Saint Lucia Forestry Stories: Christopher Cox “Crown Lands Demarcation days; under the Land Registration and Titling Programme”
Christopher Cox Junior Officer, 1985 to 1992, Assistant Chief Forestry Officer, 1992-2002. Saint Lucia Forestry Department
Contributed by Christopher Cox, September 2024
I started working at the then Forestry Division almost straight out of the St. Lucia A Level College (now the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College) in August 1985. I was initially assigned the job of tour guide on the Central Rainforest Trail that traversed the government forest reserve from the heights of Micoud near Mahaut on the eastern side of the forest reserve to Edmund Forest near Fond St. Jacques on the western side. Normally I would conduct three tours per week with tourists, along with my fellow tour guides, Christina Pierre and Margaret Ishmael. During the other days of the week, I busied myself writing and illustrating environmental educational materials, among these doing art for the Voice Newspaper supplement called ‘BushTalk’ that was authored by Maria Grech and illustrated by Alwyn St. Omer, where I took over after he proceeded on studies in Jamaica. While the tour guiding was not a bad job; it gave me ample inspiration for my art, however I wanted something more technically challenging. That is when Gabriel ‘Coco’ Charles who was the Chief Forestry Officer offered me the position of survey assistant, or more specifically ‘demarcation officer’, assigning me to the Crown Lands Department (that at the time was under the oversight of the Chief Forestry Officer) to work under Gregor Hall, the Chief Crown Lands Officer.
From 1983 to 1987 the Government of Saint Lucia implemented an ambitious undertaking known as the Land Registration and Titling Project (LRTP). This entailed the development of a comprehensive land cadastre whereby all land parcels were to be demarcated; that is the boundaries identified and surveyed, the data from the surveys mapped in a series of map sheets at a 1:2,500 scale. The project was financed by USAID to the tune of US$9.5 million under a wider scope of work, the St. Lucia Agricultural Structural Adjustment Project (ASAP). This work was borne out of a significant challenge that plagued the agricultural sector, where a large percentage of the farmlands under cultivation were under family or joint ownership where in many cases, legal documentation that proved title to heirs simply did not exist. Without clear legal individual title to lands, financial institutions were not in a position to advance credit to applicants to invest in their farming enterprises, given that they could not show ownership title to the lands upon which they were farming. A land surveying company based in San Antonio, Texas; United Aerial Mapping (UAM) Inc. was contracted by the Government of Saint Lucia to undertake the project. The process involved the landowners clearing the vegetation along their known boundaries, showing any survey markers or pegs to the UAM survey teams on scheduled appointment days. If there were no disagreement between adjacent landowners, the boundaries were established as final. However, in cases where there were disputes between adjacent landowners over the alignment of the boundaries, these were referred to a Land Adjudication process. All this was facilitated under the Land Surveyors Act, the Land Adjudication Act, and the Land Registration Act. By the end of the project a total of 33,287 parcels were demarcated across the island.
Under the LRTP not only private landowners had to demarcate and ‘register’ their lands, but also the government; this is where I was given what was for me being relatively young, quite a significant responsibility – leading the field work in the demarcation of all ‘Crown’ or Government Lands in the northern portion of the island, under Mr. Hall’s supervision. My area stretched from the Millet-Roseau Valley in the west across to the Louvet area in the east. In those days the country was also the beneficiary of a major forestry management project that was financed through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA, since 2013 merged under Global Affairs Canada) that aimed to improve governance and protection of the country’s forest resources, and also to build the needed human and institutional resource capacity of the Forestry department. This project included a comprehensive cadastral survey and demarcation of the forest reserve boundaries which by 1986 when I joined the LRTP work, was in the final stages of completion. A Canadian land surveyor under the CIDA project, Robert K. ‘Bob’ Harris, gave me and other field staff of the Crown Lands Department, training in survey principles and use of basic survey tools; compass and inclinometer that allowed us to trace boundary lines based on running a traverse line from known survey markers. This training was complemented by assigning us to the survey assistants who worked under Bob, namely Celsus ‘Lurch’ Baptiste, Marcus Alcindor, Thomas Laville and Vincent ‘Chwazey’ Jn. Baptiste.
After learning enough of the ropes and gaining competence in using the instruments I was assigned a field crew to work with; cutlass men/utility workers who would clean away the vegetation along the boundary line, help with measuring the ground distance with the measuring tape or ‘chain’ and undertake the extremely arduous task of carrying on their backs, often over long distances in steep terrain, pre-mixed cement and 4-foot steel marker posts to set in the ground to permanently mark the boundary line corners and points in-between. The field crew with nicknames the likes of ‘Rambo’, ‘Scarborough’, ‘Natiwel’, ‘Small Boy’ and ‘Sagatin’ were compared to me, supermen; fit for the bush, most having grown up in the rural communities harvesting bananas that entailed wielding the massive bunches weighing at least 50 lbs on their heads, to carry them from the fields often in steep remote areas. In my first days these rough guys considered me…this ‘boug blan’ (white person) from Castries, a ‘ti kilibwi’ (little hummingbird) and would laugh at my efforts to try to assert myself in commanding the crew, never mind trying to communicate out in the field, barely able speak kwéyòl! Rounding up the crew was the driver, Thomas ‘Zeek’ Isidore, a speed demon who caused my life to flash before my eyes on many occasions, as he tore through the narrow winding roads in our crew vehicle, a yellow Mitsubishi 4×4 L200 pickup, prominently displaying the CIDA logo no less.
Also assigned to my crew at times was Patrick ‘Ima’ Charles and at some later stage Baxter ‘Blackstone’ Bushell as a survey assistant. I also worked with Raymond Stephen who was a Crown Lands Assistant from Bexon but lived in Sarrot, who had extensive mental recall of where all the Crown Lands were situated and could at times remember precisely where survey markers were located…extremely valuable to the field work. Also part of the team was Sylvie Raymond who did the research, scouring the map archives in the Lands and Surveys Department that would allow me to set up the job before entering the field. A key part of the research to inform the field surveys, was going to the Lands and Surveys Department to search through the map vaults to access usually very old survey plans, since many of the Crown Land parcels had not been surveyed in recent times. We sometimes had to consult the historic Lefort de Latour map that was done in 1786 by Jean François Lefort de Latour, Surveyor to the King of France. This map showed the land parcels at the time which were for the most part agricultural estates, many of which operated as sugar estates under slave labour. The map was drawn on a large canvas and was something akin to the holy grail for land tenure matters in Saint Lucia, representing the earliest effort to map land parcels and the basis for land transactions that have evolved to present. Some of the names of these estates, usually named after the owners still remain today as place names such as ‘Ferrand’, ‘Bexon’, ‘Dme. Millet’, ‘Troumassee’, ‘Piaye’, ‘Blanchard’.
The field work was extremely difficult, having to access old forgotten boundary markers that were typically rusted remnants buried in forest and shrubbery, having been set in some cases more than 100 years ago. Most of the Crown Lands I needed to survey were situated in the mountainous interior of the island, accessible only by ancient footpaths or none at all, where the crew needed to cutlass through the bush, accessing the boundary line markers that were typically located on ridgelines. The trek to the jobsite sometimes took as long as an hour across treacherous terrain; at times having to dig your fingers into the muddy slopes and tree roots to negotiate cliff faces or crossing deep gorges over moss-covered fallen trees. Often these areas included patches that were covered with sharp razor grass and a running vine with sharp thorns called kok-chein. Open areas that were usually recovering from a prior landslide would become covered with ferns and crossing these areas usually resulted in you picking up small burrowing mites or ‘chiggers’ locally called bête rouge that would be attracted to places on your skin that was in close contact with your clothing…usually meaning the waist and crotch lines of your underwear and those things would itch for days!!! You had to rub these areas in oil or kerosene if I recall, to kill the blasted things. And of course, in the rainy season that ran from June to November, you got drenched most days.
In the field, the basic procedure was that you would find the known survey marker as the reference point for running the traverse, then based on the directions and distances of the boundary line as shown on the survey plan (that you kept in a waterproof envelope), you would direct the cutlass men to cut the boundary line path, carrying with them the end of chain (measuring tape) to record the distance as they went. You would convert at each cut segment as you proceeded, the sloped (terrain) distance measurement, to horizontal distance as per the map distance (using a simple trigonometric calculation based on the angle measured from the clinometer) and directed the cutlass men to advance until they reached the specified distance to where they should encounter the next survey marker. I must say that I quickly became very good that this work and would surprise the crew when the lead cutlass man would clank the cutlass against the ancient iron marker in concrete yelling, “iron found!” after sometimes cutting the line over quite some distance over wicked terrain. Some of these markers would have been lost for decades and to be able to retrace the boundary line using relatively simple tools, I think was testament to our great teamwork.
There were some memorable moments during my stint as a demarcation officer. One of these involved a land demarcation of the extension at the western end of the George F.L. Charles (Vigie) Airport runway. Over the years, the airport had undergone extensions to gradually accommodate larger aircraft. One of these extensions was recently done by landfilling the end of the runway with dredged material from the Castries Harbor. According to the law, reclaimed lands were classed as Crown Lands, where in this case they were under the jurisdiction of the St Lucia Air and Seaports Authority. On a particular day, with the survey plans in hand we went to the land where we met the adjacent landowner whose lands adjoined the new extension on his southern boundary. He claimed that according to his survey plan his southern boundary was the sea. Of course, this was no longer the case as the extension filled the area to his property’s southern boundary. He remained adamant that we had no right to be on the land saying that we were trespassing and that we would be taken to court. I continued to survey the boundary markers while he cursed and threatened us. I completed the work and gave instructions to the crew to monument the lands the following day with the 4-foot marker poles (that would be cast in concrete) so that the extents of the crown lands would be clear. The next day I remained in office to catch up on preparations for the next field assignment while the crew went back to the jobsite. Within about an hour they returned to the office claiming that the landowner fired warning shots that them, effectively chasing them off the land. Needless to say, that case had to be filed for adjudication. After a couple sittings at the Adjudication Court, he wised up and dropped his counterclaim against the government. This was an unusual case, and in general we faced few issues in all the work I did during the period of assignment over the 18 months. I demarcated lands at Morne Fortune around the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College (including lands on which housing for medical doctors were located), Tapion, Bananes Bay, Bisee (where facilities such as the National Emergency Management Organization are now located), the large residual portions of Crown Lands at Dauphin, the adjacent lands on the eastern boundary of the Castries Waterworks forest reserve at Louvet, Odsan and at Deglos (the present site of the sanitary landfill), other lands in Bexon, the Capistron Ridge at Sarot, and the vast acreages of residual Crown Lands extending from the Barre de l’Isle all the way to the Roseau River.
Among these memories were antics driving on the highway going to or coming from the job sites. One occasion was when we were driving to a site in the morning along the Castries to Vieux Fort Highway. I was in the passenger seat with Zeek at the wheel, speeding of course, with two of the crew in the open cab in the back. Ahead of us a wall of heavy rain was approaching. Zeek yelled to me “Coxy move over and take de gearshift and clutch pedal!” (the vehicle was a manual). He then yelled to the guys in the back to come into the front…while the vehicle was moving!!! Without hesitation the passenger door was yanked open from the outside and the two guys swung themselves from the back into the left side of the seat – this vehicle had a continuous single seat. I was then squashed in the middle with the job of changing the gears and managing the clutch, while he operated the brake and accelerator. Well, no one died that day!
Another time that will live in driving infamy was when we were leaving a work site at Odsan when Zeek suddenly announced “Coxy drive!” At that time, I was learning to drive, and I guess in his ‘good hearted nature’ wanted to give me a taste of the country roads. Now for him and the fellas, amidst the usual ribbing, this was yet another test for me…and dem were not easy judges! So, with some hesitation and no doubt irresponsibly, without a full driver’s licence (and further, one needed additional endorsement to drive a goods-class vehicle), I got behind the wheel, with Zeek on the passenger side and the survey crew piled in the back. All went well as I made my way down the Odsan road toward the main intersection with the busy Castries-Vieux Fort Highway. Approaching the intersection, I started to gear down but somehow encountered difficulty in getting the gear selection, and panic quickly set in as I fumbled the gearshift, clutching in repeatedly and somehow not applying the brake sufficiently. In the fog of panic as we quickly neared the junction, I could hear Zeek screaming “Cox brake!!…BRAAKE!!!!”, but this was to no avail as we swerved right into the highway, sliding sideways, clear across the road and stopping in the grassy verge on the other side. As I sat there sweating bricks, Zeek roared out a stream of profanities, almost wanting to beat me down right there and then, not to mention the guys in the back, who dumped on heaps of insults and profanities, laughing hysterically with the word ‘lanmen won’ (translates to clumsy driver) ringing in my ears! Well at least no one died that day!
Notwithstanding how tough the work was, I enjoyed it…solid technical work, and it gave me the opportunity especially during lunch breaks while the crew was relaxing (with the joint sometimes passing around) to whip out my sketchbook and sketch out scenes of inspiration; birds and plants that I would later use in my artwork. Notwithstanding initial bumps in the road, my success in locating ancient survey markers contributed to the quality of the work, which was affirmed by Gregor Hall and Robert Harris as I demonstrated my capabilities and developed a strong bond with my crew. I did the job up to September 1987 when I left the island to pursue a bachelor’s degree in forest resources management at the University of New Brunswick in Canada, sponsored under the St. Lucia CIDA Forestry Project. This introduction to surveying work inspired my eventual professional interest in land management and particularly in geographic information systems (GIS) that I would later use extensively in my applied research and policy work within the Forestry Department and the Ministry of Agriculture, supporting work in land management policy and GIS applications at the national level.
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