Nariva Swamp
Encyclopedia
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).
and is key habitat for the West Indian Manatee
(Trichechus manatus)., Caiman
s, Anacondas, Boa constrictor
s, Red Howler
monkeys, White-fronted Capuchin
monkeys, numerous species of parrots, including both the Blue-and-gold Macaw and Red-bellied Macaw
s, as well as many wetland and savanna birds.
Four major wetland vegetation types occur in the Nariva Swamp - mangrove
swamp forest, palm forest, swamp wood, and freshwater marsh.
The Trinidad Regional Virus Lab
(TRVL) (now CAREC) conducted research on arboviruses there in past decades.
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.
The Nariva Swamp is protected by 3 main pieces of legislation: the Forests Act, Chapter 66: 01; the Conservation of Wildlife Act, Chapter 67: 01; the State Lands Act, Chapter 57: 01. Offences taken to court are usually related to wildlife poaching and tree felling. This was not been entirely successful and encroachment by squatters was ongoing (Ramsar, 1996). The Nariva Swamp has been threatened in the past by illegal squatting; the conversion of land to cannabis and rice farming, illegal grazing of livestock in the game sanctuary, overfishing and illegal timber harvesting, illegal hunting and excessive trapping of birds for the pet trade (Ramsar, 1996).
The Nariva Windbelt Forest Reserve of 6267 acres (25.4 km²) was declared under the Forests Act on March 18, 1954. This designation gives the Forestry Division the authority to manage the area with reference to felling of trees, damage by negligence in felling any tree or dragging any timber, fires, and forest produce (CFCA, 1997). The year after the establishment of the Nariva Windbelt Forest Reserve (1955) the Manzanilla Extension, 383.2 hectares was declared a demarcated Forest Reserve.
Scientist T. H. G. Aitken from the Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory, proposed the Bush Bush wildlife sanctuary in the Nariva Swamp as a nature reserve in 1960 (Bacon et al., 1979). In 1962, the International Council for Bird Preservation raised a protest against proposed logging operations by the Forestry Division in the Nariva Swamp; the Council protested that it would reduce the high bird diversity in the area (Bacon et al., 1979). At the end of his study of parrots and macaws, scientists Dr. F. Nottebohm and Carl Carlozzi recommended the complete legal protection of the Bush Bush and Bois Neuf islands for the birds and other wildlife, the mud volcanoes on Bois Neuf and the tourist potential they contained.
Bonadie and Bacon (1998) confirmed that roosting sites for Orange-winged parrot
s (Amazona amazonica) and Red-bellied Macaw
s (Ara manilata (Bodd.) were concentrated in Roystonea
and Mauritia
palm stands in the Nariva Swamp and they only counted 136 parrots (a reduction from 600 in 1969) and 224 macaws. The Conservation Ordinance allows orange-winged parrots to be shot as crop pests, so that if the palm swamp forest is eliminated they will become greater pests of cocoa and crops and will face greater levels of irate shooting. Parrots and macaws fed on seven plant species with the major concentration of feeding on Mauritia setigera and Roystonea oleracea
palm fruit. The third psittacine species observed in the swamp were green-rumped parrotlets (Forpus passerinus Lafr.).
As a result of the public interest and a grant of $5000 U.S. from the New York Zoological Society, the Bush Bush area was declared a Wildlife Sanctuary on 16 July 1968 (Bacon et al., 1979). In recognition of this interest, in July 1968, the Trinidad and Tobago Tourist Board held a meeting with the Forestry Division on the potential of the mouth of the Nariva River and its eastern bank for tourism. Six years later in 1974, the Tourist Board offered financial aid of $7000 to clear and maintain the Bush Bush canal to allow easier access. However, this money was never allocated to the Forestry Division for this purpose (Bacon et al., 1979).
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).
Nariva Swamp has been a legal entity since 1968. Its legal status in Trinidad was insufficient to preserve its ecological status. Active lobbying and effort was expended to give the Swamp the status of an internationally recognised entity and therefore remove it from solely national political decisions. International recognition came in 1992, when Trinidad and Tobago designated Nariva Swamp for the List of Wetlands of International Importance maintained under the Ramsar Convention
. The Nariva Swamp was designated as a Wetland of International Importance (especially as a waterfowl habitat) under the Ramsar convention on 21 April 1993. Concerned officials of the Ministry of Agriculture lobbied for this international status to protect the Swamp from local political concerns and to make it easier to access international funding. Instruments were laid on December 21, 1992 with respect to the declaration of the Nariva Swamp as a Ramsar site. The total area of the Ramsar site is 6,234 hectares, which is the same area as the Nariva Swamp Prohibited Area and proposed National Park (CFCA, 1997).
The Nariva Swamp was included on the Montreux Record in 1993 in Kushiro, Japan (CFCA, 1997). This is a register of Ramsar sites where changes in ecological character have occurred, are occurring, or are likely to occur as a result of technological developments, pollution or other human interference. Ms. Molly Gaskin, and Ms. Karilyn Shephard of the Pointe á Pierre Wildfowl Trust, and Ms. Nadra Nathai-Gyan, of the Wildlife Section, Forestry Division, and Dr. Carol James, at the time with the UNDP-GEF, were present at this meeting.
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
.
The entire Nariva Swamp was declared a prohibited area under Section 2 of the Forests Act, Chapter 66:01.
Freshwater
Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...
wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
in Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
and has been designated a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention
Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural,...
. The swamp is located on the east coast of Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
, immediately inland from the Manzanilla Bay and covers over 60 square kilometres (23 mi²).
Description
The area provides important habitat for waterfowlWaterfowl
Waterfowl are certain wildfowl of the order Anseriformes, especially members of the family Anatidae, which includes ducks, geese, and swans....
and is key habitat for the West Indian Manatee
West Indian Manatee
The West Indian Manatee is a manatee, and the largest surviving member of the aquatic mammal order Sirenia . The West Indian Manatee, Trichechus manatus, is a species distinct from the Amazonian Manatee, T. inunguis, and the West African Manatee, T. senegalensis...
(Trichechus manatus)., Caiman
Caiman
Caimans are alligatorid crocodylians within the subfamily Caimaninae. The group is one of two subfamilies of the family Alligatoridae, the other being alligators. Caimans inhabit Central and South America. They are relatively small crocodilians, with most species reaching lengths of only a few...
s, Anacondas, Boa constrictor
Boa constrictor
The Boa constrictor is a large, heavy-bodied species of snake. It is a member of the family Boidae found in North, Central, and South America, as well as some islands in the Caribbean. A staple of private collections and public displays, its color pattern is highly variable yet distinctive...
s, Red Howler
Red howler
The red howlers are three species of howler monkeys that formerly were considered conspecific:* Venezuelan Red Howler - western Amazon Basin.* Guyanan Red Howler - north-eastern South America....
monkeys, White-fronted Capuchin
White-fronted Capuchin
The white-fronted capuchin, Cebus albifrons, is a species of capuchin monkey, a type of New World primate, found in seven different countries in South America: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago...
monkeys, numerous species of parrots, including both the Blue-and-gold Macaw and Red-bellied Macaw
Red-bellied Macaw
The Red-bellied Macaw, Orthopsittaca manilata, is a medium-sized, mainly green parrot. It is the only species of the genus Orthopsittaca, and it does not have any subspecies....
s, as well as many wetland and savanna birds.
Four major wetland vegetation types occur in the Nariva Swamp - mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
swamp forest, palm forest, swamp wood, and freshwater marsh.
Virus Research
Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory
The Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory was established in Port of Spain, in 1953 by the Rockefeller Foundation in co-operation with the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. It was originally housed in an old wooden army barracks near the docks in Port of Spain...
(TRVL) (now CAREC) conducted research on arboviruses there in past decades.
One portion of the swamp, the Bush Bush Wildlife Sanctuary is historically important as a field site for the Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory
Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory
The Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory was established in Port of Spain, in 1953 by the Rockefeller Foundation in co-operation with the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. It was originally housed in an old wooden army barracks near the docks in Port of Spain...
- now part of the Caribbean Epidemiology Center (Carec), which played a key role in the study of tropical mosquito
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
-borne diseases.
Conservation
The Nariva Swamp, 6,234 hectares, was declared to be a forest reserve in 1954. The Bush Bush section of the Nariva Swamp 1,408 hectares (3,480 acres) is an area of high ground that was declared as a wildlife sanctuary in 1968, and a prohibited area in 1989 by Dr. Keith Rowley (legal notice no 78 by then Minster of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources). The site was thus reserved as a local and international research centre, and in theory no hunting or harvesting was allowed on the site.The Nariva Swamp is protected by 3 main pieces of legislation: the Forests Act, Chapter 66: 01; the Conservation of Wildlife Act, Chapter 67: 01; the State Lands Act, Chapter 57: 01. Offences taken to court are usually related to wildlife poaching and tree felling. This was not been entirely successful and encroachment by squatters was ongoing (Ramsar, 1996). The Nariva Swamp has been threatened in the past by illegal squatting; the conversion of land to cannabis and rice farming, illegal grazing of livestock in the game sanctuary, overfishing and illegal timber harvesting, illegal hunting and excessive trapping of birds for the pet trade (Ramsar, 1996).
The Nariva Windbelt Forest Reserve of 6267 acres (25.4 km²) was declared under the Forests Act on March 18, 1954. This designation gives the Forestry Division the authority to manage the area with reference to felling of trees, damage by negligence in felling any tree or dragging any timber, fires, and forest produce (CFCA, 1997). The year after the establishment of the Nariva Windbelt Forest Reserve (1955) the Manzanilla Extension, 383.2 hectares was declared a demarcated Forest Reserve.
Scientist T. H. G. Aitken from the Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory, proposed the Bush Bush wildlife sanctuary in the Nariva Swamp as a nature reserve in 1960 (Bacon et al., 1979). In 1962, the International Council for Bird Preservation raised a protest against proposed logging operations by the Forestry Division in the Nariva Swamp; the Council protested that it would reduce the high bird diversity in the area (Bacon et al., 1979). At the end of his study of parrots and macaws, scientists Dr. F. Nottebohm and Carl Carlozzi recommended the complete legal protection of the Bush Bush and Bois Neuf islands for the birds and other wildlife, the mud volcanoes on Bois Neuf and the tourist potential they contained.
Bonadie and Bacon (1998) confirmed that roosting sites for Orange-winged parrot
Orange-winged Parrot
The Orange-winged Amazon , also known locally as Orange-winged Parrot and Loro Guaro, is a large Amazon parrot. It is a resident breeding bird in tropical South America, from Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago south to Peru and central Brazil. Its habitat is forest and semi-open country...
s (Amazona amazonica) and Red-bellied Macaw
Red-bellied Macaw
The Red-bellied Macaw, Orthopsittaca manilata, is a medium-sized, mainly green parrot. It is the only species of the genus Orthopsittaca, and it does not have any subspecies....
s (Ara manilata (Bodd.) were concentrated in Roystonea
Roystonea
Roystonea is a genus of eleven species of monoecious palms, native to the Caribbean Islands, and the adjacent coasts of Florida, Central and South America. Commonly known as the royal palms, the genus was named for Roy Stone, a U.S. Army engineer...
and Mauritia
Mauritia
Mauritia is a genus of fan palms which is native to northern South America. Mauritia flexuosa is widely distribution across northern South America, extending north to Trinidad, while the other M. carana is restricted to the Amazon region....
palm stands in the Nariva Swamp and they only counted 136 parrots (a reduction from 600 in 1969) and 224 macaws. The Conservation Ordinance allows orange-winged parrots to be shot as crop pests, so that if the palm swamp forest is eliminated they will become greater pests of cocoa and crops and will face greater levels of irate shooting. Parrots and macaws fed on seven plant species with the major concentration of feeding on Mauritia setigera and Roystonea oleracea
Roystonea oleracea
Roystonea oleracea, sometimes known as the Caribbean Royal Palm, palmiste, Imperial palm or cabbage palm, is a species of palm which is native to the Lesser Antilles, northern South America and Trinidad and Tobago.-Description:...
palm fruit. The third psittacine species observed in the swamp were green-rumped parrotlets (Forpus passerinus Lafr.).
As a result of the public interest and a grant of $5000 U.S. from the New York Zoological Society, the Bush Bush area was declared a Wildlife Sanctuary on 16 July 1968 (Bacon et al., 1979). In recognition of this interest, in July 1968, the Trinidad and Tobago Tourist Board held a meeting with the Forestry Division on the potential of the mouth of the Nariva River and its eastern bank for tourism. Six years later in 1974, the Tourist Board offered financial aid of $7000 to clear and maintain the Bush Bush canal to allow easier access. However, this money was never allocated to the Forestry Division for this purpose (Bacon et al., 1979).
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
University of the West Indies
The University of the West Indies , is an autonomous regional institution supported by and serving 17 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica,...
and University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
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
Gender and Development
The Gender and Development approach is a way of determining how best to structure development projects and programs based on analysis of gender relationships...
Studies (CGDS) at the University of the West Indies
University of the West Indies
The University of the West Indies , is an autonomous regional institution supported by and serving 17 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica,...
obtained funding from the Canadian International Development Agency
Canadian International Development Agency
The Canadian International Development Agency was formed in 1968 by the Canadian government. CIDA administers foreign aid programs in developing countries, and operates in partnership with other Canadian organizations in the public and private sectors as well as other international organizations...
(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
University of the Philippines
The ' is the national university of the Philippines. Founded in 1908 through Act No...
, Hasanuddin University
Hasanuddin University
Hasanuddin University is one of the biggest stated-owned universities in Indonesia, based in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province. The university was established in 1956, named after Sultan Hasanuddin, a King of Gowa Kingdom. Before the official launching by the first vice President...
in Indonesia, Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University is a public research university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university comprises eleven faculties including Schulich School of Law and Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine. It also includes the faculties of architecture, planning and engineering located at...
, Nova Scotia Agricultural College
Nova Scotia Agricultural College
Nova Scotia Agricultural College is a Canadian university college located in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, a village near the town of Truro. NSAC was officially founded February 14, 1905. In the early years, NSAC focused on educating farmers in aspects of field and animal husbandry...
, UWI and the Technical University of Nova Scotia
Technical University of Nova Scotia
The Technical University of Nova Scotia was a university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada until it became part of Dalhousie University in 1997. It was formerly the Nova Scotia Technical College and is today the Sexton Campus of Dalhousie University.In the early 1900s, at the request of the province...
. 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
Gender analysis
Gender analysis is a type of socio-economic analysis that uncovers how gender relations affect a development problem. The aim may just be to show that gender relations will probably affect the solution, or to show how they will affect the solution and what could be done...
of the policy assumptions (Lans, 2007).
Nariva Swamp has been a legal entity since 1968. Its legal status in Trinidad was insufficient to preserve its ecological status. Active lobbying and effort was expended to give the Swamp the status of an internationally recognised entity and therefore remove it from solely national political decisions. International recognition came in 1992, when Trinidad and Tobago designated Nariva Swamp for the List of Wetlands of International Importance maintained under the Ramsar Convention
Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural,...
. The Nariva Swamp was designated as a Wetland of International Importance (especially as a waterfowl habitat) under the Ramsar convention on 21 April 1993. Concerned officials of the Ministry of Agriculture lobbied for this international status to protect the Swamp from local political concerns and to make it easier to access international funding. Instruments were laid on December 21, 1992 with respect to the declaration of the Nariva Swamp as a Ramsar site. The total area of the Ramsar site is 6,234 hectares, which is the same area as the Nariva Swamp Prohibited Area and proposed National Park (CFCA, 1997).
The Nariva Swamp was included on the Montreux Record in 1993 in Kushiro, Japan (CFCA, 1997). This is a register of Ramsar sites where changes in ecological character have occurred, are occurring, or are likely to occur as a result of technological developments, pollution or other human interference. Ms. Molly Gaskin, and Ms. Karilyn Shephard of the Pointe á Pierre Wildfowl Trust, and Ms. Nadra Nathai-Gyan, of the Wildlife Section, Forestry Division, and Dr. Carol James, at the time with the UNDP-GEF, were present at this meeting.
The Nariva Swamp is threatened by rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
cultivation in the northwest and watermelon
Watermelon
Watermelon is a vine-like flowering plant originally from southern Africa. Its fruit, which is also called watermelon, is a special kind referred to by botanists as a pepo, a berry which has a thick rind and fleshy center...
cultivation in the southwest. It has also been affected by channelisation in the swamp and deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
of its watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
.
The entire Nariva Swamp was declared a prohibited area under Section 2 of the Forests Act, Chapter 66:01.