Main Ridge is the main mountainous ridge on the island of Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago. It is a chain of hills which runs from southwest to northeast between the Caribbean Sea and the Southern Tobago fault system and reaches a maximum height of . The Main Ridge Forest Reserve, which was legally established in 1776, is one of the oldest protected areas in the world. It is a popular site for birdwatching and ecotourism. Main Ridge provides important habitat for native plants and animals, including several species endemic to Tobago. History The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended Tobago's status as a neutral territory and made it a British colony. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle in 1748 had designated Tobago neutral territory and left it in the hands of its remaining indigenous population, but the return to British control led to a rapid conversion of the island to a plantation economy. Under the direction of the Board of Trade, the island was surveyed, divided into plots, and sold to planters. The upper portions of the Main Ridge were reserved as "Woods for the Protection of the Rains" and thus remained uncleared and uncultivated. The decision to preserve forests to maintain rainfall was driven by the efforts of Soame Jenyns, a commissioner of the Board of Trade and Member of Parliament. Jenyns was convinced of the importance of forests for preserving rainfall through the work of Stephen Hales on plant physiology and transpiration. It took Jenyns eleven years to convince the British Parliament of the importance of the endeavour, but on 13 April 1776, Parliament passed an ordinance establishing the reserve "for the purpose of attracting frequent showers of rain upon which the fertility of lands in these climates doth entirely depend". This action produced one of the oldest protected areas in the world geared towards conservation and has been described as "the first act in the modern environmental movement". Beginning in 1904, the rain reserve was combined with adjacent Crown lands and proclaimed the Main Ridge Forest Reserve. Geography Main Ridge forms the mountainous backbone of the island of Tobago, which is the smaller and more northern of the two main islands that make up the southern Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. The chain of hills is long and runs from the southwest to the northeast, roughly parallel to the orientation of the island. Main Ridge reaches an elevation of