KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Chelsea Har­ri­paul is a trail­blaz­er in con­ser­va­tion, tourism di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion, and com­mu­ni­ty em­pow­er­ment.

She serves as chair­man of Na­ture Seek­ers–an or­gan­i­sa­tion at the fore­front of en­vi­ron­men­tal preser­va­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

With a Bach­e­lor’s de­gree in In­ter­na­tion­al Tourism Man­age­ment from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI), Chelsea Har­ri­paul be­gan her pro­fes­sion­al jour­ney in the tourism in­dus­try with San­dals Re­sort In­ter­na­tion­al.

“I spent just un­der a year at the re­mark­able Ocho Rios lo­ca­tion in Ja­maica, where I gained ex­pe­ri­ence in the op­er­a­tional and man­age­r­i­al as­pects of hos­pi­tal­i­ty, spend­ing a sig­nif­i­cant amount of time in the wed­dings de­part­ment,” she said.

“At San­dals I gained in­valu­able ex­pe­ri­ence and knowl­edge by work­ing close­ly with sev­er­al ac­com­plished and in­spir­ing fe­male men­tors. Their guid­ance and ex­per­tise helped shape my un­der­stand­ing of event co­or­di­na­tion, cus­tomer re­la­tions, and the in­tri­ca­cies of cu­rat­ing un­for­get­table ex­pe­ri­ences.”

The for­ma­tive chap­ter in Har­ri­paul’s ca­reer not on­ly de­vel­oped her skillset but al­so ig­nit­ed her pas­sion for ser­vice, col­lab­o­ra­tion and lead­er­ship, which re­main cen­tral to her pro­fes­sion­al ethos. Af­ter re­turn­ing to Trinidad in 2018, she im­mersed her­self in var­i­ous roles with­in the ser­vice in­dus­try, where she honed her skills and deep­ened her pas­sion for ex­cel­lence in ser­vice de­liv­ery.

In 2022, she was of­fered the Craft Co­or­di­na­tor po­si­tion at Na­ture Seek­ers, through the On The Job Train­ing Pro­gramme (OJT).

“I was re­spon­si­ble for over­see­ing the cre­ation and man­age­ment of eco-friend­ly crafts de­rived from sus­tain­able ma­te­ri­als,” she said.

“My work not on­ly sup­port­ed Na­ture Seek­ers’ con­ser­va­tion goals but al­so em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of merg­ing cre­ativ­i­ty with en­vi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship. With­in this time, I al­so ex­plored the dy­nam­ic na­ture of our or­gan­i­sa­tion and I was able to ap­ply my knowl­edge and pas­sion to op­er­a­tions there.”

Har­ri­paul’s abil­i­ty to in­spire and en­gage oth­ers through her work po­si­tioned her as a valu­able as­set to the team and ig­nit­ed her on­go­ing com­mit­ment to con­ser­va­tion and com­mu­ni­ty em­pow­er­ment.

“I’ve been with Na­ture Seek­ers for the past three years,” she said.

“My fo­cus is to em­pha­sise the ur­gent need to ex­plore new sus­tain­able tourism mod­els that go be­yond tra­di­tion­al strate­gies.”

By ad­vo­cat­ing for eco-tourism and con­ser­va­tion-fo­cused ex­pe­ri­ences, Har­ri­paul high­light­ed the crit­i­cal role tourism can play in pro­tect­ing the nat­ur­al en­vi­ron­ment, fos­ter­ing cul­tur­al ap­pre­ci­a­tion and cre­at­ing in­clu­sive eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ties for lo­cal com­mu­ni­ties.

“Eco-tourism is in­cred­i­bly im­por­tant be­cause it rep­re­sents the in­ter­sec­tion of con­ser­va­tion, com­mu­ni­ty em­pow­er­ment, and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment,” she said.

“It is not just about show­cas­ing the beau­ty of our nat­ur­al en­vi­ron­ment, it’s about cre­at­ing ex­pe­ri­ences that ed­u­cate and in­spire vis­i­tors while ac­tive­ly pro­tect­ing the ecosys­tems we de­pend on. It’s a way to en­sure that tourism con­tributes pos­i­tive­ly to lo­cal com­mu­ni­ties, rather than de­plet­ing re­sources or caus­ing harm.”

She be­lieves that eco-tourism isn’t just a busi­ness, but a path­way to har­mo­ny be­tween hu­man­i­ty and na­ture, a way to em­pow­er un­der­served com­mu­ni­ties, and a cat­a­lyst for cul­tur­al and en­vi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty. “By em­brac­ing in­no­va­tion and in­clu­siv­i­ty, we can build a brighter fu­ture for all,” she added.

When dis­cussing the pow­er of sus­tain­able tourism and con­ser­va­tion to trans­form com­mu­ni­ties, Har­ri­paul ex­plained, “Equip­ping in­di­vid­u­als with tools, re­sources, and op­por­tu­ni­ties en­sures that they have the means to ac­tive­ly par­tic­i­pate and ben­e­fit from these in­dus­tries. This cre­ates path­ways for so­cial up­lift­ment and strength­ens eco­nom­ic re­silience.”

Har­ri­paul plays an in­stru­men­tal role with­in Na­ture Seek­ers in its mis­sion to pro­tect en­dan­gered sea tur­tles, us­ing sci­ence, col­lab­o­ra­tion, and ed­u­ca­tion to dri­ve im­pact­ful con­ser­va­tion ef­forts.

Her work ex­tends be­yond en­vi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship; she is deeply com­mit­ted to em­pow­er­ing mi­nor­i­ty groups and com­mu­ni­ties, en­sur­ing that they play an ac­tive role in sus­tain­able tourism de­vel­op­ment.

“We need to di­ver­si­fy the tourism in­dus­try by em­brac­ing eco-tourism,” she em­pha­sised.

“Pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able prac­tices, sup­port­ing lo­cal economies, and em­pow­er­ing mar­gin­alised groups, like women and youth, are key to cre­at­ing last­ing im­pact. These ini­tia­tives show how con­ser­va­tion ef­forts can co­ex­ist with eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ties, cre­at­ing a rip­ple ef­fect that ben­e­fits every­one in­volved.”

A pas­sion­ate ad­vo­cate for women’s in­volve­ment in the in­dus­try, Har­ri­paul be­lieves hard work and com­mit­ment can tran­scend bar­ri­ers.

“Women can thrive as lead­ers when giv­en the right op­por­tu­ni­ties,” she said. “Men­tor­ship, in­clu­siv­i­ty, and chal­leng­ing stereo­types all con­tribute to fos­ter­ing an en­vi­ron­ment where they can ex­cel.”

Her ap­proach high­lights the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of re­silience and col­lab­o­ra­tion. By in­spir­ing women and youth to pur­sue lead­er­ship roles, Har­ri­paul un­der­scores her be­lief that every­one has a role in shap­ing a sus­tain­able fu­ture.