On 7 June 2022, the North-East To­ba­go re­gion will of­fi­cial­ly take its place as part of UN­ESCO’s World Net­work of Bios­phere Re­serves, in an of­fi­cial in­au­gu­ra­tion cer­e­mo­ny in the To­ba­go Main Ridge For­est Re­serve.

The des­ig­na­tion was an­nounced by UN­ESCO's Man and the Bios­phere (MAB) Pro­gramme at the UN­ESCO head­quar­ters in Paris on Oc­to­ber 28, 2020. This added the North-East To­ba­go re­gion to the list of the World Net­work of Bios­phere Re­serves, among which now in­cludes 727 bios­phere re­serves, which are home to 275 mil­lion in­hab­i­tants in 131 coun­tries around the globe.

“UN­ESCO, to­geth­er with the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go and the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, will of­fi­cial­ly in­au­gu­rate the UN­ESCO-des­ig­nat­ed North-East To­ba­go Bios­phere Re­serve on June 7, 2022. This ac­tiv­i­ty will com­mem­o­rate both the World En­vi­ron­ment Day cel­e­bra­tion and the 50th an­niver­sary of UN­ESCO's Man and Bios­phere (MAB) pro­gramme,” ex­plains an of­fi­cial re­lease from UN­ESCO.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from UN­ESCO, gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials, tourism au­thor­i­ties, en­vi­ron­men­tal or­ga­ni­za­tions, and mem­bers of the lo­cal com­mu­ni­ties are ex­pect­ed to at­tend the in­au­gu­ra­tion cer­e­mo­ny.

The UN­ESCO re­lease says on the morn­ing of June 7, a hu­man-sized stat­ue of peo­ple hold­ing up the Bios­phere Re­serve—sculpt­ed by lo­cal artist Tom­ley Roberts, Pres­i­dent of the To­ba­go Arts As­so­ci­a­tion—will be un­veiled to sym­bol­ize the im­por­tance of the Bios­phere Re­serve as a link to cre­at­ing har­mo­ny and co-ex­is­tence be­tween lo­cal com­mu­ni­ties and na­ture.

In ad­di­tion, Trinidad and To­ba­go’s stake­hold­ers will al­so present a lo­cal data­base that pro­vides ac­cess to UN­ESCO au­dio-vi­su­al ma­te­r­i­al on the North-East To­ba­go Bios­phere Re­serve from the ter­res­tri­al, aer­i­al and ma­rine per­spec­tives, host­ed by the En­vi­ron­men­tal Re­search In­sti­tute Char­lot­teville (ER­IC).

A rare and unique part of the world

The North-East To­ba­go Bios­phere Re­serve is a rare, large­ly in­tact Caribbean Is­land ecosys­tem that in­cludes one of the old­est legal­ly pro­tect­ed trop­i­cal rain­for­est re­serves in the world, the To­ba­go Main Ridge For­est Re­serve, es­tab­lished in 1776.

This for­est re­serve is the largest of the three so-called “core ar­eas” (most pro­tect­ed ar­eas) of the Bios­phere Re­serve, which al­so in­clude the islet of Lit­tle To­ba­go and the St Giles Islets Com­plex. The to­tal area of the North-East To­ba­go Bios­phere Re­serve cov­ers 83,488 hectares, with a ter­res­tri­al area and a large ma­rine area of 68,384 hectares that hosts coral reefs and man­groves, and un­der­wa­ter species such as man­ta rays.

Over­all, 1,774 species have been record­ed in the 19 habi­tat types of the Bios­phere Re­serve, which is home to glob­al­ly unique and en­dan­gered plants and an­i­mals, in­clud­ing 83 en­dan­gered species and 41 en­dem­ic species. The area com­pris­es 15 com­mu­ni­ties with rich his­tor­i­cal and cul­tur­al her­itage in North-East To­ba­go, home to ap­prox­i­mate­ly 10,000 res­i­dents.

By join­ing the World Net­work of Bios­phere Re­serves, the com­mu­ni­ty aims to re­vi­tal­ize cul­tur­al and spir­i­tu­al bonds be­tween peo­ple and na­ture and boost the preser­va­tion of this frag­ile and re­mark­able hu­man and nat­ur­al land­scape.

Ac­cord­ing to UN­ESCO, Bios­phere Re­serves pro­mote the com­bi­na­tion of bio­di­ver­si­ty con­ser­va­tion, en­vi­ron­men­tal ed­u­ca­tion, re­search, and the preser­va­tion and pro­mo­tion of cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty and her­itage, while sup­port­ing knowl­edge gen­er­a­tion and con­tribut­ing to lo­cal and re­gion­al sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion aims to es­tab­lish at least one bios­phere re­serve per coun­try in the Caribbean Small Is­land De­vel­op­ing States by 2030, dou­bling the to­tal area of Bios­phere Re­serves world­wide.

“UN­ESCO’s des­ig­na­tion of Bios­phere Re­serve serves as a tool for pro­tect­ing the unique Caribbean is­land ridge-to-ocean ecosys­tem in North-East To­ba­go, en­com­pass­ing one of the old­est and last rem­nants of a dry trop­i­cal for­est, as well as some im­por­tant coastal and ma­rine ar­eas.,” the or­gan­i­sa­tion says.

“The North-East To­ba­go Bios­phere Re­serve will open a range of op­por­tu­ni­ties for eco­nom­ic re­cov­ery af­ter the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, es­pe­cial­ly for tourism, and for at­tract­ing in­ter­na­tion­al vis­i­bil­i­ty and sup­port,” UN­ESCO adds.

Some of the ex­pect­ed ben­e­fits to Trinidad and To­ba­go in­clude the gen­er­a­tion of sus­tain­able “green” (ter­res­tri­al-based) and “blue” (ocean-based) eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ties be­yond tourism, in­clud­ing fish­eries, agri­cul­ture, cul­tur­al her­itage pro­mo­tion, sci­en­tif­ic re­search, as well as pro­fes­sion­al and ed­u­ca­tion­al de­vel­op­ment, among oth­ers.

UN­ESCO is com­mit­ted to strength­en­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion with lo­cal, na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners and stake­hold­ers to man­age and pro­tect the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­itage of the North-East To­ba­go Bios­phere Re­serve. UN­ESCO