Eden Shand

Shand was born on 14 September 1939. He received a BSc (Hons) in Forestry[1] from the University of Aberdeen in 1963, and an MBA from the University of British Columbia in 1968.[2]

Shand worked in the Trinidadian government Division of Forestry from 1963 to 1965. After finishing his MBA, he worked as a forest economist in Vancouver from 1968 to 1972, then returned to Trinidad.[1] In 1979,[3] Shand was one of the founding members of Citizens For Conservation.[4]

In the 1980s, Shand hosted a youth-focused talk show called Feedback on Trinidad and Tobago Television.[4]

In 1986, Shand won the St. Ann's West seat in the House of Representatives as a candidate of the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) party,[5] defeating the incumbent candidate of the People's National Movement (PNM).[6] The newly-founded NAR became the first opposition party to win a national parliamentary election since independence in 1962.[7]

Shand was sworn in on 12 January 1987. He was initially appointed a Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Food Production, Marine Exploitation, Forestry and the Environment.[8] However, he was removed from this portfolio in 1988 after proposing restrictions on deliberate forest burning.[9][10] He then became the Minister of External Affairs and International Trade.[4] Together with Sylvia Kacal and other conservationists, he founded the Caribbean Forest Conservation Association (CFCA) in 1988.[11]

Shand was one of the MPs held hostage during the Jamaat al Muslimeen coup attempt.[4]

St. Ann's West was merged with Port of Spain North for the 1991 elections. Shand did not stand for reelection.[12]

After leaving Parliament, Shand gained certification as an Associate Environmental Auditor from the Environmental Auditors Registration Association (UK).[4] He set up a consultancy, Environmental Management and Planning Associates Limited.[1] Shand also became the chairman of the Caribbean Forest Conservation Association; during his tenure, the organisation began setting up conservation parks.[13]

Shand campaigned against projects to build over the Queen's Park Savannah. During a 1999 sit-in, builders attempting to pave over a section of the park dumped a truckload of gravel on Shand. He was excavated alive, but had lasting injuries.[4] He opposed a 2006 government proposal to build a stadium at the park,[14] and exposed other cases where construction projects had been approved without securing environmental assessments.[15][16]

Shand wrote articles in the Trinidad Express and the Trinidad Guardian where he critiqued the governance structure of the state Environment Management Agency.[17] He was chairman of Trinidad and Tobago's Earth Charter National Committee.[18]

Shand had five children.[19] His two younger children were from his marriage to Mary Schorse, an American social scientist.[1] Shand and Schorse co-founded the Tropical Re-Leaf Foundation.[20]