Land of the Swamper: A Documentary
By Maja Zonjic
Located north of the Honduran mainland along the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, Utila is the smallest of the Bay Islands, and one of the cheapest places globally to obtain a PADI Scuba Diving certificate. For the last couple of decades, tourism has played an invaluable role in the island’s economic growth, which has sadly spearheaded environmentally unsustainable infrastructure development, overpopulation, and mangrove destruction. Although once plentiful, the island’s mangroves have recently been clear-cut to only eight square kilometres, and continue to be destroyed daily. In the Land of the Swamper examines the extent to which over-development in the sector is responsible for the drastically declining population of the island’s endemic black spiny-tail Swamper Iguana species. Living in the black mangroves on the island, and facing extinction due to habitat loss/fragmentation and poaching, the Swamper Iguana has been assessed as a critically endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In the Land of the Swamper features interviews with leading conservationists and showcases current NGO initiatives, while discussing the immeasurable importance of all mangrove ecosystems globally.
For more information visit http://www.postcards-from-utila.com/