Trinidad & Tobago and St Lucia nature tour

Environment

Most of the areas that you will visit on this holiday to look for birds and wildlife are maintained and protected and the park fees that are included in this tour, help towards this. The St Lucia Forest Reserve supports the entire breeding population of the St Lucia Parrot and a large percentage of the St Lucia Black Finch population. It also protects all but one of the restricted-range birds that occur on St Lucia. The excellent local guides that will take you out on field trips have been trained by the St Lucia Forestry Department in conservation.

This is also true of all the guides who will accompany you in Trinidad and also in Tobago, where the Main Ridge Forest Reserve is the oldest protected rainforest in the western hemisphere, with plantation owners realising as early as 1776 that they should stop cutting down the forest. Since then 14,000 acres of central Tobago were designated a protected Crown Reserve. On this tour, you will have the opportunity to walk the 5km Gilpin Trace trail through the Reserve with an experienced and knowledgeable local guide, who will ensure that a responsible code of conduct is followed so that any impact on the environment is minimised.

Community

During this trip you will be based at three different properties, all of which are located in rural areas close to the local communities. These hotels are the main source of employment for the nearby villages and local people are trained in a wide range of skills. The hotels that we have recommended in these islands have responded to the demand of environmentally conscious travellers that subscribe to an eco-friendly ethos by examining the sources of energy they employ, sustainability of growth and conscientious waste management practices, and by forging relationships with the communities that host them.

The Asa Wright Nature Centre in Trinidad is committed to conservation education at all levels and approximately 4000 local school children visit the estate each year. The Lodge at the Asa Wright Centre is a comfortable non-profit making hotel, most of their funds come from their guest facilities and you can therefore help them develop their conservation efforts just by visiting the Centre. Furthermore, both the hotels in St Lucia and Tobago are locally owned and managed and employ all staff from the local communities.