Bio-diversity

This project supports the Green Wave 2010 initiative of the Convention of Biological Diversity and 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. The project will focus on the reforestation of the denuded hills and riverbanks of the Courland Watershed Area in Tobago. The hills and riverbanks were originally cleared in the late 1800s to cultivate sugar and then tobacco. After these crops were abandoned in the early 1900s, the watershed remained as grasslands. During the dry season, these grassy hills are lit and extensive bush fires are the consequence. In the rainy season, heavy rains: - remove the topsoil from the hills - the topsoil flows into the river and silts the main Courland river and reservoir - the silt is also deposited into the surrounding and lower lying wetlands, seabeds and coral reefs The impacts of these factors is influenced by: - water shortages in the rainy season as the reservoir has to de-silt the incoming water flows (this reservoir supplies water to the North-West and West Tobago including approximately 24,500 households as well as hotels, guesthouses and villas). - Brown and discoloured beaches and seas are evident during the tourism peak season - Negative impacts on coral reefs and stress on wetland ecosystems - Fires on denuded hills spread to forested and cultivated acreages negatively impacting farming livelihoods and natural flora and fauna. This project will cooperate with local schools, volunteers and the Forestry Division to plant trees on 10 acres of the denuded hillsides within the Courland Watershed Area.

Trinidad and tobago