A breath­tak­ing view, warm smiles and the hearti­ness of com­mu­ni­ty spir­it all en­com­pass a day at the Fondes Aman­des com­mu­ni­ty in St. Anns. Dur­ing the week­end of Fri­day, March 25 to Sun­day March 27, the NGO Fondes Aman­des Com­mu­ni­ty Re-foresta­tion Project (FACRP) host­ed its 15th an­nu­al Dry Sea­son Gayap. The word 'Gayap' mean­ing "a help­ing hand giv­en by friends and neigh­bours for a com­mon pur­pose". The Fondes Amendes "Gayap" not dif­fer­ing from this mean­ing, be­ing an ini­tia­tive by the NGO to al­low vol­un­teers, who were treat­ed as friends, to work along­side com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers and be in­volved in the pro­tec­tion of their for­est from bush fires. This al­lowed many an op­por­tu­ni­ty to get hands-on learn­ing about the im­por­tance of pro­tect­ing one's en­vi­ron­ment.

Through­out the week­end, ac­tiv­i­ties ranged from clear­ing trails to hikes, each event be­ing an oc­ca­sion where one would learn about prop­er prac­tices to be en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly. "Rich green­ery and a colour­ful ecosys­tem" is just one of the many com­ments vis­i­tors made up­on ar­rival to the com­mu­ni­ty. Hence it came as no sur­prise to many, that the in­ci­dence of fires in the area had been re­duced sig­nif­i­cant­ly over the past decade. One of­fi­cial tour guide not­ed that since 1997, there had been no in­stances of fires.

Tak­ing in­to con­sid­er­a­tion the suc­cess of the gayap, which had been oc­cur­ring for 15 years, the FACRP seek­ing to be sus­tain­able has been part of sev­er­al oth­er ini­tia­tives, which in­clude tree-plant­i­ng, wildlife con­ser­va­tion, eco-tourism tours, and the pro­duc­tion of jew­ellery us­ing seeds and oth­er nat­ur­al ma­te­ri­als. The com­mu­ni­ty of Fondes Amendes en­gages in this spec­trum of ac­tiv­i­ties to ful­fil their many project ob­jec­tives, one main aim be­ing "to pro­tect the bio-di­ver­si­ty of flo­ra and fau­na In the St Ann's wa­ter­shed."

Pre­vent­ing For­est Fires:

• Pro­tects the nat­ur­al en­vi­ron­ment

• Pro­tects hu­man habi­ta­tion in the area

• Helps to pre­serve the fresh­wa­ter ecosys­tems

• Sup­ports the bio­di­ver­si­ty of plant and an­i­mal life.