Birding the Islands

By wildgirl -

Faraaz Abdool finds a Caribbean community in the Global BirdFair,  and wonders how this energised and dedicated group could influence the region.

 

At the recent Global BirdFair in Rutland UK, tour companies, tourist boards, artists, manufacturers of binoculars and cameras, audio recording aficionados, and many others gathered to network and exhibit their products for a weekend to a variety of potential customers. Saint Lucia and Tobago along with Hadco Experiences from Trinidad were present and impactful at the 2024 Fair. Contributing to the vibrant Caribbean presence was the Barbados-based company called Birding the Islands. Dubbed “The Caribbean Specialists”, Birding runs multi-island tours throughout the region to ensure that costly long-haul flights bring birders on a multi-island tropical odyssey to outstanding destinations, prioritizing those with an ethos based on equity and conservation.

 

Birding the Islands is a Caribbean collective, L-R: Matthew "Willow" Francois (representing Saint Lucia Tourism Authority), Ivan Nethercoat (UK/Birding the Islands), Ryan Chenery  (Barbados/Birding the Islands), Faraaz Abdool (Trinidad & Tobago/Birding the Islands), Zolani Frank (representing Tobago Tourism Agency Ltd), Leon Moore (Guyana/Birding the Islands)

 

Birding the Islands employs local guides on each island, ensuring grassroots engagement where locals with the most knowledge can also be empowered to protect the birds and their habitats. Their aspirations are simple, to bring people to enjoy the birds of their islands. By doing this in increasing numbers it is possible that they can change the face of tourism in the region. And who knows, they can impact official attitudes to nature, conservation… and who knows, development of the region!

 

The Caribbean archipelago stands ready to be awakened to the value of being a single, unique region, unified in the appreciation and preservation of swathes of forests, marshes, and coastlines.

 

Connected by the Sea and Air

Archipelagos are scattered across the world, smatterings of land rising from warm and frigid oceans at all latitudes. Whether in tropical or temperate waters, they are all families of islands keeping each other within view. Sharing currents, nutrients, and rich geological history, archipelagos harbour unique environments and biodiversity with a high degree of endemism.

 

Many of these island groups are politically united and are distinct countries, such as Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines. Others form part of continental countries by virtue of their colonial history or proximity to a large land mass, such as the islands in the Canadian Arctic that fall under jurisdiction of Canada. A few were remote colonies, such as most of the Caribbean or the British overseas territory of the Falkland Islands off South America.  

 

In the Caribbean however, despite the common threads that weave through our culture, we are currently distinct countries with individual governments and goals. This departs strongly from the pre-Columbian practice of free movement across the region. Today, the majority of Caribbean islands are independent nations, free from colonial masters, but still separate from each other.

 

Life in the natural world has always been more integrated. Some species migrate, while others stay put. Governed by their ecological niche, some animals would follow ocean currents and nutrient blooms regardless of how far it took them, while others remained on a single island for their entire lives. This cornucopia of life has given the Caribbean a blend of connection and distinctiveness. Unity in diversity, some say.

 

A consultation carried out in 2002 on the feasibility of the Tobago tourism product, for example, identified that the north-eastern portion of the island was perfectly suited to the emerging trend of small-scale ecotourism. The island is well poised to take advantage of the shift in attitudes using very low investment and grassroots involvement of villages, while the south-west of the island retained its conventional tourism product.

 

Now, the raw material of the Caribbean seems perfect for nature-based tourism. The idyllic islands of the West Indies are already famous for azure waters and fine sand set against the backdrop of densely forested mountains with peaks that often nuzzle clouds above misty, precipitous, valleys. The Caribbean islands and their inhabitants have an appeal that spans the globe.

 

In a 2022 survey of global travellers, 80% of them indicated that their priority was sustainable travel; travellers are concerned about the ecological, social, and economic impacts for often marginalised communities. Within this sphere, birding tourism accounts for over three million international trips undertaken each year. 

 

 

Sanderlings breed in the Arctic for a few months and spend the rest of the year at specific beaches in the tropics. On Tobago, these birds are particular to the coastline surrounding Rocky Point.

At the brink of extinction, the Grenada Dove fights for survival amid threats of hurricanes and government plans to turn its last remaining stronghold into a marina.

 

 

Birding the Caribbean

The Caribbean is home to near a thousand species of birds, with a whopping 180 species endemic to the region. For globe-trotting birders, these species are some of the most coveted as they are not found anywhere else in the world. Over one hundred of these are single-island endemics. Many are the most at risk species for extinction due to their limited range and constant battle against the unrelenting hand of man. For instance, development, forest fires, and logging of Caribbean pine forest on Grand Bahama continues to shrink the available habitat for a tiny bird confined to that island – the Bahama Nuthatch. Stronger and more frequent hurricanes pummel the region. After consecutive Category 5 hurricanes swept over the Bahamas in 2016 and 2017, the outlook for the species was bleak. This little bird as it has not been seen since the  Category 5 hurricane in 2019.

 

The Bahamas isn’t high on many birders’ lists. Nor is Grenada, the only place on earth where one can still see the Critically Endangered Grenada Dove. Most folks are generally unwilling to travel vast distances to a single destination to see a handful of birds, however flashy or threatened they may be. As it stands, the traveling birder is typically from the global north. This is one example of how the Caribbean’s divided legacy is a disservice to the region.

 

An initiative like Birding the Islands can inspire birders all over our region, and start a movement or a revolution in our relationship with Nature.

 

Collaboration is at the heart of the Caribbean family, Ryan and Faraaz share a moment with fellow exhibitor Rachael Nathaniel of Hadco Experiences.

 

REFERENCES

North East Tobago Management Plan, draft final report December 2002, Kairi Consultants Ltd, 14 Cochrane Street, Tunapuna, TT, and The Environment and Development Group, 41 Walton Crescent, Oxford OX12JQ UK

 

https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/tourism/birdwatching-tourism/market-potential

 

https://www.statista.com/topics/1916/green-tourism/#topicOverview

 

https://www.birdscaribbean.org/caribbean-birds/

 

 


 

 


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