The back of a mangy dog
Trinidad Express (2003) Patrick Manning’s “sounding out” of the merger of the Unit Trust Corporation and First Citizens Bank caused widespread consternation across the country. Another controversial statement by the PM has aroused exactly the same anguish. But an environmental issue such as the “eco highway” doesn’t attract public attention like the fate of peoples’ hard earned cash. The “eco highway,” however, is all about profit and loss. Story and photos Mark Meredith Some experiences in life cannot be measured in dollars and cents. Fleeting, transitory moments in time that linger long after they’ve vanished: the leatherback turtles bathed by moonbeams on Madamas sand; the passing flash of a technicolour toucan in Tacarigua’s trees; sweet, soft mountain water washing away aching limbs in Paria’s forest grottos.
Nevertheless, for moments in life like these, in places just like these, people around the world are willing to pay a great deal of money. The 22-mile stretch of North Coast wilderness between Blanchisseuse and Matelot is one of the Caribbean’s most priceless jewels. As an ecotourism asset, only Dominica comes close to our good fortune. Dominicans have made the most of their luck. We, on the other hand, seem set to throw ours away, a unique and exciting opportunity squandered, perhaps forever. Prime Minister Manning’s announcement of an “eco highway” linking Blanchisseuse to Matelot is coming under fire from communities along the North Coast. They may not all know what an oxymoron is, but they do know that in Trinidad and Tobago “eco” and “highway” don’t go. The bridlepath trail that once linked Blanchisseuse to Paria Bay, like a faint scratch on the green skin of the North Coast, has grown to a gaping wound, gouged from the red earth through the forest for three miles. Trees torn out, snapped like sticks, vegetation swept aside in piles of dirt, and hillsides spat out in chunks by diggers and backhoes mark the new road’s destructive, illegal path. It is an open invitation for loggers and poachers to accelerate the rape of our Northern Range, ably assisted by insensitive developers. East of the Marianne River, sea views that never existed before can be found at regular, yet unexpected intervals. Gated, walled communities on precious archeological sites, single properties of extensive acreage cleared of trees, with walls like China’s running hilly contours is the development pattern being set. For those who have not walked the Paria trail for a few years, you are in for a shock. If the start of the “eco highway” continues to be cut along the remaining 19 miles to Matelot it will consume about 385, 000 trees, and that does not include associated developments and impacts, according to satellite analysis carried out by visitors from a Florida university with the Toco Foundation’s Michael Als. The road now being cut violates the Environmental Management Authority’s (EMA) Certificate of Environmental Clearance (Designated Activities) Order, under rules 8 (a), (b), and (c); also 33 (a) and (b); and 5 (b). These rules encompass clearing, excavation, grading and land filling; establishment of infrastructure for land transportation; and the extraction of logs in a forested area. The Sunday Express has been told that the person responsible for the destruction is a quarry operator. Clearly, this individual knows much about cutting and the extraction of hillsides. The EMA was informed and a team was due to investigate the road on Thursday. The Government’s announcement of its intention to build an “eco highway” is
also illegal, according to former independent senator Professor Julian Kenny in an invited address to Tidco’s bosses this week. The decision on the road has been made “without amending the National Physical Development Plan (NPDP) in accordance with procedures established in law and having it approved by Parliament,” he told them. By law (The Town and Country Planning Act of 1968), the future development of Trinidad and Tobago calls on the Ministry of Planning and Development to develop a general plan for the country, the NPDP, which was done in 1984. In the NPDP the area east of Blanchisseuse to Matelot is designated a critical conservation area. There is no allowance for a road linking the two. By law, If the government wants to build one it has to do two things: consult local communities and go to parliament to get approval for such a change to the plan. It has done neither of these, and the road is in breach of both plan and act, says Kenny. Moreover, the “eco highway” is contradicted by Tidco’s North Coast Carrying Capacity Study which states that “the construction of the road would have a substantial negative impact on the environment through which it would pass . . . extreme differences in ground elevations (approx. 134 gorges) . . . very severe cuts and fills would be required”. In a graph the road scores a minus-17 rating, a positive effect indicated in plus scores. The “very severe cuts” are already apparent along the current mutating road. Additionally, Tidco’s 1995 Tourism Master Plan calls for the area to become the “Northern Range National Park” with boat launch facilities at Blanchisseuse to facilitate eco tours into remote areas of the reserve.
North Coast seaside community councils have formed an umbrella organisation, the “North Coast Regional Community Councils”. They represent the villages of Maracas Bay, La Fillette, Brasso Seco and Blanchisseuse. They are mobilising opposition to the road. Last Sunday a community meeting was called in Blanchisseuse to discuss the “eco highway”. It was addressed by Michael Als and Professor Julian Kenny who both denounced the highway, along with speaker after speaker. An EMA representative observed proceedings. It followed a previous meeting in Brasso Seco on September 6th. And it is to be followed by a further gathering of communities between Matelot and Toco on October 19th at St Helena community centre, organised by Michael Als.
On Sunday people wanted to know why the Government would want to spend what Michael Als claimed would cost $600 million on the new road when all the communities were desperate for basic infrastructure — especially repaired roads — and services. Comments from the Brasso Seco meeting were read out to a receptive audience: “The North Coast is becoming a concrete jungle along the Paria Main Road. The beauty and majesty is now lost. Our exquisite views between La Fillette and Blanchisseuse are being blocked by the walls of Jehrico, preventing locals going to the sea. Can you imagine what will happen all the way to Matelot? “We’ve seen the destruction of the Rincon River because of so-called development. If the Eco Highway comes on stream, the Paria Bay and Madamas Rivers will become mere drains. Don’t let history repeat itself on the North Coast. This is the last unspoiled area of Trinidad and they want to take it from us. “Who will the road really benefit? Will it be the communities or the ‘big boys’ who have already grabbed out all the sea lots from Matelot to Blanchisseuse? They have it all and are awaiting the kill. As a community we objected to the road being opened by the previous government and we are doing so again. “The North Cost villages are forgotten in many ways. We have to go to Arima to register with Elections and Boundaries. We must go to Tunapuna to visit social welfare officers. To extract a tooth, we must travel to either Arima or Maraval. These are the problems to address, not a road from Blanchisseuse to Matelot.” If the Government was so desperate to spend money, they asked, why not spend it on what they need? Seventeen projects were listed, from upgrading their major roads, streets and building of pavements, to funding community centres, schools, fishing depots, bus services and medical facilities. Speakers voiced widespread support for ecotourism as the most likely way to improve their quality of life, but that could only happen after their infrastructure was upgraded by Government. Julian Kenny outlined a vision for the wilderness area, which he also put to Tidco this week. There should be a total moratorium on any further development east of the Marianne River, he said. No physical structures should be erected except a limited number of eco-lodges. The area would only be accessed on foot, bicycle, horse or mule, or by boat. The latter required the provision of sheltered anchorages at Blanchisseuse, Matelot and selected areas in-between. For this ideal to happen there had to be preservation and management of the shoreline, preservation of select wilderness areas, regulation of land use restricting the area to certain types of agriculture and forestry, and rigid management of upper forested slopes.
Thirty years ago, Kenny told Tidco, sea front land at Blanchisseuse could be bought for 50 cents per square foot. Today this might be $50 per square foot — a development to the east of Blanchisseuse offers lots at $500,000. Owners of coastal lands to the east of Blanchisseuse recognize this and expect the State to expend large sums on a motor road that would instantly appreciate the value of their land one hundred fold. They mostly see their property as a resource for capital growth, as is their right under the Constitution. The State, though, has an obligation to protect the broader interests of the nation, he said. Negative influences operate in this country, he emphasised, which should be obvious to anyone who has travelled abroad. These include illegal logging, illegal hunting, marijuana cultivation, clearing and burning, squatting, ribbon development, unauthorized building, walling of scenic routes, water, air and solid waste pollution. These are commonly seen and felt along the North Coast, he added. “If the ‘eco highway’ is cut,” Kenny told the Blanchisseuse community, “ the North Coast will become like the back of a mangy dog within the next 50 years.” But the road is already being cut, our precious national patrimony stolen from under our noses. Emboldened by the administration’s loose and ignorant talk, the vultures have smelt blood and are coming down from the trees, picking clean the bones of the Paria trail, hungry for more. Profit for some, loss for many, many more. Mark Meredith is the editor of SAMAAN magazine.