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CEPF enables NFMV to start the American Iguana Eradication Campaign
With the award of a grant by CEPF, NFMV has immediately started work on the American Iguana Awareness Programme.
14/07/2010 - Dick Watling

The American Iguana Iguana iguana eradication campaign has experienced an uncertain start with the Government’s task force having to yield resources to another invasive alien – the Asian subterranean termite where news of the extent of its distribution and destruction worsens by the day. However, a grant from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (www.cepf.org ) has enabled NFMV to at least start the campaign with the first priority – a community awareness and consultation programme. The American Iguana (commonly called the Green Iguana, but so called in Fiji to distinguish it from our three native species of iguana, all of which are predominantly green – as well as to clearly denote its alien status), was first recorded in Fiji in the year 2000, on the island of Qamea in the Cakaudrove Province. In 2009, they were reported from and confirmed to be present on Laucala Island, Matagi Island and Taveuni Island. In February 2010, it was reportedly brought into Viti Levu from Taveuni/ Vanua Levu. The American iguana is originally from Central and South America, and is reported to have been brought into Fiji by a foreign national. It has become an alien pest in several places most notably Florida in the USA where its control is costing many thousands of dollars annually and Puerto Rico where an eradication campaign is planned following localized pilot campaigns. Based on problems experienced in these countries, the American Iguana is potentially a serious pest in Fiji of village gardens and farms, an unwanted nuisance to the tourism industry, an agent of Salmonella poisoning, while their burrows undermine seawalls and foundations. Most importantly, its interaction with our own very special iguanids is completely unknown and an issue of great trepidation.
The American Iguana can reach 2 m in length (Photo: Fiji Times)
The Fiji Government has decided that the species should be eradicated and has set up a multi-agency task force to oversee this. A Biosecurity Zone has been gazetted and any movement of iguanas by people is now banned with heavy fines to be incurred by offenders. NFMV has been selected by the Department of the Environment and the National Trust to represent their interests on the task force and take the lead in finding funds. We are grateful, therefore that the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund has provided us with a grant to start this work.
This American Iguana is reported to have swum from Qamea to Matagi I. (Photo: A.Heffernan)
The most important initial step is a community awareness and consultation programme. This starts immediately with an NFMV team led by Taveuni elder, Waisale Mataitoga and NFMV project officer Kelera Macedru giving presentations at the District (Tikina Meetings) for all of Taveuni and offshore islands. This will be followed by meetings in each village and settlement in Qamea and northern Taveuni, with visits to the resorts on Laucala and Matagi. The purpose of these meetings is two-fold to inform all communities of the alien status of the American Iguana, Government’s intention to eradicate it and the implications for villagers of the Biosecurity Zone promulgation for the species. Secondly, to gain information on the current distribution of the species and any observations on its ecology. Thereafter, NFMV and the Task Force hope to engage the services of an experienced herpetologist to draw up an eradication strategy and will be looking for funds to implement this. Any sightings of the American Iguana should be reported to NFMV, please, especially when people are seen to be moving it from one island to another.
The Viti Banded Iguana, a native species at risk from the American Iguana (Photo: Paddy Ryan)
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