History

Our foundation was set up in 1986 at Blijdorp Zoo, Rotterdam. DIGF is running completely on volunteers who push(ed) all their effort in the past and present successes of our foundation. This effort is making our foundation still more mature every day. Almost every Zoo and Reptile exhibition in The Netherlands is a Contributor to DIGF. 

Our foundation is now mature enough to go and seek a more international proposition. Our foundation started out only with Green Iguana’s. Black Iguana’s have a lot in common with these animals. This is why Black Iguana’s where the second species to be adopted.

When it became clear that a lot of problems in herbivorous lizards where the same we decided to include all herbivorous lizards into our Foundation. Due to this deciscion the following animals are included: Iguanidae with subspecies: Green iguana (Iguana iguana), Black iguana (Ctenosaura), Desert iguana (Dipsosaurus), Chuckwalla (Sauromalus), Fiji iguana (Brachylophus), Rhinoceros iguana (Cyclura), and Galápogos land- and sea iguana (Conolophus and Amblyrhynchus). Not all species from this list are held by hobbyists at home. The others are even more heavier protected but stay interesting for our Foundation. Besides the Iguanidae also Spiny-tailed lizards (Uromastyx), Solomon islands skink (Corucia zebrata), sleepy lizards (Tiliqua rugosa) and the California Rock lizard (Petrosaurus) are included in our Foundation.

It is not unlikely that future additions of other species occur. The only requirment is that the lizard needs to be mainly herbivorous.

A couple of years ago we decided that we wanted a more independant proposition. We decided to continue as a Foundation because it’s the most simple form of association.
Our management team currently contains five people. A chairman, who will be mostly responsible for PR and project management. A cashier who is responsible for financial tasks and a secretary who administers the Contributors list. Next to these three persons we have 2 conservation officers. We also have an editor who realizes the magazine Iguana Varia for our contributers tree to four times a year and someone for websupport.
The minimum donation will suffice to maintain our websites and to print and distribute our magazine. For all activities as, for example, reptile fairs and meetings we rely thankfully on our volunteers.