Macuata Island

Macuata Island is an island about 1.5 km from its home country. Its area is about 100 acres (40ha), length / width 852m by 660m and height 100m.  There are endangered iguanas in island.

we see arson burning a good part of the island

In August 2015, a picnic fire engulfed the island, and a good part of it burned down. Illegal trespassing and campfires were frequent. And because of that event, they activated ,,ranger training program” https://iguanafoundation.org/information-by-species/fijian-crested-iguana/iguana-ranger-program-2016/ to help overseeing activities on both Macuata and Monuriki to protect both nature and endangered iguanas.

there is one nice beach on the island

There is ,,Macuata Island Crested Iguana Research 2006″, and can be read here FJ1043289-en-brochure-1

and here is a small quote from there:

The crested iguana are criutically endangered species in our country Crested Iguana has a severely restricted distribution and is limited to only a few islands in western Fiji (Gibbons, 1984 ) In 1996, the IUCN listed the crested iguana as a critically endangered species, and it is the only endangered Fijian reptile listed in the Fiji Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (Watling and Zug, 1998). Previously, there were scientific surveys or studies done on other islands like Yadua Taba and Monuriki in the 1980s but none on Macuata Island. According to Gibbons (1984), several of the locality records of iguana on Macuata island were only based on second-hand reports from villagers and were never verified, until recently.

The Fiji crested iguana is a reptile and can only be found on some of the drier islands of Fiji in the Pacific Ocean, for instance, Macuata Island. They are light green with two or three narrow white vertical bands crossing its back, which is less than 1cm in width and bordered by dark pigment. Both sexes are alike, helps to camouflage with the environment.

 

this island was once wholly covered in vegetation

HERE IS MACUATA ISLAND GALLERY https://tropicalislands.net/macuata-island-gallery/