Scarlet Shame

On Monday three men, one of them a US citizen, were allegedly held in the sanctuary with ibis parts by game wardens. They appeared before a Chaguanas magistrate on Tuesday and the matter has been adjourned to September 5.

One of the game wardens who held the men was Richard Ramlogan, Game Warden II, and he spoke with Sunday Newsday last Thursday during a patrol of the sanctuary.

The size of the sanctuary is 5,611 hectares and Ramlogan explained that only part of the area is prohibited.

In that prohibited area no one is allowed without a permit or they will be subject to a fine of $20,000. Those who are granted a permit are usually people conducting tours and those coming from Madame Espagnol River through to Blue River.

There are 186 species of birds in the swamp including herons, egrets, wading birds, cardinal, kingfishers, jacanas and, of course, scarlet ibis. There are ibis in other parts of the country but the sanctuary has the highest concentration.

The birds are attracted to all the fish and crustaceans left on the mud flaps when the tide goes down.

Within three minutes of the tour a scarlet ibis could be seen flying overhead. The wardens estimated the ibis population at the sanctuary at 15,000 though they are migratory.

Ramlogan said poaching had been a problem for a very long time. The poachers shoot the birds or use red cloth as decoys to lure them in and capture them in transparent nets. On how the ibis was being sold, Ramlogan said the going rate was three for $100 though it had been higher.

“Poachers try to elude us all the time.” He said that before holding the men on Monday, the last case was in 2013 when a man was found with 18 carcasses and was sentenced to 18 months jail. Sunday Newsday could find no other reports online of people being held for ibis poaching though we were informed of a case in around 2003 involving the chairman of a statutory authority who got off on a technicality.

In both the recent case and the case in 2013, Ramlogan was involved.

He has been a game warden for 17 years and had been working at the sanctuary for a decade but was transferred and only returned in July. He said now that he was back at Caroni he was pushing harder to have patrols, especially with increased poaching.

“It’s getting hard. Men coming and really poaching,” he said.

Ramlogan said it was difficult finding the carcasses of the ibis.

“You feel sick. Get a sick feeling when you see these things.” He said, however, wardens felt good when they hold people after months of looking and searching.

“Finally capture and get some justice. Let the nation see what really going on with these people.” Ramlogan said there were four wardens assigned to the sanctuary and honorary game wardens who assist occasionally. He said, however, the sanctuary should have eight more wardens for a total of 12. He also called for a second boat to patrol, radios to keep in contact and for support staff when they bring in perpetrators.

The other wardens said they had issues with getting equipment including bulletproof vests, accessing uniforms and having timely training for new game wardens.

“We begging for years (for more game wardens),” one game warden said. He said it was a constant game of cat and mouse with poachers and while they outgunnned and outnumbered the wardens “we still hold them.” At about 2.20 pm, the patrol encountered two men on a rusty boat.

Ramlogan asked them where they were coming from and why they were on the prohibited side. One of the men responded that they had engine troubles. The wardens then checked the bags and let the men go. Ramlogan said the men were likely looking for oysters; the swamp is popular place for catching oysters, which can be seen bejewelling the mangrove roots, and crabs.

Asked what message he would have for people buying scarlet ibis meat Ramlogan said, “The only time people stop buying is when they ban curry. We have an attitude when we have an appetite for everything.” He said there was a time when people would not catch caimans to eat but that was becoming a trend.

Another warden said their message is zero tolerance and “no begging” which they have experienced.

Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat, speaking during an interview yesterday, responded to some of the concerns by the game wardens.

On expanding the prohibited area, he said they had to look at the issue very carefully.

He said the main reason was the Felicity community used part of the swamp for their livelihood–as there was a lot of crab catching, harvesting of oysters and shellfish–and for their own recreation.

“I haven’t received any recommendation in terms of expanding the protected area. If we do receive, we will look at it.” He said an exercise with the European Union and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations on managing the sanctuary was two years into a four-year project.

He said they would look at the issue of the size of the prohibited area in terms of the long-term preservation.

He said based on the last arrest, he visited the site that night and attended the court case the following day.

“Because I wanted to get a good feel of how we’re doing in terms of dealing with the patrols, dealing with the arrests and also dealing with the court prosecution side of this.” He said he interacted with some of their officers and knew the areas that needed strengthening.

The fine for poaching the ibis is a maximum of $1,000 or three months imprisonment.

Rambharat said he recognised that they had to increase the fines and this was a matter for the Parliament. He added that when Government laid legislation to amend the Conservation of Wild Life Act, there would be a recommendation to increase fines possibly to the level of what existed for turtles.

In 2011 the Fisheries Act was amended to give full protection to all sea turtle species and then in 2014 they were designated as environmentally sensitive species under the Environmentally Sensitive Species Rules, 2001. This prohibits injury or sale of the species and the destruction of its habitat and the penalty for causing damage to an Environmentally Sensitive Species is $100,000 and imprisonment for two years.

Rambharat said increased fines for poaching of the ibis “will see a greater level of protection and maybe people would think twice about going into that.” He expressed hope that in these cases the Judiciary could “send a signal in terms of, not just the symbolic importance of the scarlet ibis but the importance of all our protected animals in the country. All our protected areas.” He said, on social media, people had commented that the hunting was because people were “hungry” but he recalled a case where the poachers were found with bottles of scotch, rum and cases of beer.

“And that does not represent hunger to me.

It’s obvious that people get some sort of excitement about going into the area like that and we want to curb their excitement through the appropriate prosecution methods.” On game warden manpower, he said the positions were filled by the Public Service Commission and game wardens in general were undermanned by 50 per cent. He said he asked Public Administration Minister Maxie Cuffie to look into the possibility of having the responsibility to hire public servants delegated to the ministry. He noted there were specialist positions like game wardens and forest officers and animal health positions.

He said there was a lot of interest and there were graduates of the Eastern Caribbean Institute of Agriculture and Forestry who would love to work in the ministry but they had not hired one for more than five years or even longer.

“And I would like to see the system freed up to allow us to either support the Public Service Commission more in recruiting or do the recruiting ourselves.” On the wardens’ concerns about equipment, Rambharat reported he told game wardens and the Forestry Division that “it is difficult to support a request for resources if I’m not seeing work done with the current resources. So if you have one boat I want to see that boat fully utilised. I want to see action being done and then I can make a case to my colleagues for the allocation for more resources.” He reported the Emperor Valley Zoo came forward two weeks ago and said they were prepared to provide a boat and honorary game wardens.

He said when officers went into the field they had to deal with people with arms, ammunition and illegal drugs “and people who are prepared to defend their illegal activities by force and our officers have to be equipped and ready to respond.” He also said bulletproof vests would On a tour: Visitors enjoy a tour of the Caroni Bird Sanctuary.

be made available to the wardens.

“I am on record as saying that I do not want anybody enforcing the law out there without bulletproof vests or without appropriate equipment and training.

That work has become very dangerous.” He said, in terms of wild life enforcement laws, they had been doing a lot more than what happened previously and in the last hunting season, October 2016 to March 2017, they doubled the number of offences they dealt with.

“I think we are in the right direction. And there will be no let up.” Glenn Wilkes, member of the Field Naturalists Club, said the eating of the ibis was part of a major problem with society.

“Everything is dominated by money. Once you have something to a make dollar from...people doing it.” He said the issue was a broad spectrum from the well-to-do person down to “the fella scrunting and wanting to make couple dollars doing it.” Wilkes said wild meat was now quite popular and very expensive.

He said he lived in St Lucia for a number of years and the fines associated with poaching protected species were so high that it would make people think twice. Wilkes said the current penalties in TT were so low they were no deterrent at all.

“If you make $500 selling a piece of wild meat and they catch you and charge you $200 they will laugh at you.” Wilkes also said there was a need for education as the average child did not relate to the scarlet ibis other than it being on a stamp or a dollar.

“Once they understand their heritage, they as children can put pressure on adults (not to hunt the ibis).” Wilkes said there was a big market for ibis and people wanted to have it for a “cook up.” “If the market vanishes people won’t do it.”