"Anegada" Da Vida

It is a beautiful and unique destination with white sand beaches, turquoise waters, a beautiful and extensive coral reef. Its picturesque beach bars, outstanding restaurants featuring fresh fish and lobster, and hospitable people make any visit worthwhile, not to mention the outstanding snorkeling and diving opportunities. Like most Caribbean islands, time seems to stand still here but unlike almost anywhere else on earth, it is easy to find yourself completely alone, on a pristine beach, with only the sounds of the waves and the wind in your ears. But there is much more to the island than its beaches and reef. Its interior is filled with tropical dry forests and scrub/shrub lands filled with exotic cacti and woody plants. In addition, its western half is dominated by salt ponds (designated as an international Ramsar Site) and limestone cays dotted with caves and brimming with endemic species. It truly is a unique and striking place. Here is an aerial image, to give you a better sense of this amazing location. More photos are included at the end of this post.

Unfortunately, it also has more than its fair share of ecological and environmental problems. Just to name a few, the island has an assortment of critically endangered species, a multitude of introduced plants and animals, a fragile coral reef ecosystem, unsustainable land management (e.g. sand mining) practices, and an underlying but catastrophic vulnerability to sea level rise and strong storm surges. Unaddressed, these and other threats have all but destined this tropical oasis for ecological obliteration. That may sound like hyperbole but, in reality, it really isn't. Even in a best case scenario, the island, as well as the people and species that inhabit it, faces an uncertain future. But in that uncertainty, there is opportunity.

The locals here take pride in their island home and care deeply about preserving this unique place for their children and grand children. There is important conservation work currently being done on this island (and others like it) that strives to preserve these truly unique ecosystems and places. On Anegada, organizations like the Fort Worth Zoo and the BVI National Parks Trust are actively pursuing conservation objectives and are helping to both document the conservation dilemmas facing the island, as well as attempting to remedy them. The challenge though is that the problems are numerous and some of them are broad in scale. Nevertheless, hopefully this unique place can persist in at least some capacity in the face of this immense adversity, even though mitigating some of these threats maybe a lost cause. In some instances, adaptation may be the only practical course of action.

That is what makes this island such an interesting case study. There is too much worthy of saving in the face of these threats and it is simply not practical to attempt to conserve it all. Difficult choices must be made. Both for the benefit of the islands human inhabitants, as well as its native species. These type of choices are increasingly common in our changing world. And in this way, Anegada is a microcosm of the perils of effective conservation around the world. If conservation cannot succeed, at least in part, on this small speck of land in the Caribbean sea, what hope do we have of tackling the larger environmental issues at play in our world today?

My next several entries will focus on this unique tropical island and all of the challenges it faces both because of my personal connection to this place, as well as how well it exemplifies the challenges faced by conservationists. Now that the stage is set, my next post will delve into the conservation ecology of one species in particular: the Anegada ground iguana or Cyclura pinquis. Keep a weather eye open and prepare to make sail.