Environment

Trinidad and Tobago hosts one of the largest populations of nesting leatherback turtles in the world. Our fourteen-year partnership with the Turtle Village Trust has allowed us to address and reverse many of the challenges associated with the protection of sea turtle protection. Through the National Sea Turtle Tagging and Monitoring Programme, we have enabled the following activities:

• Monitoring and tagging of sea turtles (leatherback, hawksbill, and green turtles) which nest on our beaches, as well as the related data collection.
• Research into the foraging habits of resident green and hawksbill turtles

These programmes are now supported by GPS geo-tagging which offers high precision, real-time data on the activity of the tagged turtles and the Head Start Hatchery Programme which increased the survival rates of the hatchlings of the green and hawksbill species of sea turtles, whose nests  are often destroyed by nesting leatherback turtles.

The National Sea Turtle Tagging and Monitoring Programme also supports the training of members of the community in nest excavation, sea turtle tagging and associated data collection methods including species identification, use of tag readers and aiding disoriented turtles, as well as nightly beach patrols, and offshore monitoring survey techniques. Learn more about the Turtle Village Trust here.

The Atlantic Environment Education Series was developed in partnership with the Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Programme. It is a structured intervention which takes primary school children on a fun eco field trip twice a year with an intervention in both the traditional dry and rainy seasons here in Trinidad and Tobago. Through these field trips children gain hands-on knowledge of the critical need to conserve and protect our environment. The field trips also help them to understand the impact of climate change and the effects of forest fires on biodiversity.