I live on the border of the Kruger National Park and I have spent my whole life observing animals of all kinds. I have seen animals die due to depression of losing a partner. I have seen animals mourn their dead and I have seen excitement of a new birth. I have seen many animals celebrating when a parter comes back, just to mention a few. You can not judge an iguana's feelings until you have lived with them in the wild and observed them for many years.

Let's agree to disagree.

I agree that some animals do bond with their mates and their young. I also agree that some mourn their dead. Elephants are one that have been proven to be very family orientated. I have never been lucky enough to see this in the wild (I am jealous of you, lol ), but I have watched may educational shows, and read many books that prove that theory. I also watched what happened to the elephant in our zoo when she lost her baby, that was tragic and very sad. She went into her own depression and stopped eating and so forth, to the point where the keepers and the vets had to step in and help her. She would also make these really strange noises, I asked the keeper once why she was doing that, he responded she was calling for her baby, even though she knew her baby was dead. She also turned very violent for a period of time.
So, do I believe that animals have feelings and are capable of bonding? The answer to that is yes. Do I believe that the iguana is so intelligent that they are capable of bonding with their young? That would be no. I believe it depends on the animal itself. Some are more intelligent than others, reptiles, for the most part got the short end of the stick when you compare their brain capabilities to other animals.

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I have sucker tattood on my forehead.

Yeah, in general, warm blood and protein-rich diet yield larger brains - for whatever reasons. Of course, there are exceptions.

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Only when the last tree has been cut down
Only after the last river has been poisoned
Only after the last fish has been caught
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.

Cree Indian Prophecy.

Ok so let me be honest, I won't hurt Forest's feelings, but I sure will hurt my own!

So what I am currently doing is, if I see he wants to jump on me then I step back until he relax again. After that I approach him again with my arm held out for him and then he climbs up.

So the problem is that I don't want him to climb up every time when he is outside, I just want to stand by him and have a chat sometimes.

Any suggestions?

Training, training, training. You could start by standing near his enclosure and chatting from there. Get him used to the idea of you being there without him on you. I'm not saying don't handle him, just don't do it every time. I think he's of the assumption that every time you go to him, he gets to come out and climb. You have to break him of that idea. Once you can get him to just chill with you outside, start opening his enclosure, and going inside, but be firm. If he gets on you, put him back on a branch. As many times as it takes. One of you has to run out of energy first, and it will hopefully be him.

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Only when the last tree has been cut down
Only after the last river has been poisoned
Only after the last fish has been caught
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.

Cree Indian Prophecy.

Well Forest stopped jumping a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for the info!