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Caribbean island largest regional protected area

Regional 02 Oct, 2023 1 Comments Follow News

Photographer: Lawson Lewis - Johnella Bradshaw is proud of what has been achieved on Redonda

Photographer Edward Marshall, FFI - Before its restoration, locals called Redonda a rock

Photographer: Mike Appleton - REwild Seabirds now flock to the newly verdant isle

Photographer Adam Long - Now, the island is much greener

Photographer Edward Marshall, FFI - Before its restoration, locals called Redonda a rock

Edward Marshall FFI The number of ground dragons rebounded as the environment recovered

The tiny Caribbean island of Redonda, a little known sister island to of Antigua and Barbuda, has recently been made one of the largest protected areas in the Caribbean, at 30,000 hectares. The Antigua Observer reports that this new designation is the result of the ongoing efforts of the government of Antigua and Barbuda, particularly the Department of Environment, and local and international conservation NGOs, including the Environmental Awareness Group, Fauna & Flora and Re: wild. 

The new protected area has been named the Redonda Ecosystem Reserve and covers both land and sea and encompasses the entire island, its surrounding seagrass meadows and a 180 km2 coral reef. While the island has been left pretty much untouched by humans, the new protected area is believed to contain at least 30 globally threatened and near-threatened species, along with globally important seabird colonies.

The new designation follows a seven year restoration programme that has seen the island transform from a barren landscape to a thriving haven of biodiversity.  The first step in the process was to restore the ecological balance of the location, by removing invasive species from the island, allowing native species to recover. 

The Redonda ecosystems bounced back quickly after invasive rats and feral goats were removed from the island in 2017. From then, its total vegetation biomass increased by more than 2,000%, 15 species of land birds returned and numbers of endemic lizards increased by more than fourfold. In particular, the population of Redonda ground dragons – a critically endangered lizard – has increased by 13-fold since 2017.

Since the removal of the invasive species, Redonda has also seen thousands of native trees taking root and anchoring the soil, seabirds returning to nest in greater numbers and many native animal and plant populations rising in huge numbers.

Government officials there said that the establishment of the Redonda Ecosystem Reserve meant they had been able to work towards fulfilling its commitment to conserve at least 30% of terrestrial, inland water and coastal and marine areas under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted at the COP 15 of the UN Convention of Biological Diversity in December 2022.

The change has been described by those involved as “truly remarkable.” The designation ensures they can continue rewilding the island to the biodiverse environment it once was, they advised. 

The restoration work is still ongoing, with a range of actions being undertaken to support the island’s biodiversity, including implementing biosecurity measures to limit the risk of any reinvasions, monitoring the recovery of native species, conducting marine monitoring and surveillance, promoting sustainable fishing, and planning the reintroduction of native species that cannot find their own way back to the island, such as iguanas and burrowing owls.


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Andrew Bodden

03 Oct, 2023

This is a good feel story to wake up to. Thank you.
Watch this space for near future efforts in Cayman Glassroots.ky!