By ANDRE BAGOO Monday, March 3 2008

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Prince Charles and his wife Camilla Parker Bowles. ...

PRINCE CHARLES’ passion for the environment could well dominate his visit to this country this week, as he is carded to discuss climate change, eco-friendly business practices and coral reef preservation as he meets with politicians, businessmen and environmentalists here at the start of his whirlwind Caribbean tour.

Yesterday, Geoff Patton, the Deputy British High Commissioner, described Charles’ concern for the environment as “a passion,” stating that the Prince of Wales will participate in several activities with an environmental theme during his visit to Trinidad and Tobago.

The twenty-first Prince of Wales is expected to land in Tobago with his wife, Camilla Parker Bowles, the Duchess of Cornwall today at 5.35pm, where he will be greeted by a welcoming party that includes Paula Gopee-Scoon, the Foreign Affairs Minister and officials of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA).

Charles will tomorrow sail to Trinidad, for the official start of his visit aboard the HMS Leander. The Leander will dock at Staubles Bay, where the Prince will be received by the Coast Guard and be treated to a short cultural presentation. He will then pay a courtesy call on President George Maxwell Richards, before meeting with Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

Charles is scheduled to be in Trinidad and Tobago for four days ending March 6, before continuing his tour in St Lucia, Montserrat and Jamaica. The regional tour is scheduled to end on March 14.

Highlights of the Prince’s trip here include a visit to the Asa Wright Nature Centre, the oldest nature centre in the West Indies. There, he will launch a documentary about climate change by Dr Owen Day, a director of the Buccoo Reef Trust. The environmental theme will continue with a reception for business leaders and environmentalists, which will be an opportunity for discussion on the need for sustainable and business practices.

Prince Charles, who turns 60 this year, will also coincidentally participate in the 60th anniversary celebrations of the University of the West Indies, visiting the St Augustine campus to look at university memorabilia and to attend a performance put on by Acts in Action, an outreach programme of the university’s Creative Art’s Centre. This performance will also be on an environmental theme.

Prince Charles will additionally visit the Queen’s Park Cricket Club in Port-of-Spain where there are several projects aimed at using cricket as an outreach for youngsters. A number of organisations, including the St James Police Youth Club, the Blind Cricketers Association as well as the St Michael’s School for Boys will participate in this event.

Also on the agenda is a visit to the Youth Business Trust, which is linked with the Prince’s very own Prince’s Trust, a charitable youth outreach body. The trip to Trinidad will further include a visit to the training facilities at the Centre for Maritime Studies at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT).

On Thursday, Prince Charles will return to Tobago and pay a formal courtesy call on Orville London, the Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly. He is also due to visit St Patrick’s Church as well as the Tobago Martime Research Centre, which is the new home of the Buccoo Reef Trust and Coral Cay Conservation. He will then have a formal farewell on that island.

This will be Prince Charles’ second official visit to Trinidad and Tobago. His last trip was a three-day visit in February 2000.

Prince Charles is renowned internationally for his strong stance on the need to protect and preserve the environment. He was last year awarded the tenth Global Environmental Citizen Award by the Harvard Medical School’s Centre for Health and the Global Environment.

Among his more recent visits were journeys last year to Uganda and Turkey, where the environment was also a major theme for the Prince.