Green Leaf awards were pre­sent­ed to three re­cip­i­ents at the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty's (EMA's) Green Leaf awards cer­e­mo­ny, host­ed on World En­vi­ron­ment Day (June 5) at the Hilton Trinidad in Port-of-Spain. Min­is­ter of Hous­ing and the En­vi­ron­ment Dr Roodal Mooni­lal de­liv­ered his first World En­vi­ron­ment Day ad­dress at this dis­tin­guished cer­e­mo­ny which al­so marked the EMA's 15th an­niver­sary. Ad­ven­ture Farm and Eco Vil­las, the Bush Di­ary with Robert Clarke tele­vi­sion se­ries pro­duced by Pao­lo Ker­na­han of Id­iom Pro­duc­tions, and spe­cial awardee, Jir­jod­han Ma­habir, were pre­sent­ed with their awards at the func­tion which co­in­cid­ed with com­mem­o­ra­tion of World En­vi­ron­ment Day 2010. The Ad­ven­ture Farm and Eco Vil­las fa­cil­i­ty is lo­cat­ed at Arnos Vale in To­ba­go. It is sit­u­at­ed in the midst of a 12-acre na­ture re­serve and or­gan­ic farm run by Ean Mack­ay.

With so­lar pan­el en­er­gy use, it is a sus­tain­able ven­ture that grows its own food and is con­sid­ered a per­fect bal­ance be­tween wildlife and sus­tain­able eco-tourism. The Bush Di­ary with Robert Clarke tele­vi­sion se­ries ex­plores Trinidad and To­ba­go's di­verse wildlife and recog­nis­es the un­sung work of con­ser­va­tion­ists in the preser­va­tion of the coun­try's frag­ile nat­ur­al her­itage. Dur­ing the se­ries, jour­nal­ist Robert Clarke goes in­to un­touched spaces to tell the sto­ry of di­verse and unique ecosys­tems. Ma­habir, who turns 81 on Thurs­day, re­ceived a spe­cial award for his life's work in pre­serv­ing the en­vi­ron­ment. Born in Pasea in 1929, Ma­habir was the on­ly son of an in­den­tured labour­er from In­dia who start­ed work­ing the land at the age of nine.

In 1950, his love for agri­cul­ture en­cour­aged him to cul­ti­vate acres of land with veg­eta­bles, main­ly toma­toes, me­l­on­gene, pep­pers and ochro in the dry sea­son, us­ing spe­cial tech­niques for the con­ser­va­tion of mois­ture. In 1970, he bought 130 acres at Ve­ga de Orop­uche where he prac­tised for­est re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and the in­ter-plant­i­ng of var­i­ous plant species be­tween for­est crops. In 1978, Ma­habir vis­it­ed the Red-Wood For­est in San Fran­cis­co and was so im­pressed that on his re­turn he plant­ed 80 acres of Red Cedar on his farm. Ma­habir, who has trav­elled wide­ly, was ap­point­ed to the Board of the Cit­rus Grow­ers Co-op­er­a­tive As­so­ci­a­tion and served from 1986-1998 with dis­tinc­tion. The EMA al­so pre­sent­ed long ser­vice awards to its for­mer En­vi­ron­men­tal Po­lice Unit Of­fi­cers. The EMA salutes all win­ners of this year's Green Leaf awards 2010.