​Cabinet has accepted a National Protected Areas Systems Plan, proposing to protect approximately 20,000 square kilometres of protected land and marine space in TT. This is part of the Government’s policy to preserve biodiversity and improve the management of protected areas. This announcement was made at a forest replanting exercise on Corpus Christi last Thursday in Chaguaramas.
A release from the Ministry of Planning and Development said the aim of the plan was to identify areas in TT that were in need of protection so that the biodiversity in forests and other wildlife can thrive.
The new plan proposes the establishment of 136 protected areas. Those include 92 terrestrial and freshwater areas, 79 of which are in Trinidad and 13 in Tobago; 40 coastal and marine areas, 18 in Trinidad and 22 in Tobago; and four deep-sea marine areas. In total, approximately 1,933 sq km – 1,866 sq km in Trinidad and 67 sq km in Tobago – of the country’s land mass is proposed to be land and freshwater protected areas. The proposed coastal and marine protected areas approximate to 580 sq km – 14 sq km in Trinidad and 566 sq km in Tobago. The proposed open-ocean waters and deep-sea marine areas cover 15,600 sq km.
Some of the areas are part of a pilot plan because of their globally important biodiversity and ecosystems which include the Caroni Swamp, the Nariva Swamp and coastal zone, the Matura Forest and coastal zone, the Trinity Hills, the Main Ridge Forest Reserve and the North East Tobago Marine Protected Area.
A number of stakeholders participated in a series of consultations with the Planning Ministry such as the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, Forestry Division; the Institute of Marine Affairs; the Environmental Management Authority (EMA); the Tobago House of Assembly; non-governmental organisations; and local universities. The National Protected Areas Systems Plan is an intervention coming out of the project titled: Improving forest and protected area management in TT, the implementation of which is being co-ordinated by the Planning Ministry and administered by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO/UN) on behalf of the Government.The project was done over the last four years – from 2015 to 2019 – at a total cost of US$30,510,074. Funding was provided by the TT Government, FAO/UN, the European Union and the Global Environment Fund. More information can be found on the Project Website: www.protectedareastt.org.tt.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Tourism Trinidad Lim­it­ed gath­ered at the Res­i­dence, One Wood­brook Place last Mon­day to ex­tend their good wish­es to the 2019 Na­tion­al Culi­nary Team. The team left Trinidad on Thurs­day to par­tic­i­pate in the Taste of the Caribbean com­pe­ti­tion card­ed for to­mor­row in Mi­a­mi.
Led by Cap­tain Je­re­my Lovell, the team com­pris­es se­nior chefs Shon­elle Greenidge and Ger­ard Cox, ju­nior chef Jo­di Ever­s­ley, pas­try chef Keenan Leza­ma and bar­tender/mixol­o­gist, Isa­iah Trum­pet—all cur­rent­ly en­rolled stu­dents at Trinidad and To­ba­go Hos­pi­tal­i­ty and Tourism In­sti­tute (TTHTI).
"This is the first all-stu­dent na­tion­al culi­nary team that Trinidad has ever sent abroad to the com­pe­ti­tion," said Bri­an Fron­tin, CEO, Trinidad Ho­tels, Restau­rants & Tourism As­so­ci­a­tion (THRTA).
Fron­tin said the de­ci­sion to send an all-stu­dent team came about when they recog­nised that over 95 per cent of all for­mer team mem­bers had grad­u­at­ed from the TTHTI over the past 20 years.
Fron­tin said he sees this as a pi­lot project that will pro­vide the stim­u­lus and jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for Trinidad to host an in­ter-school re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al culi­nary com­pe­ti­tion—a ju­nior ver­sion of the com­pe­ti­tion next year, and in­di­cat­ed that or­gan­is­ers of Taste of the Caribbean in Mi­a­mi have al­ready agreed to hold dis­cus­sions on this pro­pos­al.
Fron­tin added, "Host­ing this com­pe­ti­tion in Trinidad has the abil­i­ty to pos­i­tive­ly im­pact our tourist ar­rivals, in­crease des­ti­na­tion aware­ness and presents an amaz­ing op­por­tu­ni­ty and plat­form to pro­mote culi­nary tourism and dis­play our world-class tal­ent."
Camille Camp­bell, CEO, Tourism Trinidad, pledged her com­pa­ny's sup­port to the team and said, "This is a unique op­por­tu­ni­ty for these stu­dents to show­case their tal­ent on a world stage and demon­strate their dis­ci­pline, com­mit­ment, and culi­nary skills. Tourism Trinidad is proud to sup­port this ini­tia­tive and look for­ward to the coun­try's host­ing of the 2020 com­pe­ti­tion."
A re­lease from Tourism Trinidad stat­ed that over the past eight weeks, the team has been dili­gent­ly prac­tic­ing their craft and host­ing 'sold out' Mon­day night din­ners at the Res­i­dence, One Wood­brook Place, where they have been fine-tun­ing their skills in prepa­ra­tion for the com­pe­ti­tion.
"We have the fullest con­fi­dence in the team's abil­i­ty to make us proud and bring home the gold," added Camp­bell. Source: Guardian, June 2019 

Scores of new squat­ters at Pine Set­tle­ment, San­gre Grande, are now liv­ing on the di­rect path­way of the $400 mil­lion Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la High­way project.
Squat­ters have al­so been en­croach­ing on pri­vate lands at Whar­ton Es­tate, Saly­bia and State lands at Galera Road, lead­ing to the To­co Light House, fol­low­ing Gov­ern­ment’s move to build a state-of-the-art To­co Port, which would open up the en­tire north-east­ern re­gion with busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty and gen­er­ate jobs.
The il­le­gal oc­cu­pan­cies by fresh squat­ters have been giv­ing the chair­man of the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Ter­ry Ron­don no end of wor­ry, as he called on the Gov­ern­ment to do some­thing fast, stat­ing the is­sue of squat­ting was to­tal­ly out of con­trol.
In the Land Set­tle­ment Agency (LSA) 2016/2017 re­port in­to the in­quiry in re­la­tion to squat­ters reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion, it showed that San­gre Grande has be­come the fastest grow­ing squat­ting area in T&T.
Al­so in 2016 the LSA told a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee of Par­lia­ment, that there were 55,000 fam­i­lies squat­ting in the coun­try. This amount­ed to over 200,000 peo­ple over­all.
The agency’s re­port es­ti­mat­ed be­tween 7,000 to 10,000 squat­ting fam­i­lies in San­gre Grande alone.
But Ron­don feels that fig­ure may have in­creased with­in re­cent times by an ad­di­tion­al 500 fam­i­lies, stat­ing that there has been an in­va­sion for lands.
“It’s mad­ness up here,” Ron­don said, re­fer­ring to the land en­croach­ment in cer­tain parts of the north­east­ern re­gion.
The LSA is au­tho­rised un­der the State Land Reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion of Tenure Act, No 25 of 1998, to pre­vent and con­tain fur­ther squat­ting on State land and to reg­u­larise el­i­gi­ble ex­ist­ing squat­ters.
A per­son who is el­i­gi­ble for reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion must have oc­cu­pied a dwelling house on the prop­er­ty pri­or to Jan­u­ary 1, 1998.
Some of the ar­eas Ron­don iden­ti­fied as squat­ting dis­tricts are the Va­len­cia Stretch, Aripo Sa­van­na, Bois Bande, KP Lands, Tu­rure and Ve­ga De Oropouche.
Though Pine Set­tle­ment has been re­gard­ed as a squat­ting com­mu­ni­ty over the years, Ron­don said with­in re­cent times new squat­ters have been mov­ing in­to the area af­ter pur­chas­ing one lot of State land be­tween $10,000 to $20,000 from un­scrupu­lous in­di­vid­u­als.
“Not too long ago a la­dy came to me and say she bought land right up there. They are grab­bing land,” Ron­don said.
Two weeks, Ron­don said he vis­it­ed the area in­form­ing the squat­ters that they had built their homes in the di­rect path of the high­way. “I car­ried a map out­lin­ing the high­way’s route and showed them where their homes are block­ing the path­way. If the Gov­ern­ment wants the high­way they will break down their il­le­gal struc­tures. At the end of the day, it’s their labour, mon­ey and time will go down the drain. That is why I took in front and asked them to de­sist from build­ing.”
Ron­don said some of the squat­ters re­spond­ed rude­ly, while oth­ers grum­bled up­on hear­ing the news. “I did what I had to do,” he said.
Asked how many hous­es have been built since Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley turned the sod for the 2017 high­way project, Ron­don said quite a lot.
“Some are up. If you go there now they build­ing....and by this evening you would see them move in and cur­tain fly­ing and ra­dio play­ing in their home.”
Along the scenic Saly­bia beach­front, Ron­don said he al­so no­ticed that sev­er­al trees had been re­cent­ly bull­dozed and burnt to make way for new con­crete and wood­en struc­tures on pri­vate land known as Whar­ton Es­tate.
In ad­di­tion to the homes, over 15 busi­ness­es op­er­ate me­tres from the seashore.
Ron­don ad­mit­ted that many years ago he wrote let­ters to T&TEC to help some of the busi­ness own­ers get elec­tric­i­ty con­nec­tion so they could earn an hon­est liv­ing.
Af­ter get­ting elec­tric­i­ty, Ron­don said the own­ers start­ed sub­let­ting to the squat­ters.
“We (cor­po­ra­tion) tried all how to get the land pur­chased from the Whar­ton Es­tate,” Ron­don said. But, he said, no deal was ever bro­kered.
“All that time...it has been a wild, wild, west sit­u­a­tion. Peo­ple are just do­ing what they want. They do­ing every­thing against the law.”
Ron­don said the own­er of the es­tate has since served no­tice to the squat­ters to va­cate his land.
“These squat­ters have been call­ing me to help. But I can­not. The own­er has to get a de­mo­li­tion or­der to get them out. And he has start­ed with his or­der.”
For years, Ron­don said the cor­po­ra­tion has been clean­ing the beach to avoid a health haz­ard.
“Our pub­lic health in­spec­tors have been look­ing at the health as­pect of the beach.”
The news of the es­tab­lish­ment of the To­co Port, Ron­don said has al­so led to a pro­lif­er­a­tion of squat­ters cap­i­tal­is­ing on State and pri­vate lands.
“Peo­ple are rush­ing for land that do not be­long to them hop­ing to ben­e­fit when the port comes on stream. This has to stop.”
On the north­ern and south­ern sides of Galera Road, Guardian Me­dia ob­served that sev­er­al trees had been slashed and burnt as squat­ters make way for new homes. Piles of lum­ber and gal­vanise sheet­ings were al­so ev­i­dent on the State land.
Ron­don said some squat­ters have been mas­querad­ing as farm­ers by cul­ti­vat­ing short-term crops, hop­ing the State would not ze­ro in on them.
“Every day some­body bring­ing in heaps of wood, blocks, grav­el and gal­vanise to build.”
Ron­don said the on­go­ing prob­lem needs to be tack­led in a holis­tic way.
“There is a lot of bu­reau­cra­cy in re­mov­ing a squat­ter. The peo­ple to stop these squat­ters are not around,” Ron­don com­plained.
Be­hind the Brook­lyn Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre in San­gre Grande, Venezue­lan mi­grants have al­ready cut down sev­er­al co­conut and wal­nut trees on for­est re­serve lands to build homes.
Care­tak­er of the cen­tre Clin­ton Moses said a vil­lager in the com­mu­ni­ty gave the mi­grants per­mis­sion to utilise the land which be­longs to the cen­tre.
“I had to stop and chase them be­cause what they were do­ing was wrong. The land be­longs to the Gov­ern­ment,” Moses said.
Moses said this was the fourth batch of Venezue­lans who tried to live there.
Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture Clarence Ramb­harat, un­der whose purview State lands fall in a What­sApp mes­sage ad­vised Guardian Me­dia to take up the Pine Set­tle­ment squat­ters mat­ter with the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port Ro­han Sinanan, as well as the LSA.
Sinanan, how­ev­er, re­ferred the is­sue to LSA whose CEO Haz­ar Ho­sein could not be reached for com­ment yes­ter­day. Source: Guardian, June 24, 2019

They're small, they're fuzzy, and they're the 'bee's knees' for honey and food production.
But did you know the typical yellow-and-black honey bee isn't originally from Trinidad and Tobago?
Here are eight things to know about bees in Trinidad and Tobago in commemoration of World Bee Day, celebrated on May 20, courtesy pollination ecologist Lena Dempewolf.


1. Some honey bees are 'douglarised' bees
Honey bees used in most commercial hives aren't local but are called 'Africanised' bees. That's because they are a hybrid of European and African honey bees, both of which were imported.
Some beekeepers have jokingly referred to this hybrid as a 'douglarised' bee, in reference to Trinidad and Tobago's diverse ethnic culture. 


2. Some native bees don't have hives, or a queen
Many native bees don't have hives but are solitary bees working alone to pollinate local plants. Solitary bees don't have hives and don't produce honey.
They often make nests in the ground in order to reproduce and are critical for pollination as they are better adapted for pollination of local plants.


3. Not all bees can sting you
There are nine species of ‘stingless’ bees that do have hives and a queen and produce honey.
Stingless bees are used to produce honey for commercial and medicinal purposes and are more effective than imported bees at pollinating local plants. 


4. Trinidad and Tobago's secret to award-winning honey? Diversification
Trinidad and Tobago once won global awards for its honey. However In 2001, the EU enforced the submission of a residue monitoring plan from all third countries (non-EU countries) wishing to export honey into the European Union.
Because of the lack of local testing facilities and costs associated with attaining certification abroad, beekeepers in Trinidad and Tobago have been unable to participate in the NHS and export their honey since 2001.
The wide range of flowering plants is what contributes to the unique taste of Trinidad and Tobago's honey. Destroying local forests would have an effect on the taste of local honey if bees are unable to access the diverse range of plants they did previously. 


5. Pesticides have been found in honey
Studies in Europe have shown that low levels of pesticides have been found in honey, however in Trinidad and Tobago, no studies have been done to confirm this in local honey.
However, pesticides are a continuous problem for imported and native bees, which are vulnerable to these toxins and can even be killed by them. 
Dempewolf says if bees happen to forage on flowers covered in pesticides, it might make its way into honey, however, it's at low enough levels that it's been proven (so far) to be safe for human consumption.
Many beekeepers are careful to keep their hives away from agricultural fields, however, Africanised honey bees may range quite far in order to find nectar and may go into farmlands where pesticides are used. 


6. No bees = no crops
Although honey is important, the most important bees aren’t honey bees but native bees.
Native bees are also more specialised for pollinating local plants.
“It’s like a lock and key, the shape of the bee matches the shape of the flower, so they can properly get in there to deposit the pollen,” Dempewolf said.
By contrast, although prized for honey production, Africanised bees are not as effective in pollinating local crops. Therefore the food we enjoy in local markets depends on the survival of our native bees. 


7. Climate change is affecting local bees
Climate change is affecting food production worldwide, however in Trinidad and Tobago, extreme weather changes can also affect bees' survival.
During extreme dry seasons such as that experienced in 2019, there's the likelihood of more forest fires. 
Africanised bees are more adaptable in that they often move their queen and relocate to a safer spot. Hence the reason one may often see a migrating beehive perched on a branch or other random location.
However native bees are unable to move their hives due to the large size of their queen, and often perish in forest fires. 
Dempewolf says solitary bees are slightly more mobile but they lay their eggs in bits of logs and other plants in the forest, which can also be destroyed by forest fires.
Likewise, during the rainy season, heavier showers can also affect bees and by extension food production.
"Bees generally don’t go out during wet weather…it can also wash the nectar out of flowers, so heavy flooding means less pollination," she said. 
There's also the problem of loss of habitat due to things such as logging, forest fires, housing developments and unsustainable agriculture, where farmers cut down all vegetation, leaving only one crop. 


8. Bee competition
Dempewolf said there is the element of imported bees crowding out native bees amidst competition for space and nectar - imported bees tend to ‘bully’ local bees out of spaces for hives, however, this comes down to proper management.
Imported bees, however, have been a part of the local ecosystem for quite some time and have learned to coexist with native species, however there remains competition for plants and flowers.
Source: The Loop, May 2019

Justin Sow­ley was de­ter­mined to make the most of the op­por­tu­ni­ties avail­able to him as he cared for his broth­er who was un­der­go­ing phys­io­ther­a­py in Cana­da fol­low­ing a car ac­ci­dent in Trinidad in 2005. The re­sult has been pro­fes­sion­al suc­cess for him since join­ing the Roy­al Cana­di­an Navy (RCN).
His achieve­ments were high­light­ed in May when Lt Lin­da Cole­man post­ed a short bio of Sow­ley’s pro­fes­sion­al achieve­ments to the RCN’s web­site in which she de­scribed his com­mit­ment and ded­i­ca­tion to the job.
Sow­ley and his broth­er were grant­ed Cana­di­an cit­i­zen­ship through their fa­ther but grew up in T&T. He ad­mit­ted that he nev­er had any in­ten­tions of per­ma­nent­ly re­lo­cat­ing there. How­ev­er, his broth­er’s cir­cum­stances led to that de­ci­sion which changed the course of his life.
While help­ing to care for his broth­er in Cana­da, Sow­ley de­cid­ed to start look­ing for a job af­ter set­tling in Burling­ton, On­tario, dur­ing his broth­er’s phys­io­ther­a­py treat­ments.
“Liv­ing in Cana­da full time was a bit of an ad­just­ment. My first im­pres­sion was that it was ex­treme­ly cold. But, my thoughts were that this was a de­vel­oped coun­try with ex­cel­lent in­fra­struc­ture and a lot of op­por­tu­ni­ty for peo­ple will­ing to work,” he said.
He de­cid­ed on his ca­reer path af­ter see­ing a tele­vi­sion com­mer­cial, Fight with Forces. That in­spired him to take the first step of en­rolling as a naval war­fare of­fi­cer. By 2010, Sow­ley was off to ba­sic train­ing.
Since then, he’s been sail­ing with the RCN’s west coast fleet which has in­clud­ed de­ploy­ments on Op Caribbe in 2014, fol­lowed most re­cent­ly by Op Artemis where he was a bat­tle watch cap­tain for Com­bined Task Force (CTF) 150.
Sow­ley said what he loves most about the job is “see­ing dif­fer­ent places and do­ing some of the re­al­ly ex­cit­ing things we get to do.”
His most chal­leng­ing and re­ward­ing ex­pe­ri­ence so far was as the nav­i­gat­ing of­fi­cer of the HM­CS Regi­na.
His pro­fes­sion­al jour­ney has not been with­out chal­lenges. Sow­ley was un­suc­cess­ful in his first at­tempt at the fleet nav­i­gat­ing of­fi­cer course but was en­cour­aged to try again.
“I did so, know­ing full well the amount of work and ef­fort that would be re­quired,” he said.
He jokes that the suc­cess of his mar­riage to wife Sha­nia is that they have not spent more than six months to­geth­er. She is a lo­gis­tics of­fi­cer in the RCN, “so she un­der­stands the na­ture of the job,” he said.
Up­on con­clu­sion of the CTF 150 on April 11, 2019—a de­ploy­ment which was in the Mid­dle East—Sow­ley is now back at Naval Fleet School Pa­cif­ic Ven­ture Di­vi­sion where he serves as a course train­ing of­fi­cer, men­tor­ing and de­vel­op­ing ju­nior naval war­fare of­fi­cers in their ini­tial trade train­ing be­fore they are post­ed to sea-go­ing units.
Source:  Guardian, June 10, 2019

A significant Saharan dust event is expected during the first week of June, as a plume of dust is expected to move through the region.
This according to the Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service.
The Met Office provided a Saharan dust update on Sunday.
You can read the update below:
“As stated in our previous update, mild concentrations of Saharan dust linger in our atmosphere and is expected to do so into June. Keep in mind that mild concentrations can also have an impact on those that are more sensitive. Latest data also suggests that is significant event is possible during the first week of June, as a plume of dust is expected to move through the region within a wind surge.”

Persons with respiratory ailments are advised to take the necessary precautions.

Police Commissioner Gary Griffith is urging the public to engage in more responsible use of social media, by verifying information before sharing posts that could lead to undue panic.
His call comes as police were called out to investigate bomb threats at St. Mary’s College, St. Joseph’s Convent, Port of Spain, Fatima College, Holy Name Convent, and St. Joseph Convent, St. Joseph on Friday.
The schools were thoroughly searched and declared safe for occupation by teachers and students later in the day. 
Commissioner Griffith said at the time when persons were sharing the post, police officers were actively engaged in investigating these threats. He said the "undue panic" resulted from one individual’s decision to share the post on social media.
The Top Cop said there are those who may use these incidents as a way of self-promotion or to achieve a sense of self-importance by sharing information on social media, but, all this served to achieve was increased anxiety and panic among students, parents and staff at these schools, as many students were sitting their CSEC and examinations.
The Commissioner said no bomb threat should be trivialised.
He strongly advised citizens that on receiving such a threat, that they should immediately make a report to the police so that relevant protocols for investigating the authenticity of such threats can be activated.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Anthony Garcia has strongly condemned the act to send a bomb threat email to several of the nation’s schools, labelling it as the work of a mischievous person or persons. 
The Minister said the email is a clear attempt to thwart the CSEC and CAPE examination process currently underway in secondary schools. 
Garcia indicated that his Ministry is working closely with the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service will continue investigations and treat with the threat as a matter of urgency.
The examinations at all schools continued uninterrupted after the schools were cleared by police and other officials. Source: The Loop, May 27, 2019