Improving Forests and Protected Area Management in T&T Project

In October 2014, the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources  officially signed on to a project that would be jointly funded with the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and the European Union (EU) to revise the management of Protected Areas (PAs) in line with the newly adopted National Policies on Forests, Protected Areas and Wildlife. 

The Project has a four year timeline and is earmarked for six test sites, two of which are located in Tobago.  The complete list of project sites are:

• North East Tobago Marine Protected Area 
• Main Ridge Forest Reserve 
• Nariva Swamp 
• Trinity Hills/Victoria-Mayaro 
• Caroni Swamp 
• Matura

While the project is aimed at actualising the concepts of the National Policies for Wildlife and Protected Areas (PAs), it would seek to do so through four technical components:

1. Improvements to the legal and institutional arrangements for PA management
2. Improvements to infrastructure for biodiversity conservation and forest restoration 
3. Development and testing of sustainable financing system
4. Monitoring and evaluation and information dissemination.

It is anticipated that these strategies of the Project would yield outcomes with tangible benefits such as a Protected Area system that accounts for approximately 214000ha, almost 100000ha of which would be designated as new Protected Areas. 

Additionally, the project would pilot methodologies for a sustainable financing system which would include a revenue generating mechanism for the sites, an organisational structure which promotes and formalises co-management of PAs with stakeholders from the private sector and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and development of personnel capacity and infrastructure for effective management of PAs.