Membership in Iguana Specialist Group gives hope to endangered iguanas

On Saturday November 20, Loop Cayman noted that a Cayman Islands Division of the Environment (DoE) Terrestrial Analysis Officer, Jane Haakonsson, had been voted into the Steering Committee for the Intercontinental Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) Iguana Professional Team (ISG).

Haakonsson is a wildlife biologist with additional than a decade and a 50 {aa306df364483ed8c06b6842f2b7c3ab56b70d0f5156cbd2df60de6b4288a84f} of working experience in planning and implementing extensive-phrase species monitoring projects and managing endemic and invasive wildlife populations in the tropics, especially in the Caribbean. She at the moment serves in the position of Terrestrial Study Officer II at the Section of the Ecosystem. In her function she is associated in the conservation of Cayman’s endangered iguanas.

The Grand Cayman Blue Iguana and the Sister Isles Rock Iguana are endangered species and are strictly shielded less than the National Conservation Act.

In late 2012, the blue iguana recovery program approximated that the wild population of blue iguanas stood at around 750 folks, and the IUCN downlisted the species from critically endangered to endangered.

Since 2014, the DoE Terrestrial Exploration Unit have done 3 surveys of the Cayman Islands Rock Iguana populace on Little Cayman. In 2015 the populace was calculated as 2,915 iguanas and in 2019 the survey showed a steep drop to 1,786 iguanas, considered to be because of to feral cats.

Cayman Islands membership in the Steering Committee for the Global Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) Iguana Professional Group (ISG) gives included hope for these species.

As a result of partnerships with govt organizations, conservation companies, and study establishments, the IUCN SSC Iguana Expert Group guides and implements fast and productive conservation steps for iguanas globally. The group advises and fundraises for programmes that incorporate populace surveys, protected places management, invasive species management, discipline analysis, genetic research, instruction and captive breeding/ headstarting initiatives.

IUCN is a membership Union composed of the two government and civil culture organisations consisting of far more than 1,400 Member organisations and the enter of far more than 18,000 authorities which make it the world-wide authority on the status of the purely natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.

The DoE is thrilled to announce on of our quite possess Terrestrial Research Officers, Jane Haakonsson, has been voted into the Steering Committee for the Iguana Expert IUCN team! Congratulations Jane!!#IUCN#igauanaspecialistgroup#invasivespecies#biosecuritypic.twitter.com/ktUxq5tAPe

— Cayman Islands Section of Environment (@doecayman) November 18, 2021

The IUCN SSC Iguana Expert Team (ISG) prioritizes and facilitates conservation, science, and consciousness packages that support make sure the survival of wild iguanas and their habitats.

To attain this, it implements, advises and fundraises for plans that include population surveys, guarded places management, invasive species control, area study, genetic research, education and captive breeding/headstarting initiatives.

Headstarting, in which hatchling iguanas are lifted in a safe, captive atmosphere until they attain a larger sized, a lot less susceptible dimensions, is proving a must have in rescuing many Critically Endangered iguanid taxa from the brink of extinction.

The SSC Professional Groups offer details to the IUCN Crimson List of Threatened Species for the taxa less than their purview. The Crimson Checklist is the most thorough databases of the conservation status of plant and animal species worldwide.