No real protection for Chaguaramas

THE EDITOR: We have recently read in the news that a new manager has been appointed to run the Chaguaramas Development Authority, and that he has plans to ‘develop’ this area further. Chaguaramas is advertised as a national park on signs at its entrance and was excluded from the last study on National Parks and Environmentally Sensitive Areas in the belief that it is already adequately protected by the CDA. Any national park, environmentally sensitive area, game reserve, forest reserve, or other protected area needs forestry officers, game wardens, fire fighters, EMA policing and anti-squatting squads, plus the political will to enforce existing and future laws.

All these factors are conspicuously absent and under-funded throughout TT. So why do we need more glamour projects to spread more law breakers throughout areas of natural beauty when we have no intention of keeping any form of control? The reason that Chag is still so beautiful is that access is limited and ‘development’ has not been permitted. Until some evidence of adequate law enforcement is produced (and not immediately nullified to appease some law-breaking group of perceived voters), please spare us from any more amateurish attempts at ‘development’.

The same goes for the absurd proposal to make a road from Covigne into Chaguaramas — right through the barrier of beautiful forest that separates Tucker Valley from the advancing squatters and burners from Diego Martin. Please concentrate on widening the Western Main Road and enforcing the highway code there to relieve us from the traffic anarchy that unnecessarily restricts access, stop allowing ‘party joints’ to hold their environmentally hostile functions there, and try a little regular maintenance of existing facilities. One of the clearest signs of national sophistication (Vision 2020?) is the ability to recognise that the natural environment must be preserved and place outright bans on development of designated areas and strict controls on others.

REG POTTER
Glencoe