Building political corridors and maintaining ecological separation: a framework for international landscape conservation design in the Caribbean

Comprehensive landscape conservation design across the Caribbean is complicated by numerous issues including the high degree of wildlife endemism and extensive differences in human societies.  Endemic species, especially those limited to small marine islands, typically exist as small populations under constant threat from over-exploitation (e.g. illegal harvest for pet trade or exotic foods industry), competition from invasive species, and loss of genetic identity by hybridization and introgression if population isolation is lost.  These factors complicate even basic conservation work, for instance, detailed population distributions and protected areas maps need to be kept out of the hands of poachers.  Similarly, cultural differences in conservation values and ethics along with related differences in economic well-being and environmental literacy create situations that elude common approaches (i.e. culturally specific strategies are needed).  Further, political differences have great potential to impede region-wide efforts.  We are building a framework, sensitive to political and cultural differences, around endemic Caribbean iguanas intended to serve as a basis for fostering the international partnerships necessary to develop a region-wide shared vision of the future conservation landscape.  This initial effort using endemic iguanas as a surrogate species is focused on tropical dry forest habitat common to all the islands and home to eleven species of large and herbivorous endemic iguanas.  Attitudes about iguanas and economic well-being differ widely throughout the iguanas’ range, thus this situation serves as an excellent venue to build partnerships and evaluate a variety of conservation strategies toward the eventual development of a Caribbean-wide conservation design.