Wild Tobago

  Experience Tobago culture this month: the energized Carnival called the Freedom Festival October 28 to 30, or the more contemplative Art Trail to be revealed November 3. Pat Ganase reports.   As some flock to the Tobago Carnival this weekend, others may choose to get away from the revelry. They may seek quiet in nature on the cool forested Main Ridge or the beaches that punctuate the coast of northeast Tobago. You can escape into the forest from Roxborough (on the east) or from Parlatuvier or Bloody Bay (on the west coast). But if you choose to tour the beaches, you might start at Castara following the Northside (coastal) road through Englishman’s Bay, Parlatuvier, Bloody Bay, L’Anse Fourmi, Man o War Bay all on the Caribbean coast. At Charlotteville, the Northside Road runs into the Windward Road and you climb the highest part of the island to descend on the Atlantic coast, Speyside, King’s Bay (at Delaford), Roxborough, Belle Garden. This route also takes you on the ...

  Thousands of shorebirds set out on their maiden voyage from the frozen north to winter in the south. You’ll see many of them bobbing and running on beaches along Tobago’s coasts. Faraaz Abdool, birding enthusiast and photographer, champions the cause of creatures whose annual migrations take them from the north pole to the south in search of food. All photos by Faraaz Abdool     As the Earth hurtles around the Sun, its axis angles away from the flaming giant at the centre of our solar system plunging the northernmost regions into frigid darkness. The frosty fingers of winter crisscross land and sea, uniting them under white, featureless sheets of ice and snow. It is the boreal winter, a time associated with indoor activities and reunited families. We may huddle indoors making every attempt to insulate ourselves from the natural elements, but for the animals, their existence is the antithesis of this.   Hundreds of thousands of eggs hatch on the Arctic tun...

Dr Anjani Ganase looks at the planetary boundaries that humans have impacted, moving the earth towards a state that may no longer be hospitable for our species.   The Holocene Epoch marks 11,700 years of recorded human history in which we thrived in a stable environment and ecology. This allowed significant human evolution and in the last 100 years, saw the advance of technology and industry.   In that short time, humans have drastically altered the global environment through resource extraction and pollution of our air and water ways. Some of these conditions have become destabilized resulting in sudden loss of biodiversity, habitats, resources and even shifting climate. Scientists have collated such environmental changes between 1950 to now, to identify the most important boundaries that should not be crossed for the sake of human survival.   The planetary boundaries framework is science-based analysis that observes the risk associated with human ...

Dr Anjani Ganase reports on the status of an international agreement to protect Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ). Here’s what you need to know.     WHAT DOES BIODIVERSITY BEYOND NATIONAL JURISDICTION MEAN? Most countries are responsible for a stretch of ocean territory that extends up to a maximum of 200 nautical miles from their coasts. Trinidad and Tobago is responsible for an economic exclusion zone (EEZ) that mostly extends to the north and the east of our coasts, that is 15 times our combined land masses. The USA, as another example. has the largest EEZ in the world and is larger than the fifty states combined. The marine areas that fall under the jurisdiction of countries make up about 42 % of the ocean. Within the lines of jurisdiction, all activities fall under the sovereign rights of the country. While many countries have signed treaties for conservation, much of what goes on is governed by local legislation. This designation was...

Pat Ganase considers our well-watered island. Photos by Joanne Husain.     Water is life. It surrounds us. It refreshes and sustains us.   Having benefited from over two centuries of conservation – preserving the Main Ridge Forest Reserve - for the purpose of safeguarding rainfall, all citizens of Tobago must maintain and enhance the terrestrial features that secure and harvest water.   By protecting our rivers from degradation, pollution and deforestation, we ensure our constant and available water supply. We all live in a watershed: uphill from the coast or downhill from the mountains: it’s time we learned our place in the watershed, between the sky and the sea.   The forest reclaims the bridge over the river that runs to Dead Bay, west of Bloody Bay. Photo by Joanne Husain The protected Main Ridge Reserve extends about half the length of Tobago from the northeast and occupies over 4000 hectares; or 40 sq km in Tobago’s total terrestrial area of 3...