National Spatial Development Strategy for Trinidad and Tobago.

The National Spatial Development Strategy (NSDS) provides the framework for decisions about the ways in which the national space will be used and developed over the next decade and beyond. In this context, ‘space’ includes the land, water and air, for which the people and Government of Trinidad and Tobago are responsible. The NSDS is intended to cover the ten-year period from 2013 to 2023. The vision of this document is that by 2033 Trinidad and Tobago will be a nation where people enjoy a high quality of life within a safe, healthy, inclusive and sustainable physical, socio-economic and cultural environment. The NSDS is structured around 12 objectives, grouped under three key themes and set within an overarching goal of delivering sustainable development. Those key themes are: 1) Strong and resilient communities; 2) Sustainable prosperity; 3) Sustainable infrastructure.
As a spatial development strategy, as distinct from a physical development plan, the NSDS takes a more strategic view, providing: a strategic national framework, focusing on clear and logical spatial planning principles, policies and guidance to be followed when the THA and MCs review and prepare Spatial Development Plans (SDPs) for their areas and when decisions are being made on specific development proposals; and, a broad spatial development context for key infrastructure and investment decisions. Spatial planning takes a wider, more inclusive approach. By addressing economic, social and environmental matters in an integrated way, it aims to balance and mediate between competing demands, seeking to achieve optimum use of the national space as a crucial resource. Spatial planning considers all matters that influence, and are influenced by, the ways in which space is used.
Food security is among the objectives pursued under the key theme Sustainable prosperity. This means to foster the conditions for a more prosperous agricultural sector and significantly reduce the national food import bill.
The document also aims to make agriculture more productive and sustainable. One of the objectives is to recognize the value of natural resources (including land, air and sea) and to ensure that they are used in sustainable ways, differentiating appropriately between those that are renewable as opposed to finite. Policy 12 concerns planning for agriculture and fisheries in detail. This policy includes interventions such as adoption of National Water Resource Management Strategy; review of the Agriculture Land Capability Classification; improvement of land management and tenure for farmers; promotion programmes for locally produced food; initiation of an agriculture labour programme; and, skills and training in various fishery related activities provided by the Seafood Industry Development Company (SIDC).
To increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the NSDS foresees actions to adapt the ways of living, travelling, building and communication so as to maximize resilience to the effects and impacts of climate change and to reduce contributions to factors that are adding to it.
Sustainable infrastructure encompasses generating and using energy sustainably (to reduce social and economic reliance on non-renewable energy sources and to promote and facilitate the development of more sustainable and environment-friendly alternatives) and managing waste safely and efficiently (to manage the generation, treatment and disposal of both solid and liquid waste in ways that safeguard human health and protect the environment). Moreover, using natural resources sustainably includes actions and interventions grouped under specific policies: Sustainable use of natural resources (Policy 13); Landscape management (Policy 14); A coordinated approach to water resources and water quality (Policy 15); Coastal and marine resource considerations (Policy 16); Air quality (Policy 17); Sustainable mineral use (Policy 18); Sustainable energy extraction (Policy 19).