Our Reforestation Programme

We are committed to replacing every hectare of forest we clear in laying pipelines.

Our Reforestation Programme

At NGC, we believe that the environment forms part of our national heritage. Among the many environmental initiatives and programmes that we have undertaken, we are particularly proud of our Reforestation Programme. The Reforestation Programme also won a CSI award from the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago.

Under the Certificate of Environmental Clearance for the Cross Island Pipeline Project and Beachfield Upstream Development projects, we were only required to up to 105 hectares. However, we made it a priority to surpass this by implementing a “no net loss of forest resource” policy and have embarked on a programme to reforest an additional 210 hectares in the Morne L’Enfer Forest reserve.

The locations chosen for our reforestation efforts were selected by the Forestry Division and listed as critically degraded areas with mainly secondary type forests remaining. These six areas lie adjacent to our 75 km 56 inch pipeline corridor extending from Guayaguayare in the east to Point Fortin in the west, with the largest parcel being in the Morne L’Enfer Forest Reserve. In all, therefore, 315 hectares of degraded forest are to be re-forested in this community based programme. By the end of 2012, over 143 hectares were replanted with nearly 32,000 seedlings.

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Excellent success rates

Field audit assessments are conducted annually to determine the survival rates of the planted seedlings. These audits have revealed a consistently higher survival rate than the 80% benchmark set by the Forestry Division, attaining as much as 91% in some areas.
This is in part because of our commitment to care for the seedlings we plant. Each seedling takes several years of care and monitoring before it is strong enough to withstand natural and man-made disturbance on its own. As such, our programme includes ongoing tending and fire patrols in the reforested areas and seedlings that do not survive are systematically replaced.

Community Involvement

In keeping with NGC’s community engagement policy, we seek maximum participation from communities affected by our programmes. As a result, we have formed re-leaf groups in the communities adjacent to the CIP, BUD and Union Industrial Estate projects and have been actively involved in all aspects of the programme. We will also be establishing 50-metre-square agro-forestry plots among the young trees to produce small crops thereby generating revenue and employment for the local communities.