The Nevis Historical and Conservation Society (NHCS) has been executing a project to restore the Nelson’s Spring Wetlands over the past few months. 

This project is part of a larger initiative executed by ‘Integrated Water, Land Ecosystems Management in Caribbean Small Island Developing States’ or IWECO.

The project title is “Addressing Impacts of Acute Land Degradation in College Street Ghaut in St Kitts and Quarries and Sand Mining Hotspots on Nevis”.

The VONNEWSLINE spoke to Coordinator of the Nelson’s Spring project, Ms. Jenny Lowrey who spoke about the overall goal of the project: 

According to iweco.org, the St. Kitts and Nevis Project was officially launched on February 26^th, 2019 and is being implemented over a three-year period.

The Launch was attended by representatives of various government departments on both St. Kitts and Nevis, as well as NGOs, statutory bodies, civil society, private sector and the media.

The Project’s first and second Steering Committee meetings took place in March and November 2019 and at that time the annual Work Plans for the first and second year of the project implementation, were endorsed.

Diagnostic assessments of the College Street Ghaut and of targeted quarries, coral reefs and wetlands on Nevis were completed by mid-2019 and target interventions started.

Land degradation control works in the College Street Ghaut are ongoing.

Reforestation and Rehabilitation efforts at Coconut Walk in St. George’s Parish, Hicks Estate in St. James Parish and Nelson’s Spring Wetland in St. Thomas’ Parish here on Nevis began in May 2020.

In addition, preliminary work in Coral Reef Surveying and Restoration on the eastern coast of Nevis, is ongoing.