Grande Riviere

Grande Riviere

Located on the northern coast of Trinidad, between Toco and Matelot, Grande Riviere is a village originally settled by immigrants from Venezuela and Tobago who cultivated cocoa and subsistence crops. Following the collapse of the cocoa industry in the 1920s due to falling cocoa prices and spreading pest problems, Grande Riviere went into decline, until the development of ecotourism. Following the success of the Nature Seekers in Matura, the Grande Riviere Environmental Awareness Trust was founded in 1992 to protect the Leatherback Turtles nesting on Grande Riviere beach. The following year, Italian photographer Piero Guerrini rented the former cocoa estate headquarters and turned it into a 12-room beachfront hotel, which was so successful that three other hotels and an eco-boutique hotel eventually joined it. Furthermore, the villagers have started to rent out rooms to visitors. Grande Riviere Environmental Awareness Trust started to train guides, but a later split led to the formation of the Grande Riviere Nature Tour Guides Association, which concentrated more on guides, while the rest of Grande Riviere Environmental Awareness Trust focused on protecting the hatching of turtles. As well as sea turtles, they are trying to protect the critically endangered Trinidad Piping Guan, the only bird species endemic to Trinidad.