In an ef­fort to re­mind com­mu­ni­ties of the im­por­tance of forests and the ben­e­fits they re­ceive from them, March 21 is set aside in­ter­na­tion­al­ly to cel­e­brate World Forestry Day. This con­cept orig­i­nat­ed at the 23rd Gen­er­al As­sem­bly of the Eu­ro­pean Con­fed­er­a­tion of Agri­cul­ture in 1971, and since then, coun­tries around the world have set up pro­grammes and poli­cies aimed at the sus­tain­able man­age­ment of for­est re­sources to pro­vide for their so­cial, eco­nom­ic, eco­log­i­cal and cul­tur­al needs. In ob­serv­ing World Forestry Day to­day, the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) would like to en­cour­age the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go to take time to ap­pre­ci­ate the val­ue of our for­est re­sources. His­tor­i­cal­ly, forests have played im­por­tant so­cial and cul­tur­al roles in the lives of many peo­ple, es­pe­cial­ly those of in­dige­nous com­mu­ni­ties.

To­day, many are re­al­is­ing that forests of­fer much more than just tim­ber. Forests pro­vide recre­ation­al op­por­tu­ni­ties and con­tribute to our health and well­be­ing, as well as the reg­u­la­tion of lo­cal tem­per­a­tures and pro­tec­tion of drink­ing wa­ter sup­plies. Forests al­so act as car­bon sinks and have a mit­i­gat­ing ef­fect on cli­mate change. When forests grow, car­bon is re­moved from the at­mos­phere and ab­sorbed in wood, leaves and soil. They are con­sid­ered to be car­bon sinks, be­cause forests can ab­sorb and store car­bon over an ex­tend­ed pe­ri­od of time. This car­bon re­mains stored in the for­est ecosys­tem, but can be re­leased in­to the at­mos­phere when forests are burned. Trees form the foun­da­tions of many nat­ur­al sys­tems, and as such pro­vide a wide range of prod­ucts (tim­ber, fruit, med­i­cine, bev­er­ages, fod­der) and ser­vices (car­bon se­ques­tra­tion, wind breaks, wa­ter qual­i­ty and quan­ti­ty con­trol, coastal pro­tec­tion, shade, beau­ti­fi­ca­tion, ero­sion con­trol, soil fer­til­i­ty). The forests of Trinidad and To­ba­go are home to a wide va­ri­ety of fau­nal bio­di­ver­si­ty which fa­cil­i­tate pol­li­na­tion, seed dis­per­sal and ger­mi­na­tion.

This in­ter­na­tion­al­ly-recog­nised en­vi­ron­men­tal day al­so aims to pro­vide op­por­tu­ni­ties for peo­ple to learn how forests can be pro­tect­ed, man­aged and used sus­tain­ably for these many pur­pos­es. The day is set aside to pro­mote ed­u­ca­tion and aware­ness of the im­por­tance of forests and the ben­e­fits of plant­i­ng trees. Ac­cord­ing to a Greek proverb, "A so­ci­ety grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall nev­er sit in." With 2010 de­clared In­ter­na­tion­al Year of Bio­di­ver­si­ty (IYB), the EMA agrees that the need to demon­strate the rel­e­vance of for­est bio­di­ver­si­ty to every­one's lives has nev­er been greater. For­est bio­di­ver­si­ty refers to all forms of life found in forests, in­clud­ing plants, an­i­mals, fun­gi, mi­cro-or­gan­isms, their roles in na­ture, as well as vary­ing for­est types, such as man­grove, elfin and sea­son­al ever­green forests. Ex­am­ples of bio­di­verse forests in this coun­try in­clude Matu­ra Na­tion­al Park, which was de­clared an en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly sen­si­tive area in 2004, and Main Ridge For­est Re­serve in To­ba­go, which is the old­est pro­tect­ed wa­ter­shed in the west­ern hemi­sphere, de­clared in 1776.

Nonethe­less, hu­mans are de­stroy­ing for­est bio­di­ver­si­ty at an alarm­ing rate. The con­ver­sion of forests to agri­cul­tur­al land, over­graz­ing, un­sus­tain­able man­age­ment, in­tro­duc­tion of in­va­sive alien species, in­fra­struc­ture de­vel­op­ment, min­ing and oil ex­ploita­tion, man-made fires, pol­lu­tion and cli­mate change are all hav­ing neg­a­tive im­pacts on for­est bio­di­ver­si­ty. This degra­da­tion makes forests more frag­ile, and di­min­ish­es the ser­vices pro­vid­ed by forests to hu­mans. It was for these rea­sons that the EMA em­braced the op­por­tu­ni­ty to col­lab­o­rate in a project with the Min­istry of Plan­ning Hous­ing and the En­vi­ron­ment, the Forestry Di­vi­sion of the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Ma­rine Re­sources, Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies and the In­sti­tute of Ma­rine Af­fairs, among oth­ers, called the Nar­i­va Restora­tion and Car­bon Se­ques­tra­tion and Liveli­hoods Project.

This project will ul­ti­mate­ly see the re­plant­i­ng of 1,300 hectares of the Nar­i­va Swamp, in ar­eas that were for­mer­ly de­for­est­ed by large-scale rice farm­ers more than a decade ago. The re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion with na­tive species of trees to re­store the ecol­o­gy of the area is on­ly a part of this his­toric project. A first for Trinidad and To­ba­go will be the car­bon se­ques­tra­tion fo­cus of cap­tur­ing car­bon diox­ide in the trees and veg­e­ta­tion, through the nat­ur­al growth of these plants. Nar­i­va Swamp, the coun­try's largest and most bio­di­verse wet­land, has been de­clared an en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly-sen­si­tive area un­der the En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly-Sen­si­tive Area Rules, 2001. It has the most var­ied veg­e­ta­tion of all wet­lands in Trinidad and To­ba­go, with dis­tinct zones of trop­i­cal rain­for­est, palm forests, man­groves and grass sa­van­na/marsh.

Cour­tesy the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty