On Redonda, the third largest island in Antigua and Barbuda, vegetation has increased by over 2,000% in eight years. “The island has been transformed before our very eyes,” sums up Johnella Bradshaw, program coordinator at the Environmental Awareness Group. No village, no road, no hotel, just a 1.6 km² volcanic rock that today tells the story of one of the most beautiful ecological restorations in the Caribbean.
An isolated rock off the coast of Antigua
Seen from the sea, Redonda first appears to be a mineral mass. An abrupt relief, set between Antigua, Montserrat and Nevis, off the beaten tourist track. It measures around 1.6 km² and rises to almost 305 meters above sea level. It is the smallest of the three islands that make up Antigua and Barbuda, but its recent history far exceeds its size.
2017, the year of changeover
The fact that changes everything comes down to one date: 2017. That year, teams from the Redonda Restoration Programme removed invasive black rats and relocated wild goats to Antigua. The program, launched in 2016 with Antigua & Barbuda’s Department of Environment, the Environmental Awareness Group and Fauna & Flora, aimed to save an island whose ecosystem was collapsing.
For decades, Redonda had been plagued by a double whammy. Rats preyed on eggs, young birds and small wildlife. Goats, left behind after past human activity, grazed the plants to the point of preventing natural regeneration. Little by little, the island lost its plant cover. The soil slid into the sea. The nearby reefs received stones and sediment.
An island shaped by guano mining
This bare landscape was not only the result of nature. In the 19th century, Redonda had also been mined for the phosphate contained in guano, a deposit of bird droppings used as fertilizer. Workers from Montserrat in particular took part. The activity declined after the First World War, but the introduced species remained. They continued to transform the island long after the men had left.
The visible return of life
The return has been rapid. In just a few years, plant biomass has increased by over 2,000%, according to data from Antigua and Barbuda’s Department of Environment. The number of land bird species has risen from 9 to 23. The Redonda Ground Dragons – unique black lizards that live nowhere else in the world – saw their population increase thirteenfold between 2017 and 2021. Where the ground was gray, vegetation is returning. Where rats once dominated, birds are nesting again. Where erosion washed the land into the sea, roots once again hold the soil.
A reserve to protect land and sea
In September 2023, this reconstruction reached a new stage with the creation of the Redonda Ecosystem Reserve. This protected area covers almost 30,000 hectares of land and sea, including the island, seagrass beds and an 18,000-hectare coral reef. According to a national survey, 96% of Antiguans and Barbudans support this protection * a rare consensus on an environmental issue.
The strength of this model also lies in its refusal of mass tourism. Redonda is not an island that’s easy to sell. Its cliffs, lack of permanent fresh water and difficult access keep it at a distance. But this distance gives it a rare value: that of a natural laboratory where we can measure what an island can become again when human pressure and invasive species recede.
Another tale of the Caribbean
In a Caribbean often presented by its beaches, Redonda imposes another narrative. The story of a tiny, uninhabited, long-damaged territory, brought back to life by patient science and local cooperation. Its beauty cannot be summed up in an image. It can be seen in the return of the birds, in the lizards re-colonizing the stones, in the plants once again holding the earth together.
Finally, Redonda reminds us that the greatness of an island does not depend on its population, its roads or its hotels. It can depend on a new-found equilibrium. And if this rock of Antigua and Barbuda can come back from the desert, how many other small Caribbean territories could also regain some of what they had lost?
Redonda is an uninhabited island belonging to Antigua and Barbuda. It lies in the Lesser Antilles, between Antigua, Montserrat and Nevis.
Redonda has become a rare example of successful ecological restoration. Since 2017, the removal of invasive rats and feral goats has enabled the return of endemic vegetation, birds and reptiles.
Redonda is not a classic tourist destination. Access is difficult and the island is protected above all for its ecological value, notably as part of the Redonda Ecosystem Reserve.
