Oceans 5: Projects enabling Seychelles’ marine protection showcase

Denis Island falls under Zone 2 of the SMSP along with five others. (Gerard Larose)

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The Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaption Trust (SeyCCAT) held a workshop with key organisations that have contributed to the Oceans 5-funded project “Enabling Seychelles Marine Spatial Plan” (SMSP) to showcase their accomplishments.

The project involved implementation partners, including the Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Energy, the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA), Marine Conservation Society Seychelles (MCSS), Save Our Seas Foundation’s D’Arros Research Centre, Green Islands Foundation (GIF), and the Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF).

The SMSP is an initiative approved in October 2020 focused on planning for and managing the sustainable and long-term use and health of Seychelles’ ocean. It covers the 1.4 million square kilometres of country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)  and is expected to support the island nation’s Blue Economy.

It also includes the demarcation of more than 410,000 square kilometres which amounts to 30 percent of Seychelles’ ocean area, as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). There are 13 MPAs divided into several zones, with the model protected being Zone 1 – High Biodiversity Protection Areas where almost no extractive human activities are allowed.

The SeyCCAT‘s grants manager, Liam Weber, said that Ocean5, funded by the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, targets the gaps that exist in the SMSP.

Using Denis Island, which is owned by the Seychellois Mason family, as an example, he said that through the GIF, it developed and managed a plan for the sustainable use around the island.

Denis Island falls under Zone 2 of the SMSP along with five others, the Amirantes group to Fortune Bank, the Cosmoledo as Astove atolls, the Farquhar group, and Desroches and Poivre Atolls.   

The general manager of Green Island Foundation (GIF), a not-for-profit organisation, Wilna Accouche, showed the Denis Island Sustainable Use Area management plan.

The Denis Island Sustainable Use Area is approximately 29 square kilometres and encompasses a distance of 2 km long around the island up to the high-water mark. The area is rich in marine biodiversity with perhaps one of the most important green turtle populations in inner Seychelles and there are also fishing activities conducted within this zone.

Accouche explained in her presentation that among the challenges is how to find continuous funding to keep the initiative sustainable on Denis Island.

The Ocean 5 projects, which started in June 2021 and will end August 2024, has a budget of $900,000.

Weber said, “The project supports missing capacity areas and gaps in knowledge of things we didn’t understand yet, which will benefit Seychelles for a long time.”

Among other benefits from the Ocean 5 are the environmental monitoring regimes and protocols carried out in chosen areas every month.