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Speaker:The Honourable Basdeo Panday, Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Date: February 28, 2000
Occasion: Address at the Commissioning of the Caroni Lagoon National Park
My Dear Colleagues;
My Dear Friends:
I am very happy to be with you this morning, for the commissioning of this world
renowned nature sanctuary. I wish to begin my remarks by acknowledging the
assistance of the Inter-American Development Bank, which provided a soft loan of
some TT$25 Million as part funding for a number of projects, this being one of those
projects. This initiative began nine years ago, in 1991. These facilities have been a
long time coming, haven't they. The IDB funding was in support of an environmental
protection and rehabilitation programme for the conservation of Trinidad and Tobago's
natural resources, and for the utilisation of these resources for environmental
education and public recreation.
The programme was also aimed at the rehabilitation of a number of damaged areas of
our fragile eco-systems. I take this opportunity to publicly thank the IDB for its
continued support of Trinidad and Tobago's environmental programmes. This project
underlines the value of that support. I also acknowledge the efforts of the Ministry of
Finance, Planning and Development, the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine
Resources, and TIDCO, for their combined efforts to finally bring this project
successfully on stream.
My Dear Friends:
Today, the first Monday of what is, in effect, Carnival Week, we open these
Headquarters Facilities for the Caroni bird sanctuary.As you would no doubt
appreciate, it's a welcome change for me to be involved in an environmental project,
in the Carnival Season, that, so far, has been non-controversial. Logically, this project
should win the favour of the most passionate of our resident environmentalists. There
is no discernible reason for it to trigger their ire, or for it to provoke their fire.
Having said that, ladies and gentlemen, I recognise that I am immediately proceeding
to invite controversy when I express my great pleasure at being here this morning to
commission the new Headquarters Facilities of this nature sanctuary, here at the
Caroni LAGOON National Park. You will note that I have expressed my pleasure at
being here, this morning, to commission the new Headquarters Facilities of the Caroni
"Lagoon" National Park, not that of the Caroni "Swamp" National Park.
In replacing the word Swamp with Lagoon, I consciously run the risk of setting off yet
another environmental controversy. I do hope, however, that not even the most
devout traditionalist amongst us, environmentally concerned or otherwise, will genuinely have a problem with renaming the Caroni Swamp, "The Caroni Lagoon." The competent authorities, and the general public, including the special interests subsets of the general public, including our environmentalists, may wish to consider the patently unwholesome connotations of the word "Swamp," in contrast to the imagery inherent in the word "Lagoon."
For that matter, my dear friends, I do not understand why this delta on the Gulf of
Paria was not christened "The Caroni Nature Sanctuary" at the time it was designated a Bird Sanctuary, half a century ago. In any event, it is now our responsibility to correct that long-standing anomaly. It is also our responsibility to uncover to the nation and to uncover to the world, the marvels of this nature sanctuary, here in our Caroni Lagoon National Park.
I am confident that when we do reveal the magic of this nature sanctuary, the
national community, and the international community, will flock to the Caroni Lagoon
National Park
They will come for the Scarlet Ibis.
They will come for the clouds of white egrets.
They will come for the more than 150 species of birds that have been recorded in the
Caroni bird sanctuary, fully one third of the more than 450 species that have been
recorded in our two islands. They will also come to see the oysters growing on trees
in this 800-acre estuary.
My Dear Friends:
I sincerely hope that all in our nation will quickly come to cherish this region of
Trinidad's West Coast as a vital organ in our territorial ecosystem. When this happens
we will begin to discover and to marvel at the remarkable bio-diversity that that has
been spawned by the ecology of the Caroni delta. Nothing would be of greater value
than for the environmentalists to promote the enjoyment by the population of our
natural treasures. Our society would be indeed well served. It would also be of great
value if the persons who care about these things would sometimes celebrate positive
developments with the passion of which we know that they are capable. Not too long
ago, we had occasion for great celebration when young Trinidad demonstrated a
quality of caring for God's creations that should have moved the soul of the entire
nation, a quality of caring that would have moved the soul of many a nation.
There was, however, only relatively muted and markedly brief expression of the
society's appreciation for the extraordinary actions of those people, predominantly
young people as I recall, who rescued the beached whales on the East Coast of
Trinidad, last October, and sent them safely out to sea again. In certain societies,
the persons who rescued those whales at Manzanilla would have been instant
celebrities for their great compassion for those whales. Their actions were, after all,
the stuff of which movies are made. They are, in my view, deserving of high national
honours for their heroic actions. Such awards would be a very effective means of
saying to the nation that we should all treasure the natural treasures with which God
has blessed our two islands. It might even trouble the consciences and freeze the
trigger fingers of those of those savage poachers and predators who take pleasure in
gunning down the Scarlet Ibises in the Caroni Bird Sanctuary.
In the face of such mindless callousness, we are thankful for the concern being
expressed by the young Calypsonian, Devon Seales, a poet with a message that we
should all take to heart. Devon would have touched untold numbers of persons when
he performed "A Manzanilla Song" in the Semi- Finals of the National Calypso Monarch competition during Saturday's Calypso Fiesta at Skinner Park. Devon Seales sang of the rescue of the whales in what he called "A song of love and a song of life," which told him, as he told us in his song, that he is his brother's keeper. Calypsonian-Poet that he is, Devon was telling us, I thought, that we are all our brothers' keepers. He was also telling us that we are also the custodians of our nation's natural treasures.
People like Winston Nanan have been devoted keepers of our nation's treasures.
Winston Nanan's life has been a labour of love for the Caroni bird sanctuary. I doubt
that there are many among us who have toiled for as many years as has Winston
Nanan, in the protection and promotion of the unique treasures that abound in the
Caroni Lagoon.
My Dear Friends:
It should bring great comfort to most of us to know that that through the generosity
of the Inter-American Development Bank, two custom designed Patrol Boats are to be
purchased next month and are to go into service in the Caroni Nature Sanctuary
shortly thereafter. Parallel with this, the number of Game Wardens patrolling the Park
will, of necessity, be increased. The time has come for all of us, - and particularly
our environmental activists - to do all that we can to protect, to cherish, to
enjoy, and to share with the world, all that is to be experienced in the Caroni delta,
a wonderland unmatched in this part of the globe.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
My Dear Friends:
It is with particular pleasure that I pledge my support to the cause we serve in the
development of this facility. I am happy to formally commission the Headquarters
Facility of this National Park, this unique national natural treasure. I sincerely hope
that from this day henceforth, this Park will be known, if not as "The Caroni Nature
Sanctuary," then as "The Caroni Lagoon National Park."
May God Bless you all, as He blesses all creatures, big and small.
I thank you.