The two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean (just off the coast of Venezuela) may be smaller than Delaware, but it has had an outsized role in the history of rainforest conservation as well as our understanding of tropical ecology. Home to an astounding number of tropical ecosystems and over 3,000 species and counting (including 470 bird species in just 2,000 square miles), Trinidad and Tobago is an often overlooked gem in the world’s biodiversity. “In the last 100 years, work in these forests was instrumental in deciphering principles we now take for granted. For example: echolocation in bats, animal chemical defenses and mimicry,” Nigel Noriega, the director of Sustainable Innovation Initiatives (SSI) told mongabay.com adding that the “Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve is under consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it is on record as the world’s oldest legally protected forest reserve geared specifically towards a conservation purpose.