The team dedicated to bringing back Cayman’s Blue Iguanas from the brink of extinction has marked an important milestone with the signing of a European Union grant contract for over $646,000.

However, the award also marks a new challenge for the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme and its partners as the funds will not simply be handed over.

“Under the terms of the grant we are obliged to raise and spend (either in cash terms or in donated goods and services that can be valued in cash terms) a matching amount that represents the local contribution to the project,” said the Programme’s director, Fred Burton.

In December 2007 the European Commission signed a financing agreement with the Turks and Caicos Islands, providing for a grant to support fulfilling its international environmental agreements. The initiative focuses on developing sustainable and low-impact tourism products that can be combined with education in Cayman, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the British Virgin Islands

Last year Cayman’s government committed to protecting almost 200 acres of Crown land on Grand Cayman’s eastern interior, via a 99-year peppercorn lease to the National Trust. The Cayman Islands portion of the grant, brokered through the Cabinet Office, will assist the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme in relocating from the Botanic Park to the leased area.  

Mr. Burton said the funds are tightly constrained by the terms of the grant, and the majority will be spent on building a visitor centre on the site.

Funds will also go toward a small challenge fund toward protected land purchase, education and awareness work, and steps towards long-term financial self-sustainability.

Earlier this month, EU Representative Marlene Lamonth toured the Blue Iguana captive breeding site and met with Mr. Burton to discuss key aspects of the project.

 “During our visit we aimed to meet with those who will execute the project to talk about how they will achieve agreed project goals. We especially focused on what should be done in the first year of implementation,” Ms Lamonth said. 

The grant funds are not physically here yet, explained Mr. Burton.

“The grant contract has been signed on our side now and the document is on its way to the EU via Turks & Caicos Islands,” he said.

Mr. Burton said the programme will get its share in three annual tranches.

“So this large grant is both a tremendous opportunity and a challenge – it should enable us to realize the full self-sustaining potential of the new protected area, but to deliver the components of that which the EU finds will not cover, we are going to need ongoing support from corporate sponsors, conservation foundations, volunteers and our local & international partners,” he said.

“If we can fit all these pieces together we are in sight of being able to say we have saved the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana from extinction - in a way that offers a long-term future for the Blues and their unique habitat.”

Pullout:

“Under the terms of the grant we are obliged to raise and spend . . . a matching amount that represents the local contribution to the project” – Fred Burton, Blue Iguana Recovery Programme Director