Former NAR minister Eden Shand dies

ENVIRONMENTALIST and former minister in the NAR Government, Eden Shand, 81, died on Wednesday after suffering a lengthy illness. Tributes have since poured in on social media.

The Parliament website indicated Shand had served as a minister of government in the 3rd Republican Parliament, from 1987 to 1991.

He was minister in the Ministry of External Affairs and International Trade, from 1988 to 1991. Previously he had been parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Food Production, Marine Exploitation, Forestry and the Environment, from 1987 to 1988. He was also St Ann's West MP.

Shand fought for the preservation of Queen’s Park Savannah as a green space.

He opposed plans by the then Patrick Manning government for a 18,000-seat Carnival city to be built there at a cost of $700 million, partly submerged and featuring a 10-tier roof.

Veteran broadcaster Dominic Kalipersad paid tribute to Shand in a recent social media post.

“A founding member of Citizens For Conservation, he is best remembered for his dramatic participation in a 1999 Save The Savannah protest.

“In attempting to deter the paving of a section of the Queen's Park Savannah, Shand was buried by a truckload of gravel and had to be dug out by other protesters. He suffered long-term injuries.”

Kalipersad said Shand was among MPs held hostage in the 1990 coup attempt, as a NAR government minister.

“Shand was also an author (The Estate Within, 1992) and a weekly columnist with the Trinidad Express. In the '80s, he hosted a youth talk show, Feedback, on Trinidad and Tobago Television.”

Kalipersad said Shand had graduated in forestry from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, had an MBA from the University of British Columbia, plus a Certificate in Environmental Assessment from the University of Aberdeen.

He was also registered as an Associate Environmental Auditor with the Environmental Auditors Registration Association of the UK, Kalipersad said.

Shand worked as an environmental consultant for a range of clients including the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, Organisation of American States, Asian Development Bank, and TT government agencies.