AGRICULTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT – the two are closely related and are of utmost importance to mankind.
One provides us with our food, the other our living conditions – yet not enough attention is paid to them in Barbados, and perhaps the world. We tend to wait until there is a crisis to act, rather than preparing for the future.
One person who fully recognizes the importance of these areas and has spent the last eight years of her life helping Barbados prepare for the future by protecting its environment is Nicole Garofano, a native of Australia.
Persistence, along with passion, efficiency, energy, commitment, dependability, drive, and a marvelous personality, are some of the many characteristics which Nicole exhibits and which have endeared her to everyone she meets. We Barbadians would do well to emulate her.
The Future Centre was the brainchild of the late Dame Nita Barrow, a former Governor General of Barbados, who was impressed by the late Dr Colin Hudson’s Village of Hope exhibition set up for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Small Island States, held in Barbados in 1994. She suggested that the exhibition should be permanent.
Dr Hudson implemented the plan, founding the Future Centre at Edgehill, St Thomas in 1995.
The sustainability of the Centre had always been a problem, both from the financial point of view and also the availability of committed, capable and pro-active volunteers.
Major force
Nicole is the personification of all these attributes and became a volunteer at The Future Centre, transforming it during the last eight years into a vibrant organization, and a major force in promoting environmental education, conservation and protection.
She recognized that if we want to effect positive change, we must concentrate on educating the country’s children about the absolute importance of protecting the environment so that they can educate, not only their children, but in the meantime the adults of this generation. The Native American proverb “We do not inherit the earth from our fathers; we borrow it from our children” lends itself well to multi-generational education.
Since 2005 Nicole has spearheaded a number of projects involving children. The vegetable oil recycling project funded by Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme was implemented at the Lester Vaughan School.
Students collected and brought to school used vegetable oil from their communities. The oil was transformed into bio-diesel, a concept which still remains today. A major effort has gone into developing Recycling Centres at schools, with ten being initiated to date, as well as tree planting programmes and beach cleanups.
Nicole has assisted with the Governor General’s Agricultural camps, demonstrating to participants the link between agriculture and the environment and the importance of conservation of water and other resources as well the reduction and reuse of waste materials by many methods, including composting.
To date there is no enforced legislation for environmental protection in Barbados, but even in the absence of this enforcement, much has been accomplished by Nicole, who, through her affable personality and demonstrated capability , has been able to attract additional volunteers and some funding to take the various projects forward. However, if we are serious about protecting our environment, the government and all Barbadians will have to come on board in the battle to conserve the country’s limited natural resources .
Although a few private Today, I would like to pay special tribute to Nicole, a true friend to Barbados , for demonstrating in a tangible way, in spite of many obstacles, her commitment to protecting our environment and I look forward to a continuation of the Future Centre’s initiatives as the organization moves forward.
• The Agro-doc has over 40 years experience in agriculture in Barbados, operating at different levels of the sector. Send any questions or comments to: The Agro-doc, C/o Nation Publishing Co. Ltd., Fontabelle, St Michael.
