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252 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4  •  DECEMBER 2005

MISSION STATEMENT

Grupo Jaragua is a non-govermental, non-profit organization founded in 

1987. Its mission is to achieve the effective management of the Dominican 

Republic’s Biodiversity Resources through research and implementation 

of specific projects to solve local conservation problems. Grupo Jaragua 

places special emphasis on regional development of Protected Areas 

through participatory processes at the community level, in particular in 

Jaragua National Park and its surrounding communities. To achieve its 

mission, Grupo Jaragua works in collaboration with government and non- 

government institutions, as well as grass-roots organizations.

PHILOSOPHY AND VALUES

We believe that it is possible to achieve at the same time the conservation 

and the sustainable use of biological diversity. We also believe that human 

wellbeing and development are basic rights that guide all our actions. 

Respect for human plurality is our highest priority; we try to conduct our 

work in harmony, acknowledging and respecting differences in views, while 

at the same time highlighting our common goals and the way forward 

towards conservation and sustainable development. We place high value in 

altruism, professional and human ethics, and we respect cultural differences. 

We strive to find consensual solutions, respect cultural differences, and 

encourage the widest participation of all stakeholders. 

RAMER



IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4  •  DECEMBER 2005 253

Conservation is hard work. It requires patience, perseverance,
teamwork, compassion, and respect, not to mention the

ability to accomplish big things on a shoestring budget.
Grupo Jaragua is a non-governmental organization (NGO)

in the Dominican Republic that exemplifies a conservation
group that works well — sometimes under extraordinarily dif-
ficult circumstances. With a staff of only 13 dedicated people
and a network of collaborators, Grupo Jaragua has worked tire-
lessly for the past 15 years to achieve their mission, which is the
“effective management of natural resources through research and
implementation of specific projects to solve local conservation
problems.” They work primarily in the southwest of the coun-
try in and around Jaragua National Park, and their list of accom-
plishments and honors is long and varied (visit their website
www.grupojaragua.org.do for a complete list). They have part-
nered with organizations like The Nature Conservancy, World
Wildlife Fund, The Ocean Conservancy, BirdLife International,
Center for International Migration and Development,

Conservation International, and the MacArthur Foundation.
Projects include a national campaign in bird conservation,
marine conservation and research including the development of
a Hawksbill Sea Turtle Education Campaign, developing a fresh-
water fish inventory, and implementation of a sustainable use
program in the area around Jaragua National Park. That latter
includes job creation, capacity building, and public use of nat-
ural resources.

Grupo Jaragua has recently received a grant from the
MacArthur Foundation for a three-year project to complete a
conservation plan that will help link protected areas in the
southwestern Dominican Republic through the development of
biological corridors, building scientific understanding of the
island’s ecological communities, and enhancing local livelihoods
and environmental stewardship through eco-tourism and
improved agro-forestry practices. They worked with the
Dominican government to establish under UNESCO the first
Dominican Biosphere Reserve — Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo
Biosphere Reserve. And this is just a short list!

I’ve had the privilege of working with three key Grupo
Jaragua members on Ricord’s Iguana conservation for the past
five years. Together, they are the public face of the organization.

P R O F I L E

The Faces of Grupo Jaragua
Jan Ramer

Indianapolis Zoo

PROFILE

Sixto Incháustegui was instrumental in founding both the National
Museum of Natural History and the Grupo Jaragua. 

Yvonne Arias is the current president of the Grupo Jaragua.



254 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4  •  DECEMBER 2005 RAMER

Yvonne Arias earned her master’s degree in ecology and
environmental conservation in 1992, and has over 20 years of
experience in herpetology and ecology. Yvonne has been with
Grupo Jaragua since its inception and is currently its president.
She is involved with all aspects of the organization, from devel-
oping curriculum and training students in environmental con-
servation, to meeting with lawmakers when critical habitat is in
political jeopardy. She serves on several national committees and
projects involving environmental education, environmental pro-
tection, and research, and has over 30 publications on these sub-
jects. In addition to the work she does in the Dominican
Republic, she has consulted on projects in Guatemala,
Honduras, and Costa Rica.

Dr. Sixto Incháustegui has been working in the field of her-
petology and environmental conservation for over 30 years, but
his love affair with reptiles started at a very early age. He tells a
story about his father bringing back four baby turtles from a trip
to the United States when Sixto was eight years old. He enjoyed
them so much that he saved all his money and ordered 10 more
the next time his father returned to the States. He set up a breed-
ing colony, which did very well, and he still has some of those tur-
tles to this day! In one way or another, Sixto has been studying
reptiles ever since. In college, he initiated an exchange of letters
with Dr. Albert Schwartz, who encouraged him to host Michael
Carey, one of Dr. Schwartz’s students working with Cyclura. After
that first field trip, which was his “official” introduction to the
study of Cyclura, he was hooked. Over the years, he and Yvonne
have worked with José Ottenwalder to pioneer the study of C.
ricordii and C. cornuta in and around Lago Enriquillo. Sixto is a
pioneer in several ways, being the first Dominican herpetologist,
the first Dominican biologist who became director of the School
of Biology, one of the founders of both the National Museum of
Natural History in Santo Domingo and the first Dominican
NGO working for environmental conservation (Grupo Jaragua).
He is currently professor of biology at the Universidad Autónoma
de Santo Domingo, professor and investigator at the Instituto
Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), an invited professor at
the City College of New York, to name a few of the institutions
to which he contributes. Sixto’s publications are too numerous to

mention, and his contributions to the field of conservation are so
significant that the IV Congress on Caribbean Biodiversity in
January 2002 was dedicated to him.

Ernst Rupp was born in Germany, earned his Master’s of
Business Administration at the University of Iowa, worked for
three years on assignment with the German Development
Service (GDS) in Malaysia as an economic advisor to the Federal
Agricultural Marketing Authority, then, in 1984, moved to the
Dominican Republic on assignment with the GDS as an advi-
sor to a farmer’s cooperative. He has been working in the
Dominican Republic ever since, with projects ranging from
reforestation with native tree species, GDS advisor to the
Dominican Wildlife Department coordinating a program to
manage the buffer zone of the national park “Sierra de Neiba,”
with special emphasis on local participation, and investigating
the distribution of bats in the Sierra de Neiba. He has been with
Grupo Jaragua since 2001, promoting and coordinating the
investigation of endangered species and of the threats to these
species, collecting data on these species and human impact, inte-
grating the data in a data bank, establishing the use of geo-
graphical information systems (GIS), and developing programs
of conservation for these species while involving the local com-
munities. Ernst has been concentrating his efforts on Ricord’s
Iguana conservation and research since 2002, and says about his
work with iguanas, “Maybe I just was at the right place at the
right time for once in my life.”

These are three pretty amazing people. I remember being
very nervous at my first meeting with Yvonne and Sixto — after
all, she was the president of Grupo Jaragua and he was a living
legend! I was a naïve veterinarian from Indiana who had only
just started working with iguanas, had fallen in love with the
Dominican Republic, and wanted to help with Ricord’s Iguana
conservation in any way that I could. I was prepared to be com-
pletely intimidated by these conservation icons; but, at that first
meeting with Sixto, Yvonne, and Ernst, next to the pool at the
Hispaniola Hotel, I met three genuine, dedicated, warm, and
welcoming people, who immediately put me at ease.

Grupo Jaragua’s work with iguanas could fill many pages, so
I’ll concentrate here on their work since the 2002 IUCN Iguana
Specialist Group meeting, during which the Ricord’s Iguana
Species Recovery Plan (SRP) was developed. During that meet-
ing, I enjoyed watching Yvonne, Sixto, and José Ottenwalder —
the most respected environmental conservationists in the
Dominican Republic — work so hard to develop an aggressive

Informal 2003 meeting at the Hotel Hispaniola in Santo Domingo;
(from left) the author, Sixto Incháustegui, Yvonne Arias, and Ernst Rupp.

JO
E 

EH
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EN
B

ER
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ER

2004 meeting with educators; back row (from left): two educators,
Elizabeth Skeet, two more educators, Dr. Alfonso Ferreira; front row
(from left): Gloria Santana, Josepha Castro, Quentin Bloxam, the
author, Angelica Espinal, John Foster, Sixto Incháustegui, Ernst Rupp,
and Rick Hudson.



but realistic plan to recover this critically endangered species.
Since then, Grupo Jaragua has identified the two remaining pop-
ulations of C. ricordii outside of Isla Cabritos — the Pedernales
population and a population that lives along the southern shore
of Lago Enriquillo. Ernst has been working hard with the
Pedernales population and habitat, hiring Salvador (Miguel Mella
Pérez), previously an iguana hunter, as his main guide. Needless
to say, Salvador is very good. Ernst has conducted socioeconomic
interviews in the area, funded in part by a grant from the
Riverbanks Zoo, to determine the human impact on iguana pop-
ulations. Through this ongoing work, we now know the actual
status and distribution of C. ricordii in Pedernales Province,
breeding information for both C. ricordii and C. cornuta, and the
main threats to both species in this region. Ernst has worked hard
to increase the local community’s participation in iguana conser-
vation, actively involving two local conservation groups:
Asociacion de Guias de la Natraleza de Pedernales (AGUIPE)
and Voluntarios Comunitarios de Oviedo. He is now turning his
attention to the C. ricordii population on the southern shore of
Lago Enriquillo, where he will use many of the same methods to
determine status, distribution, and threats.

In July 2004, a second workshop was held to discuss
progress on the 2002 SRP and to adjust goals as needed. Grupo
Jaragua, ZooDom (the Dominican national zoo), and govern-
ment officials met with Quentin Bloxham, Rick Hudson, and
me to go over the 2002 SRP line by line, and, once again,
Grupo Jaragua stepped up, volunteering to move many of the
new action steps forward. During that meeting, Yvonne was very
busy, spending long hours in fighting legislation that removed
protected status from a beautiful stretch of sand beach in Jaragua
National Park. Unfortunately, the bill passed while we were there

— but, thanks to Yvonne, significant changes were made; as of
today, construction on the resort has not yet begun, and the
fight continues. While Yvonne was working on this bill, Sixto
and Ernst took our small party to see the habitat in Pedernales.
We got to meet Salvador, viewed many active C. ricordii nests,
and saw several adult animals. During our visit to the area, the
governor of the province signed into law the first municipally
protected land in Pedernales, protecting critical C. ricordii habi-
tats that are not included in the nationally protected areas sys-
tem — another first for Grupo Jaragua! On our way back to
Oviedo, Sixto took us briefly across the border into a Haitian
town — his interests include all of Hispaniola. We saw no igua-
nas, but  the cultural differences were interesting to see, and the
rum was good…

As if fighting environmentally unsound laws, establishing
protected areas, and participating in a Species Recovery Plan
meeting were not enough, Yvonne and Sixto treated us to a
wonderful Dominican lunch at their home in Oviedo. We ate
delicious food prepared by Yvonne, under the shade of native
trees purposely planted in their back yard, and watched the
tanks of native fish that Sixto has been breeding over the years
— all in all a very special afternoon!

The bottom line here is that Sixto, Yvonne, and Ernst, and
all of the other members of Grupo Jaragua, are among the most
dedicated environmental conservationists in the Caribbean and
maybe even the entire world. Their stated values include altruism,
professional and human ethics, and respect for cultural differences.
They strive to find consensual solutions and encourage the widest
participation of all stakeholders. They live these values. I have truly
enjoyed working with these three individuals over the past five
years, and I am honored to call them my friends.

IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4  •  DECEMBER 2005 255PROFILE

This meeting was held on 26 August of this year in Fondo Paradí, a newly created ecotourism venue in Jaragua National Park that is devoted
primarily to birdwatching. Present were rangers of the National Park, the administrator of the park, the mayor of Oviedo, commanders of the
Armed Forces, Oviedo Police Department, and the marine base in Cabo Rojo, and representatives of Grupo Jaragua. Participants in the meet-
ing discussed problems and possible solutions and pledged closer coordination between the various entities represented. The meeting was deemed
an overwhelming success.




