Blue Iguana Cayman Islands tour
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
Wildlife. We know our wildlife, are committed to conserving it and encourage guests to follow our lead. The Blue Iguana Safari tour is one of the ways we help fund the work of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme. Our guides are our Blue Iguana Wardens, who devote their working hours to caring for the breeding and growing Blue Iguanas in our captive facility, and to monitoring and protecting the Blue Iguanas that live wild in the QE II Botanic Park. They work in nature, care for nature, and know our unique Blue Iguanas better than anyone.
The Blue Iguana Recovery Programme's long term goal is to restore at least 1,000 Blue Iguanas into the wild, in protected areas. This means we are involved in habitat protection as well as species conservation. In recent years we have raised the wild population of Blue Iguana from less than a dozen, to over 600. We have also secured the long-term protection of over 200 acres of wild shrub land, home to Blue Iguanas and many other uniquely Caymanian animals and plants.
Water. We show we understand why water is too precious to waste and, when it rains, we savour every drop. Water used at the Blue Iguana captive facility comes from rainfall, which we collect in guttering around the roof of our small shed, and store in large rainwater tanks on site. A small solar array powers the pump which supplies our water pressure, and so we have water for hundreds of captive iguanas to drink, and water to wash their food bowls, using no resources day-to-day except for rain and the sun.
It cost us more to set up, than we would ever have spent using a more conventional piped water supply. We did this for one very practical reason - we need to be sure we still have a water supply in times after hurricanes, when piped water and electricity from the grid may be down for weeks. But we also did it because we are an environmental organization, and we believe we should walk the talk, and lead the way.
Community
Friends & neighbours. We know where to find all things local and we support/ recommend our neighbours, spreading tourism income to those most in need.
We work closely with the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, within which we operate our Blue Iguana captive facility and the Blue Iguana Safari tour. This is a win-win relationship for both parties - the Blue Iguanas help draw more visitors to the Park, and the Park provides space and a protected environment for our work with the Blues.
Our Wardens are long-term residents of Grand Cayman, and maintain connections with local businesses in the area - our nearest local restaurants, hotels and time shares, all know us well, and we are happy to recommend them to our guests.
Volunteering & charity. We support local projects & people through volunteering, fundraising or charity. As a charity ourselves, most of our volunteer and fundraising effort goes, of course, to the Blue Iguanas - but as an integral part of the National Trust for the Cayman Islands, we are connected to and active in wider environmental issues. You are likely to find our Wardens and volunteers at Pirate's Week district community events, the Agricultural Show or other community events. On Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, a new project to conserve the Sister Isles Rock Iguana is drawing on our volunteers, equipment and expertise during it's early development. We are an environmental organization in the Cayman Islands, so we are naturally allied with other local environmental efforts, and support them in any way we can.
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