Af­ter its clo­sure to the pub­lic al­most two years ago, the Asa Wright Na­ture Cen­tre (AWNC) plans to re­open its doors in 2022 with a new part­ner, HAD­CO Lim­it­ed.

An of­fi­cial state­ment is­sued by Pro­fes­sor Ju­dith Gob­in, Chair of the AWNC Board, notes that the Cen­tre’s suc­cess­ful­ly sep­a­rat­ed its con­ser­va­tion op­er­a­tions from the ecolodge, paving the way for a new era at Asa Wright

“In Sep­tem­ber, the Asa Wright Na­ture Cen­tre (AWNC) in­vit­ed pro­pos­als for the op­er­a­tion of the ecolodge at its in­ter­na­tion­al­ly renowned Spring Hill Es­tate. The sep­a­ra­tion of the op­er­a­tion of the ecolodge busi­ness will al­low the Cen­tre to re­fo­cus on its core mis­sion of con­ser­va­tion, ed­u­ca­tion and sci­en­tif­ic re­search,” the re­lease ex­plained.

The inside at the Asa Wright Nature Centre, Blanchisseuse Road.

“In re­sponse to the call for pro­pos­als, the Cen­tre re­ceived a num­ber of pro­pos­als from var­i­ous cor­po­rate en­ti­ties. Af­ter a rig­or­ous eval­u­a­tion and ap­proval process, the Chair on be­half of the Trustees of the Board of the AWNC and the mem­bers of the Board are pleased to an­nounce that HAD­CO Lim­it­ed emerged as the suc­cess­ful pro­pos­er,” it added.

HAD­CO Lim­it­ed start­ed in 1992 and “HAD­CO” has since be­come a house­hold name in Trinidad and To­ba­go. While the HAD­CO Group of Com­pa­nies is well known for its food and bev­er­age ser­vices, with­in the last five years the group has di­ver­si­fied its busi­ness to in­clude two re­cy­cling com­pa­nies. The HAD­CO Group is now seek­ing to di­ver­si­fy its busi­ness even fur­ther, in­to the eco­tourism mar­ket.

“The ecolodge at the Asa Wright Na­ture Cen­tre will be the flag­ship prop­er­ty of its eco­tourism busi­ness. AWNC and HAD­CO will col­lab­o­rate to trans­form the op­er­a­tions of the ecolodge at Spring Hill Es­tate to at­tain in­ter­na­tion­al green cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in sus­tain­able op­er­a­tions,” the state­ment from the Board re­vealed.

A flock of Purple Honeycreepers are seen drinking nectar the Asa Wright Nature Centre they are one of the many species of birds which can be found at the centre.

It added: “Over the next few weeks, the Cen­tre and HAD­CO will en­gage in ne­go­ti­a­tions on the terms of its con­ces­sion for the op­er­a­tion of the ecolodge. The Cen­tre and HAD­CO look for­ward to wel­com­ing our old and new friends and sup­port­ers to the Asa Wright Na­ture Cen­tre and the Ecolodge at Spring Hill Es­tate in 2022.”

In ad­di­tion, while the doors of the Cen­tre were closed, it con­tin­ued its’ con­ser­va­tion work, and the Board be­lieves this im­por­tant lega­cy will be pre­served for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions in light of the new part­ner­ship.

“The pro­posed part­ner­ship is one step on the path to cre­at­ing an im­mer­sive ex­pe­ri­ence where present and fu­ture gen­er­a­tions can learn and un­der­stand the val­ue of our nat­ur­al land­scape, flo­ra and fau­na, The Cen­tre looks for­ward to shar­ing some of its on­go­ing projects and work through its so­cial me­dia plat­forms in the near fu­ture.”