Pride Program Manager, Annalisa Bianchessi has. Read her latest tale from the field: her trip to St. Lucia and the 100th Pride campaign. And, get some island fever by listening to the St. Lucia Pride campaign song!

While in St. Lucia a few weeks ago I was escorted to the airport by one of the finest Caribbean treasures: the very original St. Lucia iguana.

The St. Lucis Iguana mascot visits local vendors in St. Lucia

To be honest there were two of us getting escorted to the St. Lucia airport, myself and Rosemary Godfrey, a former Rare Pride Program Manager. And that in itself was already a very special event because this was Rosemary’s very last trip to the airport while working for Rare, or at least the last for now.

She will be moving on to pastures anew after 6 years of excellent work, and if the last year in which I was able to work alongside her is anything to go by, I have seldom met someone so dedicated, thoughtful, and professional in her work. So well done Rose, and thank you for being such an inspiration!

On this trip to the airport we were not alone. In fact, little short of rolling out a red carpet — it was rather an honourable experience. Our escort consisted of no less than an entire group of Forestry Department staff, a big truck with music, and two lizards: a life-sized one and an actual one.

And not only that, the route to the airport was somewhat prolonged along small countryside roads to encompass scenic spots, town markets, church squares and most importantly school yards. At each stop housewives, shop owners, and tourists would trickle out of their dwellings and children and teachers would flood out of schools to come and shake hands with the giant lizard, dance to the tune of the Pride song, the St Lucia iguana, and come and admire the guest of honour: no not us — the St Lucia native iguana.

So what brought all this about?

The foremost reason for this road show is unfortunately not such a happy one. There is an imminent need to protect the St. Lucia Iguana, a native lizard that is thought to be genetically distinct from the Green Iguana and unique to St. Lucia. The species used to be widespread in St. Lucia, so much so that the Amerindians called the island Iyanola meaning the place where the iguana is found. Today native iguanas are confined to a few remnant areas in the North East and the population, estimated at less than 1,000, is thought to be in rapid decline. Threats include habitat loss from development and sand mining, hunting by humans, stray cats, dogs, and invasive species.

The other “reason” for this road show is St. Lucia’s long standing history with Paul Butler, now Senior Vice President of Global Programs at Rare, and the use of social marketing techniques to bring about social change on behalf of biodiversity and conservation. The Forestry department in St. Lucia is where Paul Butler first developed a social marketing campaign to call for action to protect the St. Lucia parrot. The campaign was such a success that today the parrot has become a symbol of national pride and has even made it onto the St. Lucian dollar bills. More importantly, in large parts of the rainforest the parrots rely on are being protected and the population of parrots which was estimated at less than a 100 in the 1970s has recovered to some 600.

The techniques that Paul Butler used in the late 1980s have been developed to form what is now known as a Rare Pride campaign. The method is being replicated in biodiversity hotspots across the world and the current campaign to protect the St Lucia Iguana is no less than the 100th. How appropriate that it should be back on the island where it first started.

So what is the current campaign trying to achieve?

“The objectives of the campaign have been set under two distinctive themes” says the St. Lucia Campaign Manager Feria Narcisse-Gaston. “The first is to show the value of the North East and of the native Iguana by creating an eco-brand for the region under the name of Iyanola. The second is to keep it green by enhancing local ownership amongst the communities of the North East Coast.”

 This approach will encourage positive community-led action to protect iguana nesting sites by preventing sand-mining vehicles from accessing the beaches, encouraging men to stop hunting iguanas, changing pet owners behaviour to stop dogs and cats from predating on iguanas and turtles, initiate regular litter collection (to reduce rat predation of iguanas and turtles) and by enabling greater enforcement of legislation (through increased Forestry Office patrols). A parallel objective of the campaign will be to work on improving the regulatory system for development in the area under the motto: make it green.

The long term aim will be to measure an increase in the population of the iguana from less than 1,000 to 1,500 by the year 2020.

The messages are being spread through a range of activities including – the creation of neighbourhood watch patrols, football competitions, an Iyanola Festival, billboards, printed materials such as posters and fact sheets, beach cleanups, and economic enterprises such as craft making and of course…the road show!

And judging by what I have witnessed on our journey to the airport this campaign is promising to be a mover and a shaker. Kids, especially, were finding themselves spontaneously dancing to the tunes of the campaign. I can’t blame them though as the two songs are indeed very catchy. I dare you to listen to either of these two songs without tapping your foot or singing the tune for the next week to come.

Rare Pride Program Manager Annalisa Bianchessi recently made a site visit to a Pride campaign just starting up in Mauritius. These dream-like islands dotted in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Madagascar teem with unique reptiles and other endemic species. Annalisa blogs about the islands, its rich history of biodiversity, and how the nations Pride campaign is working with local partners to ensure sustainable conservation on Mauritius.

Leader of the Mauritius Pride campaign Cathleen Cybele of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) with a little green friend.

Amongst the many places one could go to learn about environmental conservation, Mauritius is perhaps the ultimate destination. Not only was it once home to the DoDdo, a flightless bird whose disappearance has sparked imagination all over the world – the nation has become an emblem for the power and responsibility that humans carry in determining the fate of other species. It is also a place where extinction and conservation continue to be two very concrete possibilities.

Let me set the scene for you:

In the Southeast of Mauritius there is a small islet named Ilot Chat (Island of the cat). Surrounded by the massive Indian Ocean, it is seemingly no bigger than the average American porch, yet it was the home of two threatened reptile species: the lesser night gecko and the Durrell’s night gecko.

The colorful ornate day geckos, the “flagship” species of this Pride campaign.

Neither of the two species had arrived here on their own account. Their residency was the result of an experiment of some well intentioned ecologists who wanted to see whether the two species could co-exist before undertaking a larger scale restoration project. All had gone well for several months and the geckos had reproduced up to the 4th generation. Then, one day, the scientists arrived to the islet to find that there was not a single gecko in sight. Instead they were greeted by round bellied rat who beamed at them with content. This single rat had managed to wipe out the entire population of the two species of geckos.

Luckily these populations had been part of an experiment and were not the last ones of their kind. Still, the story illustrates how damaging and ruthless the introduction of invasive species, like the rat, can be.

Reptiles in Mauritius were not always threatened. Once upon a time they were amongst the most numerous inhabitants of the island. They were so successful that they constituted the building blocks of a unique world: an entire ecosystem based on reptiles! Through a process, which in ecology is referred to as adaptive radiation, they had come to occupy all different roles of “society” from predators to prey, from pollinators and seed dispersers to giant herbivores. This is because, with the exception of fruit eating bats, there were no mammals in Mauritius. Then, with the arrival of man in the 15th Century everything changed.

The men who first set foot on the island quickly brought about both the accidental and deliberate introduction of invasive species such as rats, monkeys, deer and pigs. This combined with the more recent threat of habitat destruction (mainly due to development) has meant that today few of the reptiles that constituted this unique ecosystem survive on mainland Mauritius. Several went extinct; others have disappeared from the mainland but survived on some smaller islands and islets of the coast of Mauritius.

Mauritius’ Bay of Mahebourg still hosts four endemic species of reptiles, including the Ilot Vacoas Bojer’s skink. This reptile is thought to be a subspecies found only on Ilot Vacoas, an islet only 1 Hectare in size! As well as the looming threat of the introduction of invasives (including rats, shrews, and snakes) some of the main threats to the reptiles found in the Bay is caused by recreational activities of unwary tourist visiting the islets.

It may come as a surprise that besides the dropping of litter the lighting of barbecue fires can also have a significant detrimental impact. This is not only because of the risk of fire to the vegetation, but also because of the heating of the rocks used by the reptiles for shelter and nesting. Unbeknownst to tourists, dozens of eggs lay in the crevices of the rocks, which immediately fry once heated. This act threaten the Bojer’s skinks greatly, which only lay a few eggs a year.

Luckily for the reptiles the extinction of the Dodo on Mauritius has brought this island to the attention of many conservationists. Amongst them are the members of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) the oldest conservation organisation of the island. The Foundation has saved several species from the brink of extinction including the Mauritian Kestrel – which, during the 1980s, was one of the rarest birds in the world with only a couple of breeding pairs left.

The campaign is on its way! Above, a  MWF volunteer working with Cathleen interviews a street vendor about her relations with the flagship species.

Today the Foundation has teamed up with the National Parks and Conservation Services (NP&CS) to take on the protection of the endemic reptiles of the Islets in the Bay of Mahebourg. As well as a substantial restoration program run as part of a Darwin Initiative, the Foundation will be running a Rare pride Campaign to try and mitigate the threats caused to the reptiles by recreational activities.

The flagship species will be a charismatic ornate day gecko belonging to the Phelsuma family, a group that is incidentally also a favourite prey of the Mauritius Kestrel. Having had the pleasure to visit Mauritius and work with many of the MWF staff, including the charismatic Campaign Manager Cathleen Cybele, I am looking forward to this campaign’s progress.