Nes­tled be­tween Ari­ma and San­gre Grande is the Aripo Sa­van­nas En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly Sen­si­tive Area–1,788 hectares of eco­log­i­cal trea­sure.

The largest re­main­ing nat­ur­al sa­van­na in our coun­try, this area fans out from the foothills of the North­ern Range.

Dense lay­ers of ce­ment­ed clays, im­per­vi­ous to wa­ter, shape the nat­ur­al sa­van­na ecosys­tem. To cope with this, in­trigu­ing plants like the car­niv­o­rous Sun­dew Plant (Drosera cap­il­laris) have evolved to trap and eat in­sects and ne­ma­todes.

Rich plant life

The con­cen­tra­tion of flo­ra in this area may be one of the high­est in the coun­try. There are 457 plant species record­ed so far: 38 are re­strict­ed to the Sa­van­nas, 16 to 20 are rare or threat­ened, and two are en­dem­ic flo­ral species.

Sev­er­al dis­tinct veg­e­ta­tion habi­tats thrive here:

�2 Open sa­van­na: Low-grow­ing veg­e­ta­tion over a flat plain; 90+ plant species

�2 Marsh for­est: Forests grow­ing on land which gets marshy in the wet sea­son; 118 plant species

�2 Palm for­est: Palm com­mu­ni­ties found on the pe­riph­ery of the Open Sa­van­nas. The icon­ic Moriche Palm, a South Amer­i­can plant species, tow­ers over the sa­van­nas in re­gal splen­dour and is found nowhere else in the Caribbean arch­i­pel­ago!

Fan­tas­tic bird­ing area

The wide ar­ray of fau­na–es­pe­cial­ly bird life–makes this sa­van­na a vast out­door mu­se­um of liv­ing or­gan­isms.

There are 250+ species of birds here. These in­clude: the rare and en­dan­gered scar­let shoul­dered par­rot­let; the sul­phury fly­catch­er; the white-tailed gold­en throat hum­ming­bird; the sa­van­na hawk; and the red-bel­lied macaw.

If you are very lucky, you can al­so catch sight of an­i­mals which live here, too, such as: red brock­et deer, ar­madil­lo, por­cu­pine and mat­te.

His­to­ry

In this area, back in the 1930s, se­lect­ed tim­ber har­vest­ing went on–in­clud­ing gal­ba and fire­wood–mark­ing the be­gin­ning of the degra­da­tion of this En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly Sen­si­tive Area. Then dur­ing WW2 in the 1940s, 1,660 hectares of the sa­van­nas and ad­ja­cent lands were leased to the Unit­ed States Armed Forces for a mil­i­tary base. Fort Read was es­tab­lished, and sol­diers built bunkers, drains and road­ways, some of which are vis­i­ble to­day. In the 1950s, Fort Read was re­turned to the Gov­ern­ment.

Threats to wildlife

The sa­van­nas have been threat­ened by fires, quar­ry­ing, res­i­den­tial and agri­cul­tur­al squat­ting, and poach­ing.

When you com­pare aer­i­al pho­tographs from 1969 to 1994, you can see how much the palm marsh for­est ar­eas have shrunk due to hu­man ac­tiv­i­ties.

Recog­nis­ing the sa­van­nas' unique bi­o­log­i­cal fea­tures and sci­en­tif­ic val­ue, the Aripo Sa­van­nas were ear­marked to be a sci­en­tif­ic re­serve in the 1970s. In 1987, the Aripo Sa­van­nas were de­clared a Pro­hib­it­ed Area un­der the Forests Act, at last legal­ly re­strict­ing ex­trac­tive us­es there. In 2007, the EMA for­mal­ly de­clared the Aripo Sa­van­nas to be an En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly Sen­si­tive Area.

Tours for aware­ness

To help pro­tect and pre­serve this valu­able na­ture site, the lo­cal or­gan­i­sa­tion Sun­dew Tours con­ducts pub­lic tours which can help you learn about the area's ecol­o­gy. The EMA part­nered with Sun­dew Tours in 2012 for its Aripo Sa­van­nas Re­vealed–Na­tion­al Pho­tog­ra­phy Com­pe­ti­tion–to raise aware­ness, and help tell the sto­ry of the Sa­van­nas through pho­tog­ra­phy. In 2014, as part of its ESA Sen­si­ti­sa­tion project, the EMA again part­nered with Sun­dew Tours to run free guid­ed pub­lic tours.

Valu­ing our own rich­es

The Aripo Sa­van­nas are a unique, beau­ti­ful na­tion­al trea­sure that we must pre­serve for our chil­dren, grand­chil­dren and the gen­er­a­tions to come. Like the Mag­nif­i­cent Sev­en build­ings around the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, the Aripo Sa­van­nas are an im­por­tant eco­log­i­cal space right here at home. The Aripo Sa­van­nas are one of our three price­less eco­log­i­cal and cul­tur­al spaces: the oth­er two are the Matu­ra Na­tion­al Park and the Nar­i­va Swamp. In pre­serv­ing places like these, we pre­serve beau­ti­ful sources of plant and an­i­mal life spe­cial to T&T.

For more in­for­ma­tion, vis­it www.ema.co.tt. If you have any com­ments or would like to con­tribute to this col­umn, please re­spond to ema­corner@ema.co.tt?

NEXT WEEK: The Nar­i­va Swamp Man­aged Re­source Pro­tect­ed Area.