Trinity Hills and Eastern Extension

 

Location

The Trinity Hills and Eastern Extension Pilot Protected Area, encompassing an area of 11,525 hectares, is located in South-east Trinidad.  The pilot protected area comprises the Trinity Hills Wildlife Sanctuary (8,200 ha) and a part of the adjacent Victoria-Mayaro Forest Reserve (3,325 ha), referred to as the Eastern Extension.  Available records show that the pilot protected area is entirely state lands.

 

Boundaries

The pilot protected area is bounded by the sea (the Columbus Channel) to the south, the boundary of the Wildlife Sanctuary to the west (the Victoria-Mayaro county line) and north-west and a combination of gas-line right-of-way and Sanctuary boundary to the east.

 

MAP

Legal designations
  • Trinity Hills Forest Reserve 1922
  • Trinity Hills Wildlife Sanctuary 1934
  • Victoria-Mayaro Forest Reserve 1954
  • Trinity Hills Wildlife Sanctuary declared a Prohibited Area under the Forests Act (1989)
  • In 1980, a part of Trinity Hills Sanctuary was included in the system of National Parks to be managed as a Scientific Reserve.
  • BirdLife International’ - Important Bird and Biodiversity Area - A1, A2, A3: Victoria-Mayaro Forest Reserve
Adjacent Landowners and Land Use

Landowners adjacent to the pilot protected area include the State and State agencies such as PETROTRIN.  The Beachfield facility, adjacent to the most eastern point of the pilot protected area, though operated by a number of energy companies is also under PETROTRIN’s jurisdiction. The surrounding areas are forested state lands.

Socio-economic descriptions

The Trinity Hills and Eastern Extension PPA is in the Mayaro-Rio Claro Regional Corporation.  In the 2011 Housing and Population Census, the estimated population for the Municipality of Mayaro-Rio Claro was 34,846 with 10,309 households, accounting for 2.65% of the entire population of the country.  Between 2000 and 2011, the population increased by 4.08%.  The estimated density was 43 persons per sq. km. making it the region with the lowest population density in the country.  Communities surrounding the pilot site include Rushville and Guayaguayare to the east, Rio Claro to the north and Moruga to the west.

  • The energy industry forms the basis for the majority of the livelihood activities in the area. Natural gas is produced offshore and brought on land through a series of transmission pipelines which transfer the natural gas to the Point Lisas Industrial Estate and Point Fortin for use and export.
  • Crude oil production and storage is undertaken at the Beachfield, Trinity, Catshill and Goudron fields managed by PETROTRIN within the pilot protected area.
  • Agricultural activity is seen in the production of cocoa, coffee, coconut, dasheen, watermelon and short term vegetable crops.
  • Fishing is a vital source of livelihood for families in the coastal zone, especially for the communities of Guayaguayare and Moruga.
  • Ecotourism is an emerging economic activity.

Ecological Notes

The site contains the last lowland virgin forest in southern Trinidad (Thelen and Faizool, 1980).  It is the best undisturbed example of the three main forest faciations – Carapa-Mora, Carapa-Pentaclethra-Sabal, and Trichilia-Brosimum-Protium (Beard, 1946).

These forests occur on a highly undulating landscape, drained by the Pilote, Black Water, Lucy, Hilaire, Stone, La Table and Moruga rivers (Dardaine, 1972).

The site contains the complete mammalian fauna of the island, including ocelots (Leopardus pardalis), tamandua anteaters (Tamandua tetradactyla) both species of monkeys (Alouatta seniculus and Cebus albifrons), all five game mammals (Dasyprocta leporina, Agouti paca, Dasypus novemcinctus, Peccari tajacu and Mazama americana) and Neotropical river otters (Lontra longicaudis) (Nelson, 1996).
The site is one of the historical ranges of the globally endangered Trinidad Piping guan or Pawi (Pipile pipile) and a potential site for its reintroduction.
There is an abundance of reptiles such as Morocoys, Galaps, Iguana and Matte, Bush master, Fer de Lance, Cascabel and Macajuel.  
31 bird species have been recorded.Most of the recorded bird species are common forest species, except for two endangered species, the Mountain Quail-Dove and Pawi.
Over half of Trinidad's 67 bat species occur in the Victoria-Mayaro Forest Reserve (Clarke and Downie, 2001 )

Historical Information

Trinity Hills forms the eastern part of the Southern Range, so named by first sighting of the island by Columbus, who recognized three hills of the range.  The area therefore has historic value for the naming of the island of Trinidad.

Management
Key threats and challenges
  • Illegal harvesting of wildlife for subsistence and commercial consumption including the five game mammals, as well as locally threatened species such as the ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), tamandua anteater (Tamandua tetradactyla) (Nelson, 1996) and the globally critically endangered Trinidad piping guan (Pipile pipile);
  • Habitat fragmentation due to the activities of the oil and gas industry, specifically gas, power, water and transportation corridors developed and proposed by the industry have caused significant habitat fragmentation, isolation and degradation in this pilot protected area. These corridors have also contributed to increased access for illegal hunting and seasonal fire damage at this site (Nelson, 2013);
  • Habitat fragmentation due to timber extraction and the illegal cultivation of marijuana;
  • Climate change impacts including changes in hydrological regimes particularly affecting drought intensity and increasing forest fire risk during the dry season;
  • Encroaching vegetable farming on the western boundary of the protected area in the vicinity of Moruga
  • Oil spills and leaks from the transmission lines contributing to species death
  • Presence of the transmission lines causing changes in the microclimates on the forest floor
  • Old drill pits from oil exploration compromising habitats for biodiversity
  • Coastal erosion on the southern boundary
  • Water pollution of aquifers contributing to species death

References

  • Information Brochure on the Trinity Hills Area: Trinity Hills "The Three Sisters"
  • Information Brochure on the Trinity Hills Wildlife Sanctuary: "Trinity Hills Wildlife Sanctuary"
  • Trail Camera Survey in the Victoria-Mayaro Reserve (2013/2014) - Kris & Charles Sookdeo (2013 /2014) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsKT_5ZFIJs
  • Beard, J.S. (1946). Natural vegetation of Trinidad. Oxford, Clarendon Press, UK.
  • Dardaine, S. (1972). Annual Report of the Forestry Division, Trinidad.
  • Sustainable forestry in Trinidad? Natural forest management in the south-east by James Fairhead and Melissa Leach SOAS, London IDS, Sussex Working in 2001. Paper from the project ‘Forest Science and Forest Policy Processes’ discussing the Periodic Block System for logging. Source: https://www.ids.ac.uk/files/TrinidadSustainableForestry.pdf
  • Spatial and Temporal Diversity in Ground Level Fruit Feeding Butterflies by Imran Khan, Christopher K. Starr, Howard P. Nelson, and Andrew Lawrence, Department of Life Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago.  Source by pp. 30-41 in: Lawrence, A. & H.P. Nelson (eds.) 2010. Proceedings of the 1st Research Symposium on Biodiversity in Trinidad and Tobago. St Augustine.   Source: http://www.ckstarr.net/cks/2010-IMRAN.pdf