Dr Rita Pemberton

The European presence in Tobago has had a significant impact on the island’s environment. European rivalry for possession and control of Tobago resulted in a continuous conflict between the competing powers during the 17th and 18th centuries.

For the rivals, the best indication of possession was to plant a colony of settlers who would immediately begin cultivating crops for export. These colonising attempts were usually supported by financiers who hoped the venture would generate profits.

As a result, the first large-scale land-clearing was devoted to forming settlements with accommodation for the colonists, creating towns and establishing sites for fortifications, which were essential to protect the colony, and plantations, with the hope of generating profits.

All these activities required extraction of wood from the forests. The quest for power and wealth unleashed the first onslaught on the forest cover.

Between 1632 and 1667, the Dutch, who were in continuous possession of the island, established flourishing sugar estates and operated six well equipped sugar mills. In 1642, a party of Barbadians led by Capt Marshall established plantations of indigo and tobacco, but, faced with hostility from the First People, the settlement was abandoned and the settlers relocated to Suriname. Establishing estates initiated a process of extensive forest clearance, which was aggravated when the island was finally determined to be a British possession in 1763.

In 1765, the establishment of a forest reserve on Tobago’s Main Ridge to protect the supply of rains did not signal an interest in either conservation or forestry by the individuals who purchased land and established sugar plantations on the island.

Like the Dutch before, British colonisation involved the denudation of forest cover to provide wood and charcoal for processing sugar and timber for estate buildings and housing. As a result, a number of arboreal species that are listed in early accounts of the island have been depleted. These include purple heart, green heart and ebony, which are no longer visible on the island, and mahogany. Although Tobago possessed considerable quantities of cedar, in addition to its popularity for building, it was one of the main items exported to Barbados during the 18th century. This resource was overexploited and by 1843 the island was said to have been denuded of its cedar and needed to import timber. Both cedar and mahogany have since been replanted.

Europeans were also interested in the island’s maritime resources. French whalers who befriended the First People and were active on the island established small settlements there and engaged in uncontrolled whaling until they were chased away by the British.

During the period of European rivalry there were three main assaults on the island’s environment. First was the sudden rapid clearance of land, which affected the island’s biodiversity through the removal of an untold numbers of naturally occurring plants and trees and their related ecosystems. C