Wild Tobago

  Pat Ganase encourages Trinbagonians to enjoy nature in these retreats on our islands. “Tobago has always had ecotourism,” says one environmentalist engaged in tourism. And Trinidad? The country’s best known ecotourism destination prides itself on attracting visitors from all over the world for close to 60 years. Who are these ecotourists that come from elsewhere, to be charmed by where we live here: the nature of forests and seashores and the animals and plants therein. Do they always need to be foreigners.   The best thing about eco-tourism is that everyone can enjoy it, learn from it and become better citizen stewards of our own country.   It does not require massive infrastructure, but does depend on strategic investments in long-term management of natural resources. Perhaps the most important foundation is respect for natural spaces. Any vision of individual or community must be enhanced and supported through policy, conscious use and the reliability of n...

Faraaz Abdool advocates eco-tourism – using the example of Costa Rica – as the way to preserve Trinidad and Tobago’s natural diversity and create a people-based economy. Could the people of Trinidad and Tobago get behind such a bold initiative?   Life is a dynamic, fluid experience, and we could do ourselves a tremendous favour by ensuring that the process of learning – and therefore growth – is continuous. This holds true for the individual, as well as for the collective. The word “ecotourism” is gaining traction in conversations throughout the region, and while it may be new ground for us, there are many countries that have been sustainably utilizing their natural wealth for economic gain.   Within the discussion of nature-based tourism, few places are mentioned as frequently as Costa Rica. Often hailed as the gold standard of ecotourism, Costa Rica is the most visited nation in Central America and one of the most popular destinations in the world. Visitors flock to ...

Faraaz Abdool – engineer turned eco-photographer - talks about the growing niche market for Tobago tourism. What is birding and why is it so important to us? (All photos courtesy Faraaz Abdool) To most of us, the word “bird” is a noun, a word ascribed to various feathered animals that form part of the diorama of our daily lives. We see them every day: the Frigatebirds soaring effortlessly hundreds of feet above our heads and the Bananaquits quarreling over who sat on whose flower last. They all tend to fade into the landscape though. Until we observe some khaki-clad humanoid eagerly gesticulating, all attention focused on some inconsequential facet of what we see daily.  Blue-backed Manakin: The unique geography of Tobago allows one to see secretive forest birds like the Blue-backed Manakin and still be within a half hour of a pristine beach. This is birding, where “to bird” is a verb, meaning the pursuit of a particular bird (or birds) for the sole purpose of seeing...

Jahson Alemu, marine biologist, discusses the importance of mangrove ecosystems to the enhancement and protection of coastlines, and also to our future. This feature was first published in the Tobago Newsday on Thursday December 15, 2016 Follow Jahson on twitter: @jahson_alemu. If trees are the lungs of the earth, mangroves must be the kidneys. Like botanical amphibians, mangroves live life on the edge. Uniquely positioned at the dynamic interface between land and sea, they are highly productive tropical coastal ecosystems comprised mainly of trees and shrubs capable of thriving in humid heat, amid choking mud and salt levels in which only a few plant species can survive (Duke et al 1998). If you’ve never seen a mangrove, picture a lattice of tangled tree legs rising up from brackish water. At one point in our history, mangrove forests were treated as wasteland considered only useful as dumps, and haven to bad spirits, jumbies, runaways and criminals. Red mangroves (Rhizophora ...