Eight Virgin Islanders Awarded Conservation Scholarships
Eight Virgin Islanders, including four college students and four early-career professionals, have received scholarships to join a major wildlife conservation expedition. The programme focuses on the protection and recovery of the critically endangered Anegada Rock Iguana. The initiative highlights an ongoing collaboration between local academic bodies, conservation trusts, and international partners.
Eight Virgin Islanders were awarded scholarships this summer to participate in the Fort Worth Zoo's annual conservation field expedition, an initiative dedicated to safeguarding the Territory's critically endangered Anegada Rock Iguana. The cohort of scholarship recipients includes four students from the H.
Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC) alongside four early-career professionals. The expedition provides participants with immersive, hands-on experience in wildlife conservation, ecological field research, and species recovery techniques, while integrating local knowledge and perspectives into ongoing scientific fieldwork.
The programme is supported by HLSCC's Centre for Applied Marine Studies (CAMS), which played a key role in broadening access to the initiative for local participants. The scholarship opportunity forms part of an enduring tripartite partnership between HLSCC, the National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands, and the Fort Worth Zoo.
For more than twenty years, the National Parks Trust and the Fort Worth Zoo have collaborated closely to protect and restore the population of the Anegada Rock Iguana, one of the most distinctive and threatened native reptile species in the Virgin Islands. Through headstart programmes, habitat monitoring, and field research, the partnership continues to be pivotal in preventing the species from extinction.
HLSCC commended the National Parks Trust for its ongoing leadership in species protection and expressed gratitude to the Fort Worth Zoo for providing both technical expertise and direct financial backing for the scholarships. College officials noted that the partnership remains vital in nurturing the next generation of environmental leaders and ensuring Virgin Islanders remain at the forefront of protecting the Territory's natural biodiversity.
Primary source: BVI Platinum