page_title: Main Ridge, Tobago
section_title: Conservation
hierarchical_section_title: Main Ridge, Tobago / Vegetation and ecology / Conservation
caption_attribution_description: Image taken at Gilpin Trace, Main Ridge Rain Forest Preserve, Tobago. A large attractive hummer of rain forest. This range-restricted species is limited to a fairly inaccessible submonaten area in Venezuela with a small but easy to see population on the island of Tobago (but bizarrely not Trinidad).
context_page_description: Main Ridge is the main mountainous ridge on the island of Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago. It is a 29-kilometre chain of hills which runs from southwest to northeast between the Caribbean Sea and the Southern Tobago fault system and reaches a maximum height of 572 m. The Main Ridge Forest Reserve, which was legally established in 1776, is one of the oldest protected areas in the world. It is a popular site for birdwatching and ecotourism. Main Ridge provides important habitat for native plants and animals, including several species endemic to Tobago.
context_section_description: The Main Ridge Forest Reserve, a 3,937-hectare (9,730-acre) forest reserve, is one of the oldest protected areas in the world. The Trinidad and Tobago government submitted the Main Ridge Forest Reserve as a tentative listing for a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011. The area is managed by the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, a department of the Tobago House of Assembly. It has been identified as one of seven Important Bird Areas in Trinidad and Tobago by BirdLife International.
  The Main Ridge Forest Reserve plays an important role in the protection of native biodiversity, particularly endemic plant species. The Main Ridge and the Northern Range (in northern Trinidad) are the areas in the country which support the largest numbers globally rare plant species. A gap analysis of endemic vascular plants of Trinidad and Tobago identified 15 endemic plant species in the area; species distribution modelling suggested that the reserve included suitable habitat for another nine plant endemic species.
  Main Ridge provides critical habitat for two endemic amphibians, Pristimantis turpinorum (Turpin's frog) and Mannophryne olmonae (Bloody Bay tree frog), which are endemic to northeastern Tobago and for the coral snake mimic Erythrolamprus pseudoreginae. The white-tailed sabrewing (Campylopterus ensipennis) is endemic to northeastern Venezuela and the Main Ridge; after Hurricane Flora in 1963 the hummingbird was thought to be extirpated from Tobago, but was rediscovered in 1974. Plant species endemic to Tobago which have been recorded from Main Ridge include Odontonema brevipes, Duguetia tobagensis, Phyllanthus acacioides, Besleria seitzii, Cybianthus pittieri, Pilea tobagensis, and Justicia tobagensis.
caption: White-tailed sabrewing photographed at Gilpin Trace, Main Ridge.
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