown Dependency, can be nominated. The work or project must have been in place for more than a year, demonstrated innovation and have made a real difference.

In addition to a trophy, the Blue Turtle Award gives £500 (CI$675) to the individual or group, and a £1,000 (CI$1,350) contribution to an Overseas Territory or Crown Dependency nature conservation project of their choice.

Tara Pelembe, the committee’s overseas territories officer, said: “We hope this is just the beginning of JNCC being able to shine a light on projects and actions that deserve a wider audience and acknowledgement. Fred is inspirational in his care for the blue iguana, and it is a pleasure to celebrate his success.”

Cayman News Service
Posted on Wed, 10/10/2009

Photo credit: John Binns, IRCF

(CNS): He may be cold blooded, but Gorgeous George, one of Cayman’s best known Blue Iguanas, will be extending a warm welcome to the Cayman Islands to everyone who passes through Owen Roberts international. With the help of local legal firm Walkers, the National Trust has created a stunningly attractive poster of the endangered, indigenous creature for the airport to help raise awareness and promote the work of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme. Gorgeous George will be one of the first things that people see when they arrive in the customs hall and his poster tagline puts things in perspective: “His ancestors have been here for two million years.”

The Blue Iguana Recovery Programme was started by the National Trust in 1990 when they first began breeding captive blue iguanas. The conservation programme has helped ensure the survival of the species, by releasing captive blue iguanas into the wild. It has already had tremendous success with over 120 baby blue iguanas hatched this summer.

Fred Burton, Director of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme, envisions a self-sustaining, free roaming population of at least one thousand Grand Cayman blue iguanas, living freely in the wild within protected areas, reproducing naturally and continuing to evolve in step with their ever-changing natural environment.

“At the moment we have very roughly about 300 blues restored to the wild, so we have to lift that to at least 700 more and ensure as best we can they are allowed to survive, breed and sustain themselves,” Burton said. “To that end the captive facility is now literally crammed to capacity.”

Walkers and National Trust Airport Sign

Walkers have long been supporters of the programme and the Blue Iguana’s vital part in Cayman’s heritage. The firm said the success of the recovery programme is extremely important and it has adopted the Blue Iguana as a promotional icon, producing branded soft toys since to promote the work of the breeding project at international conferences, as well as to educate children in Cayman.

As a Gold Sponsor of the National Trust, in 2006 Walkers pledged CI$ 60,000 over three years to fund the operating costs of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme.

“I have been very impressed by the Recovery Programme’s plans to develop native ecosystems for the blue iguanas to attract nature tourism to Cayman and inspire a range of commercial products, in order to generate sustainable revenue to fund  the  management of the blue iguana population indefinitely,” said David Byrne, Chief Marketing Officer at Walkers. “This year we have created an even  more realistic blue iguana toy and we hope they will continue to be used as an educational tool and help raise awareness of the need to support the efforts made by the National Trust to help save this beautiful creature.”

Walkers will also provide the National Trust with unbranded toys to sell in their store with the profits from sales going to support the recovery programme.

Walkers said it is committed to being a responsible corporate citizen and its support of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme is just one way in which the firm looks to make a difference within the community, with active participation from staff at all levels.

Today, virtually everyone in the Cayman Islands who walks and talks, and a lot of people beyond these shores, know of the fabled Blue Iguana, the uniquely-hued reptile found only on these sunny islands.

But it was not always so. The fame of one of the most beloved wild creatures in Cayman, the Blue Iguana, and indeed its very existence today probably rests on the efforts and forethought of one man, more than any other, Bernard C. Lewis. For he is the scientist who first described this species, and was convinced that it was a unique species more than 70 years ago

And that is why the official Latin name of this shy star-crossed creature is actually named after him – Cycluria lewisi. [The word ‘cycluria’ is derived from an ancient Greek term meaning “circular” and “tail.”]

His daughter, Mary Lewis was recently visiting Cayman from her home in Tampa, Florida. and she kindly took time out from her first visit to the island since 1975, to talk to the Cayman Net News about her famous scientist father.

“My father was born in Massachusetts, and when was a young man he won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford.”

And it was while he was attending that prestigious university that he got the opportunity in 1938 to join the ‘Oxford University Cayman Islands Biological Expedition’ to study the plant and animal life there. While on Grand Cayman, Mary Lewis’s father was able to obtain two Blue Iguanas, a male and a female. And he was able to determine that the species here were different from similar creatures, such as the Cuban Iguana and the Northern Bahamian Rock Iguana.

And in an historic monograph “The Herpetology of the Cayman Islands” published in 1940 by the Institute of Jamaica, the creature which young Bernard Lewis had studied so carefully in Cayman as the Blue Iguana was formally, and for the first time, called Cyclura macleayi lewisi. In his groundbreaking report, Mr Lewis wrote, “the species is nearly extinct and [local] people say since 1925 the ‘guanas’ have become so scarce that it is no longer worth their while to hunt them.”

Unfortunately, as his daughter Mary told the Net News, Mr Lewis was never able to complete his education at Oxford because the Second World War broke out and after returning from Cayman to England he, along with most other American civilians there were asked to leave the UK and return to the United States.

However, soon after coming home to the US, Mr Lewis was offered a job in Jamaica, to work for the Institute of Jamaica, in Kingston. And it was while in Jamaica that he met and married his wife, a young Caymanian woman whom he had previously met in Cayman while he was with the Oxford Biological Expedition.

“Once he met and married my mother in October 1940, he was very busy with his work at the Institution and so was never able take time out to finish his degree,” said Mary with a smile. Aside from Mary, the couple had three other children, Bill, David and Richard.

Mary and her siblings had an idyllic childhood growing up in Jamaica in the 1940s and 1950s. As the children of the Director of the Institute of Jamaica, they were sometimes able to visit special places on the island.

“My father would invite us to come along if we wanted, to go with him as he searched for butterflies on one trip, or go to a dig to search for historical relics, or important bones on another trip. At that time a lot of people knew my father as the Director of the Institute, but very few knew that he had already had a species named after him. He was a very intelligent man, soft-spoken and quiet, and so he never sought the limelight,” Mary said.

Eventually Bernard Lewis won an OBE for his service to science. The Lewis family lived happily in Jamaica until the 1970s, when he retired. He was only in his 60s, says Mary, but this was the period when Jamaica was undergoing tremendous political problems, the economy was falling and violence was on the rise. Mr Lewis had a fatal stroke in 1973, and Mary moved to Tampa in 1978.

On her first visit to Cayman in more than 30 years, Mary Lewis stopped in at the National Trust to ask if they had any information on Cayman’s Blue Iguanas. The young clerk said that they did have some, but not a lot. As she was also buying a t-shirt with a stunning blue iguana on the front, Mary Lewis mentioned that she was the daughter of Bernard Lewis, the man who first confirmed that this species was found nowhere else on the planet.

“Oh, my goodness,” said that startled National Trust staffer. “I was just giving a lecture to some students about your father!”

Cayman Net News
Posted on Thu, 04/02/2009 – 22:59

(CNS): The International Reptile Conservation Foundation (IRCF) has said that letters of congratulations and expressions of relief that Cayman’s endemic Blue Iguanas can be saved for the long term are pouring into their office in California as the news spreads of a new protected area in the east interior of Grand Cayman. The Blue Iguana Recovery Programme (BIRP) announced this week that the government had formally committed to protecting almost 200 acres of Crown land through a 99-year peppercorn lease to the National Trust.

In addition, the Trust is receiving a European Union grant for managing this area to conserve the Blues in the wild, along with their unique shrubland habitat.

John Binns, the CEO of IRCF, said, “The Cayman Islands Government is to be commended for its decisive action in providing prime habitat to help save the world’s most endangered iguana. Considering that Grand Cayman covers only about 76 square miles, the government’s landmark decision to preserve some of the island’s last remaining prime real estate for its flora and fauna is a benchmark for island conservation.”

The grant also focuses on developing sustainable, low-impact nature tourism, education and recreation with a visitor centre and trail system. (See CNS: New home for the Blues)

“For those of us who have personally struggled and sacrificed, as well as the countless local and international folks who have contributed to changing the course of a species headed on a fast track to extinction, this news is simply overwhelming,” said Binns. “It brings the Caymanian people one step closer to ensuring that the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana will be around for their children’s children to admire, and raises hope around the world that species can be saved. Despite the loss of some very special Blues along the way, the Blue Iguana Recovery Program has been blessed with success unmatched by any other reptile conservation program of which I am aware. It is by all rights a model conservation program.”

Thanking those who have supported BIRP over the years, he said, “Although much work remains to be done and many challenges have yet to be faced before we can relax our vigilance, a summit has truly been reached.”

Nevertheless, BIRP director Fred Burton says they will still have to raise much more money to complete the programme, including funds for access to the area.

Read the Article at Cayman News Service online here: http://www.caymannewsservice.com/science-and-nature/2009/04/02/relief-over-blues-protection

Shrubland - Photo: Douglas Bell

The Cayman Islands Government has just formally committed to protecting almost 200 acres of Crown land in the east interior of Grand Cayman, through a 99-year peppercorn lease to the National Trust.

The Blue Iguana Recovery Programme said the decision by Cabinet is linked to a European Union grant to the National Trust, for managing this area to conserve Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas in the wild, along with their unique shrubland habitat.

The grant also focuses on developing sustainable, low-impact, nature tourism, education and recreation with a visitor centre and trail system.

In a media release, the programme quoted Minister of Tourism and Environment, Hon Charles Clifford, saying, “The preservation of our indigenous Blue Iguana is important to our country and I am grateful Cabinet was able to allocate an appropriate piece of property to the National Trust to assist them in their efforts to save the Blue Iguanas.

“I also want to thank the European Union for their grant which makes this project possible. The grant along with the allocation of the land by Cabinet provides a tremendous boost to the National Trust’s efforts to establish a viable population of Blue Iguanas in their natural habitat.” Programme Director, Fred Burton said, “This is the breakthrough we have been working towards for years”.

“With this new protected area secured and available for iguana releases, we are now in sight of the kind of success that is all too rare in the world today. The Grand Cayman Blue Iguana really can be saved from extinction, and in a few more years the Cayman Islands may be able to boast that they have achieved just that.”

This area is almost all pristine dry shrubland, a wild rocky landscape with views over the generally low native vegetation. This is an environment that Blue Iguanas thrive in. It also supports a range of endangered plants, several of which, like the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana, are unique to the Cayman Islands.

Read the article: http://www.caymannetnews.com/news-14557–1-1—.html

Cayman News Service
Posted on Wed, 04/01/2009

Grand Cayman Blue Iguana - Photo: John Binns

(CNS): Grand Cayman’s famous Blue Iguanas are one more step further away from extinction following Cabinet’s decision to allocate Crown property to the National Trust coupled with a grant from the European Union to develop the protected area, where 100 hatchling Blue Iguanas will be released in 2010. However, the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme’s director Fred Burton says they will still have to raise much more money to complete the programme. (Photo by John Binns)

The EU grant is designed to cover 57% of the total cost of this particular project, which will fund the majority of the cost of a visitor centre and trails, plus education and awareness materials and programmes that will be based there, Burton said. However, BIRP and its supporters will have to put in a significant amount of other money and paid time, as well as find the funding for the access. “So, there is challenge which comes with the opportunity!” Burton said.

He further noted that the EU grant will be in Euros which as has since lost buying power here in the exchange rate. “So we are expected to, and will have to, raise a fair sum more to be able to deliver.”

In a released statement, BIRP said the Cayman Islands Government had formally committed to protecting almost 200 acres of Crown land in the east interior of Grand Cayman, through a 99-year peppercorn lease to the National Trust. The decision by Cabinet is linked to a European Union grant to the National Trust, for managing this area to conserve Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas in the wild, along with their unique shrubland habitat. The grant also focuses on developing sustainable, low-impact nature tourism, education and recreation with a visitor centre and trail system.

BIRP noted that in 2008 the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme began rearing over 100 hatchling Blue Iguanas, trusting that a new protected area would be established in time to release them in 2010. Now a release site is guaranteed, these young iguanas do indeed have a future, and another hundred or more Blue Iguanas will hopefully be hatched in 2009, for release in 2011.

While blanket protection of the environment in the form of a Nation Conservation Bill was not brought before the Legislative Assembly under the current administration, the release said Minister of Tourism and Environment, Charles Clifford, wished the conservation effort of this programme every success.

“The preservation of our indigenous Blue Iguana is important to our country and I am grateful Cabinet was able to allocate an appropriate piece of property to the National Trust to assist them in their efforts to save the Blue Iguanas. I also want to thank the European Union for their grant which makes this project possible. The grant along with the allocation of the land by Cabinet provides a tremendous boost to the National Trust’s efforts to establish a viable population of Blue Iguanas in their natural habitat,” the minister said.

“This is the breakthrough we have been working towards for years,” said Burton. “With this new protected area secured and available for iguana releases, we are now in sight of the kind of success that is all too rare in the world today. The Grand Cayman Blue Iguana really can be saved from extinction, and in a few more years the Cayman Islands may be able to boast that they have achieved just that.”

According to BIRP, this area is almost all pristine dry shrubland, a wild rocky landscape with views over the generally low native vegetation. This is an environment that Blue Iguanas thrive in. It also supports a range of endangered plants, several of which, like the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana, are totally unique to the Cayman Islands.

The Trust must now acquire access to the land, and a Protected Area Planning Team will commence work on the overall land use plan, including site location for the visitor centre and layout of the trail system.

Eastern protected areas Grand Cayman - Photo: Blue Iguana Recovery Programme

Posted on the Cayman Islands Government Website at: www.gov.ky
April 1, 2009

Grand Cayman Blue Iguana - Photo: John Binns

The decision by Cabinet is linked to a European Union grant to the National Trust, for managing this area to conserve Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas in the wild, along with their unique shrubland habitat. The grant also focuses on developing sustainable, low-impact nature tourism, education and recreation with a visitor centre and trail system.

Minister of Tourism and Environment, the Hon Charles Clifford, wishes the conservation effort every success. “The preservation of our indigenous Blue Iguana is important to our country and I am grateful Cabinet was able to allocate an appropriate piece of property to the National Trust to assist them in their efforts to save the Blue Iguanas. I also want to thank the European Union for their grant which makes this project possible. The grant along with the allocation of the land by Cabinet provides a tremendous boost to the National Trust’s efforts to establish a viable population of Blue Iguanas in their natural habitat.”

“This is the breakthrough we have been working towards for years,” says the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme’s director, Fred Burton. “With this new protected area secured and available for iguana releases, we are now in sight of the kind of success that is all too rare in the world today. The Grand Cayman Blue Iguana really can be saved from extinction, and in a few more years the Cayman Islands may be able to boast that they have achieved just that.”

This area is almost all pristine dry shrubland, a wild rocky landscape with views over the generally low native vegetation. This is an environment that Blue Iguanas thrive in. It also supports a range of endangered plants, several of which, like the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana, are totally unique to the Cayman Islands.

The Trust must now acquire access to the land, and a Protected Area Planning Team will commence work on the overall land use plan, including site location for the visitor centre and layout of the trail system.

In 2008 the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme began rearing over 100 hatchling Blue Iguanas, trusting that a new protected area would be established in time to release them in 2010. Now a release site is guaranteed, these young iguanas do indeed have a future, and another hundred or more Blue Iguanas will hopefully be hatched in 2009, for release in 2011.

For more information, please contact:

Frederic J Burton, Director

Blue Iguana Recovery Programme, National Trust for the Cayman Islands

fjburton@blueiguana.ky; Tel: +1 345 916 2418

Sunday 22nd February, 2009 Posted: 18:35 CIT (23:35 GMT)

The captive breeding facility for the Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas, located in the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, is no longer viewable from the Park’s woodland trail.

The high–security fence is pictured near completion.
Photo: Submitted

This is an unfortunate consequence of heightened security at the facility, following the killing of seven captive Blue Iguanas in May 2008.

Donations to the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme and the National Trust in the wake of the attack have been focused both on covering the cost of a security guard and the construction of the high–security fence now in operation.

The four breeding pens which were formerly visible from the woodland trail are within the secured area and cannot be viewed from the woodland trail.

“Seeing the captive facility behind a high security fence leaves me with very mixed feelings” said Programme Director Fred Burton.

“Obviously in view of what happened last year, this is absolutely necessary, but it is very sad that we need to spend so much on physical protection for such a well–loved symbol of Cayman’s natural heritage.”

Guided tours inside the facility are still available, however: The Blue Iguana Safari tour, which offers an inside–look at the captive facility and also the free roaming iguanas throughout the park, is offered at 11am from Monday to Saturday.

New protected area habitat - Photo: Frederic J Burton

Government land protected, new home for wild Blue Iguanas

A landmark decision by the Cayman Islands Government has protected a large area of Blue Iguana habitat in the east interior of Grand Cayman.

This decision is the key which unlocks the huge potential of our strategic plan to save the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana. With this land protected, our long-term goal to save the Blue Iguana from extinction is now clearly in sight.

The timing is fortunate indeed. After five years of large-scale Blue Iguana releases into the Salina Reserve, the restored population there is approaching the carrying capacity of the 85 acres of good Blue Iguana habitat that is available. Now the newly protected area offers almost 200 acres more space. At last we have a real opportunity to meet our ultimate target, to restore at least a thousand Blue Iguanas to the wild.

Blue Iguana - Photo: John F. Binns

Hand-in-hand with the local Government’s decision, we’re also poised to receive funding from the European Union which will help us to manage the new protected area for the Blue Iguanas, the dry shrublands remarkable biodiversity, and for nature tourism, education, and recreation. The EU-EDF9 grant is part of a wider project “Management of Protected Areas for Sustainable Economies” which involves the Cayman Islands, the Turks & Caicos Islands, and the British Virgin Islands.

The new protected area is to be granted to the National Trust for the Cayman Islands under a 99-year lease agreement. A protected area planning team will now be appointed by the EU project’s local steering committee, which includes the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme, the National Trust, the Department of Environment, and the Cabinet Office.

This is a multi-year project, involving a huge amount of work. It is a realistic hope that by the time we have completed the EU project, the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana will no longer be the most endangered iguana on earth, and we all look forward the day when we can scale back our captive breeding effort and let nature take its course in the wild.

Panorama - Photo: Frederic J Burton

Eastern protected areas Grand Cayman - Photo: Blue Iguana Recovery Programme