Joanne Husain visits the Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust, and encourages schools and families to enter this classroom in nature on the edge of Trinidad and Tobago’s 100-year-old refinery.
Ducks steadfastly preening at the water’s edge are momentarily interrupted by an aureate feathery flash. Three blue-and-yellow macaws bank, announcing their arrival with cacophonous cries before settling in a mahogany grove. A serpentine figure emerges from the lotus-laden pond, but it possesses a dagger-like beak and not a forked tongue. Poui and immortelle blooms scattered like confetti beckon a celebration of our natural heritage in the most unusual of places – a once roaring but now semi-defunct oil refinery. This is the Pointe-a-Pierre (PaP) Wildfowl Trust, an organisation that has been at the forefront of conservation and environmental education efforts in TT for over 50 years.
[caption id="attachment_1005918" align="alignnone" width="1024"] An osprey with its catch from the Trust's main pond. - Faraaz Abdool[/caption]
Jaleen West, senior education officer and supervisor, guides a nature walk around the Trust’s main pond, sharing some important context. The PaP Wildfowl Trust is a national, non-profit, environmental, non-government, membership organisation with a conservation and education site situated within a petrochemical complex on Trinidad’s west coast. The protected area presently encompasses 74 acres of land, two reservoirs and three nature trails. It was founded in 1966 by Richard S “Dick” Dean and John Cambridge due to the rampant habitat destruction and hunting of local waterfowl. Molly Gaskin, environmental activist, has been the president of the PaP Wildfowl Trust since 1981. Her unwavering commitment to the protection of our wild spaces and all its inhabitants has been the guiding light for the Trust’s many achievements over the years. She is assisted by the dedicated expertise of vice-president, Karilyn Shephard. Together, they dutifully continue their day-to-day involvement with all aspects of the Trust.
[caption id="attachment_1005914" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Devoted environmental stewards Molly Gaskin, left, and Karilyn Shephard. -
Faraaz Abdool[/caption]
The Trust is well-known for its successful avicultural re-introduction programme. West identifies the five duck species on the pond and in the surrounding aviaries that are carefully bred: black-bellied whistling-duck, fulvous whistling-duck, white-faced whistling-duck, white-cheeked pintail and Muscovy duck. These birds are released into protected wetland areas, where they can thrive and contribute to the local ecosystem. Breeding and release of scarlet ibis and blue-and-yellow macaw have also been successful. Many wild birds frequent the Trust and over 100 species have been sighted here. kingfishers, tanagers and thrushes flit about the trees. jacanas and gallinules tread lightly on lily pads. The pond, while man-made, is healthy and teeming with life.
[caption id="attachment_1005916
