Casan­dra Thomp­son-Forbes

North-East To­ba­go has been award­ed the pres­ti­gious UN­ESCO Man and the Bios­phere des­ig­na­tion.

The area is now the largest UN­ESCO site in the Eng­lish-speak­ing Caribbean, span­ning 15 com­mu­ni­ties from Belle Gar­den in the east to­wards Mo­ri­ah in the north­ern part of the is­land.

The an­nounce­ment was made at the 32nd Sit­ting of the Man and the Bios­phere In­ter­na­tion­al Co­or­di­nat­ing Com­mit­tee on Wednes­day.

Ac­cord­ing to UN­ESCO, “The Man and the Bios­phere pro­gramme is an in­ter-gov­ern­men­tal sci­en­tif­ic pro­gramme that aims to es­tab­lish a sci­en­tif­ic ba­sis for en­hanc­ing the re­la­tion­ship be­tween peo­ple and their en­vi­ron­ments.”

Sec­re­tary for the Di­vi­sion of In­fra­struc­ture, Quar­ries and the En­vi­ron­ment Sec­re­tary Kwe­si Des Vi­gnes said there were many op­por­tu­ni­ties to be de­rived and ad­di­tion­al­ly, this was an­oth­er mile­stone for To­ba­go and the na­tion on a whole

“T&T is a small na­tion with a fierce spir­it. North-East To­ba­go has al­ways been the pearl of our par­adise. It is, there­fore, no sur­prise that the area is wor­thy enough to at­tract the at­ten­tion of the world,” Des Vi­gnes said.

“This award presents im­mense op­por­tu­ni­ties for busi­ness, cul­ture and the arts and ed­u­ca­tion, but more im­por­tant­ly, it will al­low us to ben­e­fit from ap­proach­es that can bet­ter con­serve and sus­tain the en­vi­ron­ment and ex­pe­ri­ences we gain from in­ter­act­ing with it.”

Des Vi­gnes said the award could not have come at a bet­ter time for Trinidad and To­ba­go due to the im­pact that COVID-19 has had on the is­land’s tourism prod­uct.

“As the world grap­ples with COVID-19, this des­ig­na­tion has placed us in an ad­van­ta­geous po­si­tion as it re­lates to brand­ing of our des­ti­na­tion and at­tract­ing fi­nan­cial and tech­ni­cal sup­port from the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty. We in To­ba­go in par­tic­u­lar, are ex­cit­ed and proud of this ac­com­plish­ment and the many gains that will fol­low.”

Mean­while, THA Chief Sec­re­tary An­cil Den­nis said the ac­com­plish­ment was a proud mo­ment for the en­tire coun­try

“Our Man and Bios­phere Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is tru­ly a proud mo­ment not on­ly for this is­land, but the en­tire coun­try. North-East To­ba­go has now joined the UN­ESCO’s glob­al net­work of bios­phere re­serves and is in the com­pa­ny of the likes of Mount Olym­pus in Greece and the Baa Atoll of the Mal­dives,” he said. Den­nis said the ac­co­lade would fur­ther em­pow­er To­ba­go and all the res­i­dents of the is­land.

The pro­gramme will cov­er blue and green eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ties, in­clud­ing but not lim­it­ed to tourism, fish­eries, agri­cul­ture, cul­tur­al her­itage ac­tiv­i­ties, re­search and ed­u­ca­tion. In the com­ing month, the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly will be­gin the process of for­mu­lat­ing a man­age­ment plan for the UN­ESCO site that will con­sid­er fur­ther mean­ing­ful en­gage­ment of com­mu­ni­ties and stake­hold­ers.