Nariva Swamp
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The Nariva Swamp is the largest freshwater wetland in Trinidad and Tobago and has been designated a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention. The swamp is located on the east coast of Trinidad, immediately inland from the Manzanilla Bay and covers over 60 square kilometres (23 mi²). The area provides important habitat for waterfowl and is key habitat for the West Indian Manatee [1][2], Caimans, Anacondas, Boa constrictors, Red Howler monkeys, numerous species of parrots, including both the Blue-and-yellow and Scarlet Macaws.
One portion of the swamp, the Bush Bush Wildlife Sanctuary is historically important as a field site for the Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory - now part of the Caribbean Epidemiology Center (Carec), which played a key role in the study of tropical mosquito-borne diseases.
Four major wetland vegetation types[3] occur in the Nariva Swamp - mangrove swamp forest, palm forest, swamp wood and freshwater marsh.
The Nariva Swamp is threatened by rice cultivation in the northwest and watermelon cultivation in the southwest. It has also been affected by channelisation in the swamp and deforestation of its watershed.
Keeler and Pemberton (1996) claim that one of the positive features of the conflict over the use of the Nariva Swamp is that both local and international environmental groups are firmly behind the idea of sustainable use by Nariva by people, including its use for agriculture. There is very little sentiment or rhetoric for simply making Nariva into a park or denying all uses except ecotourism. This attitude makes sustainable consensus solutions more feasible. Keeler and Pemberton were co-creators of an interdisciplinary research team of University of the West Indies and University of Georgia scientists established to conduct research on the sustainable development of the Nariva Swamp. Their objectives were to promote wise use of the Ramsar site, to improve the welfare of the Kernahan community and the wider society from the use of Nariva’s resources and to contribute to UWI teaching and research. The sub components were (1) Social Assessment and Conservation Management of Nariva Swamp (2) The Contribution of Nutrition to Sustainable Development of the Nariva Swamp (3) Hydrology and Water Management (4) Soil Properties and Implications for Sustainable Management (5) The Development of a Nariva Swamp National Park as an Eco-Tourism Site (6) Sustainable use and commercialisation of wetland resource organisms. Basically the project called for economic development that would have required a lot of professional management expertise for its continuance – professional job creation.
Left out of this project, the Centre for Gender and Development Studies (CGDS) at the University of the West Indies obtained funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and other sources and conducted gender sensitive research project in the swamp. The research was conducted in collaboration with the Island, Sustainability, Livelihood and Equity Programme (ISLE). ISLE was in turn a collaborative project of the University of the Philippines, Hasanuddin University in Indonesia, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia Agricultural College, UWI and the Technical University of Nova Scotia. The Nariva human community was studied by young participant researchers. They used interviews, participant observation, ethnography and participatory approaches that included workshops on time lines, resource use charts and community and benefit flow charts. The governance aspect was to look at governance and social control at various levels (micro, macro), history of policy, how and why policies changed over time, impact of international policy community on local decision making and policy formation and a gender analysis of the policy assumptions (Lans, 2007).
[edit] References
- ^ Regional Management Plan for the West Indian Manatee, Trichechus manatus. CEP Technical Report No. 35 1995
- ^ Khan, Jalaludin A. 2002. 2002 Status of the W. I. Manatee in Trinidad & Tobago
- ^ As defined by Beard (1946).
- Beard, J. S. (1946) The natural vegetation of Trinidad. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
- PDF Brown, N.A. 2000. "Environmental advocacy in the Caribbean: The case of the Nariva Swamp, Trinidad." CANARI Technical Report No. 268.
- Keeler, A.G.and Pemberton, C. 1996. "Nariva swamp: an exercise in environmental economics." Notes from a seminar presented at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Nov. 20, 1996.
- Lans, C. 2007. Politically incorrect and bourgeois: Nariva Swamp is sufficient onto itself. lulu.com.
- Sletto, B. 2002. "Producing space(s), representing landscapes: maps and resource conflicts in Trinidad." Cultural Geographies 9: 389-420
- Theiler, Max and Downs, W. G. The Anthropod-Borne Viruses of Vertebrates: An Account of the Rockefeller Foundation Virus Program, 1951-1970. Yale University Press, 1973.
