UNDP help for Northern Range assessment

The United Nations Development Programme and the Cropper Foundation on Friday signed an agreement for a $260,000 grant in support of an ecological assessment of the Northern Range. The project, “Community Component of an Assessment of the Northern Range of Trinidad,” was signed under the UNDP’s Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme. According to Dr John Agard of UWI’s Faculty of Science and Agriculture, the assessment of the mountain area is one of the 25 sub-global assessments approved by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board, launched by UN secretary general Kofi Annan in 2001.

The project will be undertaken by the Cropper Foundation in partnership with the University of the West Indies St Augustine Campus, the Environmental Management Authority (EMA), the Tropical Re-Leaf Foundation and the Trust for Sustainable Livelihoods. The Cropper Foundation is a non-profit organisation that engages in activities which contribute to the development of TT and the Caribbean. Its programme areas include public policy, environmental and natural resource education and support for youth education and leadership. Dr Agard noted that three communities in the Northern Range were consulted for the start of the project — Bon Air North in the Lopinot Valley, Petit Curucaye and Grand Riviere. He added, “The foundation will initially partner with these residents to assess the condition of, and the trends in the use of the resources of the watershed upon which the communities are dependent.

“They will then analyse how the well-being of the communities is affected by changes in the conditions of the watershed, get the communities’ responses to ensure that their demands for goods and services of the watershed are sustainably met, and to facilitate them in choosing and implementing responses that will secure their livelihoods and sustain the ecosystem. The project will be implemented over a two-and-a-half year period.” Delivering the feature address at the signing was Minister of Public Utilities and the Environment, Pennelope Beckles. She said that due to the steady degradation of the Northern Range, the Ministry had initiated programmes to protect the area from further damage.

Such programmes include the  Fire Prevention Programme of the Forestry Division and the National Reforestation and Watershed Protection Programme. “It is necessary, however, that citizens recognise the environmental, social and economic importance of the Northern Range and to work in partnership with the Government to ensure its continued integrity,” Beckles said. She revealed that since the inception of the GEF small-grants programme, a total of US$509,000 had been committed to 41 projects in TT.