The En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) is urg­ing the pub­lic to re­port any in­stances they see of en­croach­ment on­to des­ig­nat­ed En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly Sen­si­tive Ar­eas (ESAs) around the coun­try. It al­so is call­ing on per­pe­tra­tors to stop their il­le­gal ac­tion.

“We are al­so urg­ing you to re­port any in­stances of en­croach­ment and pro­vide video­graph­ic and pho­to­graph­ic ev­i­dence, if pos­si­ble,” the EMA said in a state­ment to­day.

It said it has tak­en note of, is in­ves­ti­gat­ing, and will act up­on the re­ports of en­croach­ment in En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly Sen­si­tive Ar­eas (ESAs) that it has been re­ceiv­ing.

“Specif­i­cal­ly, there has been an alarm­ing num­ber of re­ports of en­croach­ment oc­cur­ring in the Aripo Sa­van­nas Strict Na­ture Re­serve,” the Au­thor­i­ty re­vealed, as it con­demned the il­le­gal ac­tion.

“The EMA is strong­ly urg­ing mem­bers of the pub­lic to de­sist from these acts, as it is caus­ing detri­men­tal im­pacts to ex­ist­ing bio­di­ver­si­ty in the pro­tect­ed ar­eas,” the re­lease said.

The EMA ex­plains that the Aripo Sa­van­nas Strict Na­ture Re­serve is pro­tect­ed un­der law, specif­i­cal­ly the En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly Sen­si­tive Ar­eas Rules, 2001.

“The Aripo Sa­van­nas Strict Na­ture Re­serve is an area re­quir­ing pro­tec­tion for sci­ence that pos­sess­es some out­stand­ing or rep­re­sen­ta­tive ecosys­tems, ge­o­log­i­cal or phys­i­o­log­i­cal fea­tures and/or species, avail­able pri­mar­i­ly for sci­en­tif­ic re­search and/or en­vi­ron­men­tal mon­i­tor­ing.”

The EMA urges: “As such, it is crit­i­cal that we pre­serve the area, which hous­es over 450 plant species through­out the Open Sa­van­na, Marsh For­est and Palm Marsh ar­eas. Aripo Sa­van­nas al­so pro­vides sanc­tu­ary for the five res­i­dent species of birds: Rufes­cent Tiger-heron (Tigri­so­ma lin­ea­tum), Red-bel­lied Macaw (Or­thop­sit­ta­ca mani­la­ta), Epaulet (Moriche) Ori­ole (Icterus caya­nen­sis chrysocephalus), Sul­phury fly­catch­er (Tyrannop­sis sul­phurea) and to a less­er ex­tent, Fork-tailed Palm-swift (Tachor­nis squa­ma­ta), among oth­er sig­nif­i­cant species in­clud­ing mam­mals, fish, rep­tiles, am­phib­ians, in­sects, and crus­taceans.”

“Pre­serv­ing these pro­tect­ed ar­eas is vi­tal to sus­tain­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s pre­cious bio­di­ver­si­ty, as well as mit­i­gat­ing cli­mate change by con­serv­ing car­bon-se­ques­ter­ing veg­e­ta­tion. There­fore, we must put a stop to en­croach­ment as it is slow­ly de­plet­ing the di­ver­si­ty of our pre­cious ecosys­tem,” the Au­thor­i­ty added.

It is “strong­ly en­cour­ag­ing” all cit­i­zens to stay en­gaged with state agen­cies and NGOs fo­cused on en­vi­ron­men­tal con­ser­va­tion and pro­tec­tion.

When sub­mit­ting re­ports and ev­i­dence of ESA en­croach­ment, the EMA says mem­bers of the pub­lic can:

● Con­tact the EMA’s Hot­line at 367-8824. Sub­mit con­tact in­for­ma­tion, lo­ca­tions, pho­tos or video record­ings ON­LY from mo­bile de­vices. What­sApp calls are not avail­able on this ser­vice

● Send emails at com­plaints@ema.co.tt

● Call 226-4EMA (4362) Ext #5