The En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) has in­stalled four new sea tur­tle nest­ing signs along Man­zanil­la Beach, as part of on­go­ing ef­forts to en­hance pub­lic aware­ness and pro­mote the pro­tec­tion of crit­i­cal nest­ing habi­tats.

Ac­cord­ing to the EMA, Man­zanil­la Beach is a vi­tal nest­ing ground for the leatherback tur­tle—one of five species of sea tur­tles that nest in T&T dur­ing the an­nu­al nest­ing sea­son, which runs from March to Au­gust.

All five species are des­ig­nat­ed as En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly Sen­si­tive Species (ESS) by the EMA. The beach al­so falls with­in the Nar­i­va Swamp Man­aged Re­source Pro­tect­ed Area, a na­tion­al­ly des­ig­nat­ed En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly Sen­si­tive Area (ESA).

The EMA added that the in­stal­la­tion of the signs was pos­si­ble through com­mu­ni­ty part­ner­ships with the Man­zanil­la Wildlife Watch and En­vi­ron­men­tal Group, the Nar­i­va En­vi­ron­men­tal Trust, San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (SGRC), which aid in the pro­tec­tion of the coun­try’s most at-risk species and habi­tats.

The EMA con­tin­ues to re­mind the pub­lic that the preser­va­tion of sen­si­tive habi­tats is crit­i­cal dur­ing the tur­tle nest­ing sea­son. In­di­vid­u­als who en­gage in unau­tho­rised ac­tiv­i­ties that dam­age the en­vi­ron­ment—es­pe­cial­ly those in­volv­ing ES­Ss or oc­cur­ring with­in ESAs—face en­force­ment un­der Sec­tion 70(2) of the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Act, Chap­ter 35:05 (the Act).

The Act states: “Any per­son who know­ing­ly or reck­less­ly un­der­takes or con­spires to al­low any ac­tiv­i­ty in an en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly sen­si­tive area or with re­spect to an en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly sen­si­tive species des­ig­nat­ed un­der Sec­tion 41, which may have an ad­verse im­pact on the en­vi­ron­ment with­in such area or on such species, com­mits an of­fence.”

Vi­o­la­tions un­der this sec­tion may in­cur a fine of $100,000 and a term of im­pris­on­ment of up to two years.