Tales from the Unexpected: Tobago Estate

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When Duane Dove established Tobago Estate Chocolate in 2005, to reawaken Tobago’s proud history of growing cocoa, little did he realise that this was the start of an ongoing arms race with a unexpected foe…

In establishing his organic cocoa farm at Roxborourgh, Duane first had to reclaim the land from an invasive bamboo forest that had taken over the historic cocoa farm. He then planted specially selected new trinitario cocoa trees. And wiithin 5 years he was harvesting, and crafting his award winning single estate bars.

But almost immediately, he faced another challenge…

Once his cocoa trees started to bear fruit, Duane faced another challenge: How to protect his cocoa pods from an enemy thought to have arrived in Tobago at about the same time as cocoa.

This creature has been on the planet since the time of the dinosaurs. And Tobago is blessed with two different species of this creature (note: Duane might not agree with the use of the word “blessed” at this point!). Linnaeus named them in Latin as Amazona amazonica and Forpus passerines.

In English we know them as the orange winged parrot and green rumped parrotlet. Both of these birds hail from the same geography as where cocoa (Theobroma cacao) is believed to have first grown; namely the Amazon basin, covering Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. And the orange winged parrot is particularly partial to snacking on cacao seeds. So in addition to the other challenges of planting, growing, harvesting, fermenting, and drying cocoa on his organic farm; Roxborough; Duane has to fight an ongoing battle against parrots that particularly enjoy eating cocoa seeds.

The Early Wars

Duane’s initial strategy to protect his precious cocoa crop took a leaf out of medieval England’s book. Duane hired Kelton Thomas, a local tour guide with a particular interest in birds and a very rare skill; when Kelton moved to the UK in the 1990s he had spent three years learning falconry at the Hawking Centre at Leeds Castle in Kent. So Duane persuaded Kelton to come and visit Tobago Estate with his hawks, falcons, and even an eagle, to patrol the estate. And for a number of years this worked BRILLIANTLY.

However, demand for Kelton’s skills grew and grew; hotels now use him to keep pigeons away from their clientele, and even Tobago airport now calls on Kelton to scare recalcitrant blackbirds and pigeons off the runways. This increased demand not only limited the time Duane could employ Kelton, but it also meant that the hawks became far tamer (note: At hotels, airports etc., the hawks etc. scare off the pigeons etc., and on their return to Kelton, they are rewarded with a small bit of meat etc.).

The Wars of Attrition

Next, Duane tried various elaborate forms of netting combined with firecrackers. However, despite some initial success, the parrots soon learnt to cut through the nets and realised that the firecrackers were just noise-makers.

Briefly, Duane tried dogs along with the nets, but this proved unsuccessful.

So next, Duane persuaded the local wildlife rangers from the Tobago House of Assembly, Forestry Division, armed with guns, to shoot at the trees where the parrots were resting. And this worked well until, unfortunately, someone in the local rangers team forgot to apply for their rifle licences, so this approach too had to be abandoned.

Duane then briefly tried to scare the parrots with air rifles, but the wiley parrots soon discovered that these weren’t quite the same as a ranger’s rifle!

The Screaming Wars

Duane has high hopes now for a new approach: He’s invested in a device called a ‘wailer’ or ‘screamer’.

This device scares off the parrots through various tapes of parrots warning one another of nearby danger, played at high volume at random times. And the early signs are promising.

So the next time that you savour some of Duane’s bars from both his Roxburgh and, more recently launched, Laura Estate, reflect on the ongoing battles fought to protect these beans and bars from rapacious parrots.

And if you are in Sweden, don’t miss Duane’s wonderful rum and chocolate tastings; and if you are in Tobago, he is once again arranging tours (see our ChocolaTourism section for more details).

Thanks as ever for your support.

Spencer