By Amelia Smith

Environmental degradation in Trinidad and Tobago has historical roots and is attributed largely to economic growth and development and growth of the human population. The quest for economic growth and development have led the two sister islands along different paths. Trinidad is heavily industrialised and therefore suffers the attendant environmental problems associated with the production of petroleum products, nitrogen, sugar, ammonia, urea and fertilizer in addition to rum, soap, paint and wood products. Whereas Tobago depends largely on tourism and therefore suffers from the associated problems of large-scale construction, pollution of waterways, etc. In a nutshell what the country has been experiencing has been described as "Resource exploitation characterised by the search for short-term economic gain with little attention paid to long term sustainability" (Agard, 2000).