Environmental Awareness Group (EAG): Supporting collaboration for the restoration of Redonda Island, Antigua and Barbuda - CLME+ HUB

Environmental Awareness Group (EAG): Supporting collaboration for the restoration of Redonda Island, Antigua and Barbuda

The Environmental Awareness Group (EAG) is a civil society organisation established in Antigua and Barbuda that works in conservation of natural resources, and widespread education and awareness of the importance of sustainable use and management of the country’s natural resources. EAG is considered a national expert on the management of Alien Invasive Species and island restoration. Read the case study below to learn more on the EAG’s efforts to restore Redonda Island; the mysterious third island in the state of Antigua and Barbuda and now well-recognised as a conservation success story in the Caribbean. Redonda supports 1% of the world's population of Brown Boobies (SuIa leucogaster), is home to large populations of Masked Boobies (SuIa dactylatra), Redfooted Boobies (SuIa sula), and Magnificent Frigate birds (Fregata magnificens) and, thanks in part to its isolation, is also a refuge for rare reptiles found nowhere else in the world. (Details in the EAG case study below) Despite the island’s imposing cliffs, humans introduced goats to the island, while fellow coloniser, black rats or ship rats, arrived on Redonda as stowaways on ships from Europe. These invasive species contributed to the deforestation and desertification of Redonda and are blamed for the extinction of the endemic skink and iguana, as well as the extirpation of the Antiguan burrowing owl on the island. By 2012, the ecosystem was so severely degraded that even the feral goats were starving to death. EAG’s dream to restore Redonda Island to an ecologically healthy condition began to take shape in 2010. In 2016, the Redonda Restoration Programme (RRP) was formalised and began the seemingly impossible task of returning the island to its previous ecological state. This case study was documented under the PISCES project to showcase work by and from Caribbean CSOs

Year: 2019
Author: CANARI
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