To­ba­go’s Main Ridge For­est Re­serve has been named the Caribbean Na­ture Park of the Year in the Caribbean Jour­nal’s Caribbean Awards 2019.

Caribbean Jour­nal (CJ) is the world’s largest web­site cov­er­ing the Caribbean, has orig­i­nal con­tent and video fo­cus­ing on trav­el and tourism across the en­tire Caribbean and is the glob­al leader in cov­er­ing Caribbean trav­el and trade news. Ac­cord­ing to the Jour­nal, the Green Awards are meant to “cel­e­brate those who are al­ready work­ing to pro­tect and strength­en this beau­ti­ful cor­ner of the world.”

In the ar­ti­cle post­ed on their web­site, Caribbean Jour­nal em­pha­sised that be­ing “green” en­com­pass­es re­new­able en­er­gy, lo­cal and sus­tain­able tourism, and con­sid­er­a­tion of the en­vi­ron­ment.

To­ba­go’s Main Ridge For­est Re­serve, which was recog­nised by Caribbean Jour­nal as the Caribbean Na­ture Park of the Year, was de­clared a Crown Re­serve in 1776 mak­ing it the old­est legal­ly pro­tect­ed for­est re­serve in the West­ern Hemi­sphere es­tab­lished for a con­ser­va­tion pur­pose. It was al­so nom­i­nat­ed as a UN­ESCO World Her­itage Site in Au­gust 2011, and was vot­ed the “World’s Lead­ing Eco-Tourism des­ti­na­tion” by the World Trav­el Awards in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.

The Caribbean Jour­nal de­scribed the Re­serve as “a liv­ing ex­am­ple of the pow­er of con­ser­va­tion and one whose con­tin­ued stew­ard­ship sends a dai­ly mes­sage to the rest of the re­gion. It’s al­so one of the most re­mark­able places to vis­it in the re­gion, a haven of bio­di­ver­si­ty and a por­tal in­to the nat­ur­al splen­dor of this gem of the South­ern Caribbean.”

The Main Ridge For­est Re­serve is one of the is­land’s at­trac­tions that form part of its thriv­ing eco-tourism prod­uct—one of the four pil­lars for growth of the tourism in­dus­try iden­ti­fied by the To­ba­go Tourism Agency. Vis­i­tors to the re­serve can en­joy its lush trop­i­cal beau­ty through guid­ed tours, na­ture walks, bird watch­ing and moun­tain bik­ing.