Green Days by the EPPD: Public Consultations on the Draft National Wildlife Policy

Thursday, 4 April 2013

Public Consultations on the Draft National Wildlife Policy

Four public consultations on the Draft National Wildlife Policy were held across North, South and Central Trinidad and in Tobago during the period January and February, 2013.

Persons from all facets of society were in attendance including representatives from environmental NGOs, government ministries and agencies, community groups, tertiary education institutions as well as hunters, farmers and other interested members of the public.

At the start of each consultation, opening remarks were given by the chair. In Trinidad, each consultation was chaired by Mr. Romano Mc Farlane, Environmental Biologist/Head of Wildlife Section, Forestry Division. While, in Tobago, the session was chaired by Ms. Angela Ramsey, Wildlife Biologist of the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Tobago House of Assembly (THA).

Opening remarks were then followed by a brief overview of the main components of the Draft Wildlife Policy. This was presented by either Dr. Flyod Homer, Biodiversity Specialist or Dr. David Persaud, Environmental Manager both from the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources.

Rich feedback emerged from the participants at each consultation. These discussions centered on the four main objectives of the Draft Wildlife Policy:

Protection of endangered/threatened wildlife species, both resident and migratory
Maintenance of viable populations of native wildlife species
Maximisation of the contribution of wildlife resources to livelihoods
Enhancement of the ecological integrity of wildlife habitat

During and after the consultations, the public were also invited to review and send written comments (via fax, email or post) on the Policy to the Ministry. This period was from January 2nd to March 31st, 2013. These comments and those from the public consultations were collated and then provided to the Wildlife Drafting Committee to analyse and proceed with the revision of the policy.

Once final adjustments are made, the process of laying the Wildlife Policy in Parliament will commence in order to become an official policy document. When the draft policy has been adopted, the drafting of legislation to properly implement the policy will then follow.