Do we know all of Trinidad and Tobago’s Environmentally Sensitive Species? Dr Anjani Ganase suggests wider research and inquiry to expand the list, and to expose all citizens to what needs to be protected.

TT’s list of Environmentally Sensitive Species

Under the legislation, the Environmental Management Act (2000), species listed under the Environmentally Sensitive Species Rule ((ESS) are afforded full protection in TT. Under this rule, the species can be animal or plant, may be endemic to TT or spend only part of its life cycle in our territory. Furthermore, any plant or animal listed for risk of extinction and overexploitation by any international convention that the government of TT is party to is eligible for becoming an ESS.

The rule limits the cutting, picking or uprooting of plants; and prohibits hunting and disturbing protected animals, especially during sensitive periods such as breeding season or during migration. By extension, the habitat the ESS utilises must also be managed and protected as a means of protecting the ESS. The conservation of ESS must therefore be integrated into the sustainable development plans of the country.

In TT, there are 11 listed Environmentally Sensitive Species:

scarlet ibis,

Trinidad piping guan,

West Indian manatee

white-tailed sabre-wing hummingbird

golden tree frog

ocelot

all five species of marine turtles (olive ridley, hawksbill, green, loggerhead, and leatherback)

The active protection of turtles is a testament to the advocacy of certain individuals in TT. Indeed, all these species have been protected through local conservation efforts, based on information of their ecology and importance along with known local threats.

Many other species need protection

However, there are many species that deserve to be on the list by international recognition of importance or its local uniqueness.

[caption id="attachment_1152575" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Channel-billed toucans. - Photo by Faraaz Abdool[/caption]

If we start with the international conventions that TT is party to, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wild Fauna and Flora (TT signed in 1984), includes a number of threatened species found in TT included under Appendix I which is the list for species threatened with extinction and which deserve the highest level of protections.

These include the neotropical river otter (Lontra longicaudis) which is present but in low numbers in Trinidad’s rivers. In our ocean backyard with an economic exclusion zone 15 times our land mass, many species of visiting whales and dolphins are also listed.

Under both CITES and the Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) Protocol (TT signed in 1990), reef-building stony corals are listed as threatened with extinction. These include elkhorn coral and the staghorn coral, two species that were once very common to our coral reefs and are now rarely seen in a few places.

Other conventions such as United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity refer to the Interna