ENVIRONMENT-TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: Conservationists Halt Ferry Port Project

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Peter Richards

PORT OF SPAIN, Aug 24 2000 (IPS) - In the end the environmentalists and villagers are claiming victory.

After months of agitation, the government said it was shelving plans for a 71 million US dollar ferry port development programme “because of the hysteria generated within the Toco community and by activists” with no connection to the community.

“The Toco project remains at the proposal stage,” Works and Transport Minister Said Baksh told Parliament recently, suggesting nonetheless that the government might consider a site other than Toco for the port.

The idea of a port in the rural village of Toco, on the eastern side of the island, has had a long history going back to the mid- 1950s.

Originally it was conceived as a port or small harbour, mainly for servicing the fishing industry, providing immediate shelter and access to the east coast fisheries resources, as well as an out station for the Coast Guard and sea rescue.

“Such a facility need not be disruptive of natural coastal systems. A harbour on an exposed coast designed to accommodate (large) ships will be extremely disruptive,” says Professor Julian Kenny, a retired biologist and now an Independent Senator in the island’s Parliament.

Kenny says the coastal waters of Trinidad and Tobago support a diverse range of coral reef communities and a few significant reefs.

“The distribution of these is determined by physical oceanographic conditions. Toco is somewhat sheltered by the headland to the east and there is a rich community of corals and patch reefs, typical of a back reef community,” Kenny, a retired University of the West Indies (UWI) lecturer said.

“There is also a rich mixture of other corals, such as brain corals and invertebrates, including sea fans, sea lilies, giant anemones and sponges,” he added.

A number of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO), including Stakeholders Against the Destruction (SAD) and Friends of the Sea have also been critical of the plans to develop the ferry port, participating in protest actions involving the residents.

The residents say that while they are not opposed to the idea of a ferry operating from Toco to Tobago, they are concerned about its likely negative impact on their community by a process of development that does not involve just a ferry service.

“We are insisting that we want development that is in keeping with our environment,” SAD said in a statement.

But Baksh told Parliament that the opposition to the project was in keeping with the actions of individuals, organisations and groups “opposed to the government”.

However, the Express newspaper in a recent editorial said “nobody took the trouble in advance to discuss these plans with the people or try to win their confidence and faith in these new developments.”

“Minister Baksh may find another location but hopefully he, and the government have learned that you have to consult with people when you propose overnight, and probably far-reaching, changes in their communities,” the editorial said.

The government had announced plans to develop the ferry port, as a means of improving the communication links between Toco and the neighbouring sister isle of Tobago.

The project, a joint venture involving a number of local firms including Lee Young and Partners, Worldwide Traders International Limited (WTI) and Tucker Marine Services would have included the dredging of a harbour to accommodate cruise ships, a ferry and a marina.

There were also to be bunkering and refuelling facilities for oil tankers and additional space for a fleet of long line trawlers and a fish plant. In addition, there were plans to acquire 17 hectares of private land, as well as reclaiming another 16 hectares from the sea.

Parliamentary representative for the area, Roger Boynes said at least 32 households, two churches and a cemetery would be displaced under the proposed project.

Boynes insist that a proper environmental impact assessment must be done, taking into consideration coastal studies, preservation and nesting grounds for turtles.

Environmentalist Eden Shand said a report by the developers that the project poses little threat to the ecology of the area was baseless. In a letter to Baksh, the environmentalist said a development contract ought not to be entered into until “all environmental concerns have been properly addressed and mitigation measures written into it”.

The preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) by Lee Young and Partners noted the ecological setting will be modified by dredging, reclamation, earthworks and an increase in storm water run-off, but it is not anticipated such works will adversely affect the ecology of the bay.

“When the port is completed, waste from ferry and fish operations is more likely to have long-term impacts, especially upon marine ecology,” the EIA stated.

SAD said an independent authority should have undertaken the EIA in order for it to have any credibility. “It’s a case of himself telling himself,” the NGO said.

Professor Kenny says the United Nations International Convention on Conservation of Biological Diversity, to which Trinidad and Tobago is a party, requires a “cautionary principle” in consideration of any major physical development.

“If we take our responsibilities under the UN Biological Diversity Treaty seriously, we would also be planning conservation of the (Toco) bay,” he added.

The Environmental Management Authority (EMA) in its 1999 report laid in Parliament in May this year acknowledged that environmental laws were not being enforced in the country. It said, this laxity in enforcement is seen in the inability of agencies to move from general principles to more specific standards.

Although the government approved a National Environmental Policy (NEP) most enforcement agencies have not yet adopted environmental plans and policies to deal with their specific environmental problems, the EMA report noted.