Thursday 29 July 2023
3pm – 4pm London / 9am – 10am Cayman
Documentary
(eg: short TEDtalk, Voxpops, expert lecture)
Dr Tasha Ebanks Garcia
Representative,
Cayman Islands Government Office, UK
Key Contributions By:
(In order of appearance)
- Dr Colin P Clubbe
- Sangeeta Laudus
- Fred Burton, MBE
- Dr Niall McCann
- Dr Jenny Daltry, PhD, FRGS
- Dillen Douglas
- Dr Gemma Harper, OBE, FacSS
With Special Appearances By:
(In order of appearance)
- Leanni Tibbetts
(Miss World Cayman Islands 2022) - Dinara Perera
- Rickeem Lashley
- Marisa Miller
- Dejea Lyons
- Lilly Haug
- Zion Bodden
- Evie Sweetman
- Chad Powell
Once numbered in the tens of thousands in the UK Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands, by 2001 there were fewer than 30 blue iguanas estimated to be living in the wild and the species was listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). As a result of the local conservation programme, the blue iguanas were downgraded from the IUCN’s “red list” to endangered in 2012, and in 2018 the 1000th iguana was released into the wild.
Through interviews, remarks, and a panel discussion the one-hour episode will showcase the blue iguana as an “ecosystem engineer”, dispersing seeds and playing a crucial role in the terrestrial ecosystem. Experts will discuss the ongoing challenges to saving the blue iguana and make the case, from a biodiversity perspective, for the importance of preserving planetary species more broadly.
Produced by the Cayman Islands Government Office – UK, “One Planet Insights” is a docu-series that shines the spotlight on the Cayman Islands longstanding history of environmental protection and conservation, as well as exploring the overarching theme of biodiversity and interconnectivity, and understanding how this all fits into the global eco-system. Collectively, the UK Overseas Territories are home to 94 per cent of British endemic species and 90 per cent of the biodiversity for which the UK Government has responsibility.
