Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve: Visitor and Heritage Guide

The claim, and the ordinance behind it.

UNESCO's file states it directly: the Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve is on record as the oldest legally protected forest reserve geared specifically towards a conservation purpose. It was established on April 13th, 1776 by an ordinance.

What makes this remarkable is not the date alone but the reasoning, which survives in the ordinance's own words. The reserve was set aside for the purpose of attracting frequent showers of rain upon which the fertility of lands in these climates doth entirely depend.

That is a watershed argument, made in 1776, for protecting forest because of what it does to rainfall. The passage of the ordinance is attributed to Soame Jenyns, a member of the British parliament whose main responsibilities were trade and plantation, who was influenced by the ideas of the English scientist Stephen Hales. A plantation official protected a rainforest because he had been persuaded that cutting it down would stop the rain.

The figures, and where a visitor can check them.

The reserve encompasses 3958 hectares of tropical rainforest and reaches a height of 604 meters. The Main Ridge itself runs lengthways across two thirds of Tobago, which is why it is described as the backbone of the island.

Those figures are not only in a UNESCO document. The Department of Natural Resources and the Environment sign standing at the reserve reads PROCLAIMED SINCE 1776 and AREA 3958 HECTARES, along with two rules: no tethering of animals and no plucking of plants. A visitor can verify the two central facts of this page by reading a sign at the entrance, which is a rare thing to be able to say.

What lives there.

The file records habitat for twelve to sixteen species of mammals out of the nearly ninety mammal species in the Caribbean region, twenty-four non-poisonous snakes, sixteen lizards and two hundred and ten species of birds.

The bird that matters most is Campylopterus ensipennis, the White-tailed Sabrewing Hummingbird, described as both rare and endemic to Tobago. It was declared an Environmentally Sensitive Species by Trinidad and Tobago's Environment Management Authority in 2005 and is one of the species that has been recovering since the 1963 hurricane Flora.

The ridge is also home to the ocellated gecko, an animal that is not found anywhere else in the world.

What it is, and what it is not.

It is on UNESCO's Tentative List, submitted on 17 August 2011 as a mixed property under criteria five, six, seven, nine and ten, reference 5646. It is not a World Heritage Site, and this page does not call it one.

Trinidad and Tobago ratified the World Heritage Convention on 16 February 2005 and has no property inscribed on the World Heritage List. It has three sites on its Tentative List: this reserve, La Brea Pitch Lake and the Banwari Trace Archaeological Site. A tentative listing is a statement of intent by the country, not a decision by the Committee, and the distinction is worth keeping because plenty of travel writing collapses it.

Visiting.

The reserve is walked, chiefly on the trails that cross the ridge, and guided birding is the usual way in. It is rainforest at altitude: the file records that the lower montane forest above 244 meters receives the greatest amount of rainfall, the greatest exposure to wind and the lowest temperatures. Dress for wet and cool rather than for a Caribbean beach.

Go early. The birds are active at first light and the ridge draws cloud later. Allow more time than the distance suggests, because the roads across the ridge are slow.

The two rules on the sign are the whole etiquette: leave the plants where they are, and do not tether animals inside the reserve.

If you would like Tobago built around the ridge rather than the coast, tell us.

Sources

• UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve, Tentative List reference 5646, submitted 17 August 2011 under criteria five, six, seven, nine and ten as a mixed property: that the Main Ridge runs lengthways across two thirds of Tobago and encompasses 3958 hectares of tropical rainforest, reaching a height of 604 meters; that the reserve provides habitat for twelve to sixteen species of mammals, twenty-four non-poisonous snakes, sixteen lizards and two hundred and ten species of birds, the most outstanding being the White-tailed Sabrewing Hummingbird, rare and endemic to Tobago, which was declared an Environmentally Sensitive Species by the Environment Management Authority in 2005 and has been recovering since the 1963 hurricane Flora; that the ridge is also home to the ocellated gecko, an animal not found anywhere else in the world; and that the reserve is on record as the oldest legally protected forest reserve geared specifically towards a conservation purpose, established on April 13th, 1776 by an ordinance stating in part that the reserve is for the purpose of attracting frequent showers of rain upon which the fertility of lands in these climates doth entirely depend, its passage attributed to Soame Jenyns, a member of the British parliament influenced by the English scientist Stephen Hales. Accessed 21 September 2026.
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Trinidad and Tobago States Parties page: that the country ratified the World Heritage Convention on Wednesday, 16 February 2005; that it has no property inscribed on the World Heritage List; and that its Tentative List carries three sites, Banwari Trace Archaeological Site, La Brea Pitch Lake and Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve. Accessed 21 September 2026.