Education and Ecotourism
Local community programs
Development of in situ education programs for West Indian iguanas should form an essential cornerstone of any efforts devoted to their conservation. First, it is imperative to educate local people living in areas where they will have direct contact with free-ranging iguanas. This is especially important when iguanas have been reintroduced to previously unoccupied habitats where the community may be unfamiliar with these animals and their habits. Schools are probably an ideal place to start, as young people are much less prone to have preconceived notions about local wildlife and may be especially likely to share their enthusiasm for preserving it with other family members. Videos, slideshows, educational brochures, and posters can all serve as effective means for spreading information about iguanas and their conservation needs throughout the community and beyond. The high quality poster depicting the plight of the Jamaican iguana produced in conjunction with the PHVA workshop for this species (CBSG 1993) has been instrumental in raising funds for conservation. At the national level, commemorative stamps and coins can be useful in making the general public aware of the endemic flora and fauna inhabiting their islands.
Jamaican nationals displaying a "Save the Jamaican iguana" poster at the Hope Zoo in Kingston.
Although education programs should probably be focused initially on localized areas of high iguana concentration, eventually they could be expanded to include surrounding areas. Even people having only occasional contact with iguanas need to be alerted as to their protected status and encouraged to immediately report any violations of regulations to local authorities. On some cays in the Bahamas, prominent signing of nesting areas has been helpful in keeping disturbance of gravid females and hatching young by visiting tourists to a minimum.
Because iguanas are large, photogenic, and charismatic, they have the potential to serve as flagship species for promoting conservation of the dry tropical forest ecosystems they inhabit. Many of these remnant forests represent the last refuge for a variety of other species, including many endemic plants. In Costa Rica and Panama, integrated management programs for iguanas have successfully raised public awareness regarding iguana conservation through an annual Iguana Day Celebration (Werner 1991). In both countries, the event is widely attended and has had a significant positive impact on the attitude of local people toward iguanas and their tropical forest habitat.
Wildlife management training
In addition to educating the general public, programs also need to be developed for training local wildlife managers. At the minimum, these programs should incorporate information about the basic biology of iguanas. If managers could also be trained in standard methods of marking (e.g., implanted transponder tags, crest scale and toe-clipping) and censusing iguana populations, then regular patrols through iguana habitat could yield valuable survey information. Additional training in the area of plant species identification and vegetation transect methods would allow regular assessments of iguana habitats to be made. In areas where mongooses and feral pigs occur, it may also be important to instruct wildlife managers in options for nest protection and artificial incubation of eggs collected from disturbed nest sites. Where parasitism or disease is a conservation concern, it would be useful for wildlife managers to have experience in routine blood collection and sample preparation for health screening purposes. Finally, because the responsibility for any ongoing predator control programs will probably fall on local wildlife managers, they should be instructed in use of humane but effective methods that minimize the risk to iguanas and other non-target species.
Ecotourism
Ecotourism has been defined as "low impact nature tourism which contributes to the maintenance of species and habitats either directly through a contribution to conservation and/or indirectly by providing revenue to the local community sufficient for local people to value, and therefore protect, their wildlife heritage area as a source of income" (Goodwin 1996). In order to be successful, it must be ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially equitable for local communities, particularly on small islands and other fragile environments (World Tourism Organisation 1995). Ecotourism not only potentially provides a means for conservation education at the national and international levels, but also can be a valuable source of funding for habitat management. Conversely, if not conducted in a sensitive manner, ecotourism can have devastating negative effects, including pollution, overconsumption of resources, disturbance of wildlife, destruction of vegetation, and erosion (Goodwin 1996). To ensure that ecotourism results in more good than harm to the environment, it is imperative that it be carefully controlled and regulated at both the local and national levels.
The Ecotourism Society (1993) has published an excellent guidebook for conducting ecologically and culturally sensitive ecotourism programs. Among other recommendations, they emphasize that ecotourism should: 1) minimize the negative effects of visitors on local habitats and cultures through provision of educational materials prior to visitors entering natural areas, 2) provide tours consisting only of small, manageable groups with adequate leadership to minimize disturbance, 3) make a significant financial contribution to conservation of the region or species impacted, 4) employ local community members whenever possible, and 5) alert all visitors to the fragility of the habitat and needs of sensitive species, including any local legislation or regulations devoted to their protection. Local people need to be encouraged to participate in decision-making regarding the quantity, location, and timing of visits by tourists (King and Stewart, 1996). If community members do not receive direct benefits from ecotourism, there will be no incentive for them to abandon other, more destructive uses of the habitat. Before ecotourism can begin to generate significant conservation benefits, it is also important that a basic infrastructure be in place, in-cluding trained guides, interpretive materials, and visitor information centers (Jacobson and Lopez 1994).
In addition to these general considerations, special concerns for West Indian iguanas include discouraging tourists from feeding iguanas, which may not only disrupt their water balance but may also cause them to lose their fear of people and other potential predators. When photographing iguanas, tourists need to be made aware of the dangers of approaching animals too closely and trampling sensitive vegetation. Visits by tour groups during the nesting season may disrupt gravid females from digging nest holes and inhibit hatching young from dispersing away from the nest clearing. For these reasons, ecotourism at these times of year will need to be curtailed. Finally, long-term monitoring will be critical to determining whether ecotourism is having detrimental effects on reproductive success of iguanas or other native wildlife.
Iguana watching is a popular pastime at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
