Tomorrow (Sunday May 31st) the Blues captive facility will be getting a lot of international attention – delegates to a UK Overseas Territories environmental conference are arriving in Grand Cayman this weekend, and fifty or so participants will be spending Sunday morning in the QE II Botanic Park. We’ll take them in several smaller groups to see the Blue Iguanas, and give them all the ‘behind-the-scenes’ tour. Later in the week I’ll be talking to the conference, using the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme as the case example to address the question that so many environmental workers in small islands face, “How on Earth are we going to cope with the work load?”

Our example shows how using a flagship species (like the Blue Iguana) can help protect many other species too. Recruiting, training and deploying volunteers lets us achieve far more than we could otherwise afford. Partnerships with conservation organizations, zoos, and universities bring expertise and more resources to bear. And to keep all this support coordinated and focused, strategic planning is vital. It’s a well-tried formula that has worked particularly well for the Blue Iguanas so far!