News and Blogs

  1. Latest News
  2. Cousin Island News
  3. Blue Economy Seychelles
  4. Green Health Blog
  • Research: Roaming seabirds need ocean-wide protection, research shows

    Unlike other oceans, which are known to have specific “hotspots” where predators, including seabirds, gather in large numbers to feed, the Indian Ocean lacks such concentrated feeding areas, a recent paper has revealed. This lack of hotspots is particularly concerning given the various threats seabirds face due to human activities.[…]

    Read more...
  • Saya de Malha leaves for its third dFAD clean-up expedition

    (Seychelles Nation) The Saya de Malha vessel of the Seychelles Coast Guard (SCG) left Port Victoria yesterday afternoon for its third drifting Fishing Aggregate Devices (dFAD) expedition clean-up exercise in Seychelles territorial waters and shores of the outer islands. As customary since the first expedition in October 2022, students from Seychelles[…]

    Read more...
next
prev

Coming Soon!

Coral Aquaculture Facility!

coral aquaculture web banner

We have started work on the Assisted Recovery of Corals (ARC) facility to revolutionise our coral reef restoration process Learn more

Find Us On ...

Implementing the SDGs

At Nature Seychelles we are committed to working with government, development partners and donors in implementing relevant actions, in particular, looking at certain goals where we can build on our existing strengths. Read more

Seychelles Wildlife

Natural environment of the Seychelles

Seychelles is a unique environment, which sustains a very special biodiversity. It is special for a number of different reasons. These are the oldest oceanic islands to be found anywhere...

Bird Watching

Seychelles is a paradise for birdwatchers, you can easily see the unique land birds, the important sea bird colonies, and the host of migrants and vagrants. Some sea bird...

Seychelles Black Parrot

Black Parrot or Kato Nwar in Creolee is brown-grey in colour, not truly black. Many bird experts treat it as a local form of a species found in Madagascar and...

Fairy Tern

The Fairy (or white) Tern is a beautiful bird seen on all islands in Seychelles, even islands like Mahe where they are killed by introduced rats, cats and Barn Owls....

Introduced Land Birds

A little over two hundred years ago, there were no humans living permanently in Seychelles. When settlement occurred, people naturally brought with them the animals and plants they needed to...

Native Birds

Although over 190 different species of bird have been seen on or around the central islands of Seychelles (and the number is increasing all the time), many of these are...

Migrant Shore Birds

Shallow seas and estuaries are very rich in invertebrate life. Many birds feed on the worms, crabs and shellfish in these habitats; often, they have long bills for probing sand...

Seychelles Magpie Robin

The most endangered of the endemic birds, Seychelles Magpie Robin or Pi Santez in Creole, came close to extinction in the late twentieth century; in 1970 there were only about...

Seychelles Blue Pigeon

The Seychelles Blue Pigeon or Pizon Olande in Creole, spends much of its life in the canopy of trees and eats the fruits of figs, bwa dir, ylang ylang and...

Seychelles White-eye

The Seychelles White-eye or Zwazo Linet in Creole, is rare and endemic. They may sometimes be seen in gardens and forest over 300m at La Misere, Cascade and a few...

Seychelles Black Paradise Flycatcher

The Seychelles Black Paradise Flycatcher or the Vev in Creole is endemic to Seychelles, you cannot find this bird anywhere else on earth. Although it was once widespread on...

Seychelles Sunbird

The tiny sunbird or Kolibri in Creole, is one of the few endemic species that has thrived since humans arrived in the Seychelles.

«
»

Achievements

  • Stopped near extinctions of birds +

    Down-listing of the critically endangered Seychelles warbler from Critically Endangered to Near Threatened. Other Seychelles birds have also been saved including the Seychelles Magpie Robin, Seychelles Fody, and the Seychelles
  • Restored whole island ecosystems +

    We transformed Cousin Island from a coconut plantation to a thriving vibrant and diverse island ecosystem. Success achieved on Cousin was replicated on other islands with similar conservation activities.
  • Championed climate change solutions +

    Nature Seychelles has risen to the climate change challenge in our region in creative ways to adapt to the inevitable changing of times.
  • Education and Awareness +

    We have been at the forefront of environmental education, particularly with schools and Wildlife clubs
  • Sustainable Tourism +

    We manage the award-winning eco-tourism programme on Cousin Island started in 1970
  • 1
  • 2

SEYCHELLES ON THE WORLD MAP

Few people are familiar with the unique Seychelles Gardiner’s frog, which scientists often refer to as “perhaps the world’s smallest frog, with adults growing up to just 11mm in length – and juveniles no bigger than a grain of rice.” This frog, along with its closest relatives, all of which are only found in the Seychelles, on the islands of Mahe and Silhouette, has kept Seychelles on the international biodiversity radar.

Restoring whole island ecosystems

Between colonization in the 1770s and the 1980s the staple of the Seychelles economy was plantation agriculture; spices such as cinnamon, coconut as well as tobacco, and food crops were grown. By the early 20th Century the plantations extended over most of the land mass of the Seychelles, the native forests had largely been obliterated. .The problems were compounded by the introduction of alien predators, collection of animals for food, mining of guano and in the latter 20th Century the applications of pesticides.  Under these multiple assaults many native species populations became rare, fragmented or extinct.

Economic changes over the last three decades have coincided with more enlightened views: over the 1970s and 1980s the plantations became unprofitable and have mostly been abandoned; this coincided with the start of tourism, which has provided

sustainable funding for islands managing their biodiversity sensitively. The result has been that the Seychelles, despite being one of the smallest countries is a world leader in environmental restoration. Restoration or rehabilitation has been conducted on a number of the islands, and typically involves several stages:

  • The removal of alien predators such as rats
  • The control or removal of alien plants and replacement with native species
  • The reintroduction of native animals

The island restoration programme initiated in 1999, initially under a GEF MSP-Management of Avian Ecosystems- in the Seychelles points the way to sustainable mechanisms of island restoration. A collaborative effort between Nature Seychelles, private island owners and the Seychelles Government, the program is ongoing. Components include biological assessment of islands, cost analysis of restoration and maintenance, education and awareness, island management plans, removal of alien predators and other invasive alien species, establishment or rehabilitation of native coastal habitats, translocation of globally threatened endemic species and socio-economic valuation of restored ecosystems and ecotourism,. Islands in the programme include Frégate, Cousine, North and Denis Islands, private 5 -star hotel resorts. Establishment of new populations of endangered species will not only lead to down grading of the threat status of these species on the IUCN Red List but also to enhancing ecotourism potential thus inducing hotel owners to contribute to conservation efforts. The program has been financed by the GEF, the Seychelles government and island owners and has involved international partners such as BirdLife International. 

Biodiversity management has developed immensely in the last 30 years, now standard procedures have been developed to remove alien species, rehabilitate native forest and re-introduce native species.  Nature Seychelles has published biological assessments of many Seychelles islands as well developing a manual of assessment methods. The organisation has also published several papers on the subject including methods of eradicating Mynah birds.

The removal of rats is a prerequisite for restoration, and the methods first developed in New Zealand have been refined for the Seychelles climate and conditions.  The process involves the application of a poison in a cereal based carrier pellet to all parts of the island.  This can be done on foot, by placing bait on a 25 metre grid across an island on flat islands or by spreading the bait from a helicopter on large or rocky islands.  To date three islands have been successfully cleared of rats: Frégate Island Private, Bird Island and Denis Island.  Several others have been cleared of cats.

Forest restoration has also been carried out on several islands since Cousin was restored, Cousine and Aride have both had successful forest recovery programmes, removing alien species, constructing and stocking a nursery and replanting with native trees.

The final element is the re-introduction of native species, to date mainly birds.  Several species have been reintroduced to restored islands in planned programmes in recent years: the Seychelles magpie robin has been reintroduced to three islands, the Seychelles warbler to three and the Seychelles fody to two.  Re-introduction should not be taken lightly, a thorough understanding of the species ecology and hence suitability of the islands is needed.  Birds are the best studied taxon, and hence have been reintroduced first, but as research and interest in restoration increase, reintroduction of other groups such as reptiles and insects seems likely in the near future.

Cousin, the first restored ecosystem
Cousin was acquired for conservation in 1969; at the time it was managed as a coconut plantation.  The primary motive for the purchase of Cousin was that it held the last population of the Seychelles warbler, numbering about thirty birds that were largely restricted to the mangrove woodland, the last fragment of native forest. Early management was low key; the most important action was to collect coconuts that had fallen to the ground.  This prevented the growth of a dense under-story of young palms that would prevent native plants from growing.

With the coconut under control the native trees began to regenerate, one of the most abundant being Pisonia grandis (Mapou in kreol), the sticky seeds being spread on the plumage of seabirds. Other trees that prevailed in small numbers have also recovered.  In the early 1990s most of the remaining coconuts palms were removed and now the vast majority of the vegetation is native.

Cousin was one of the few islands that remained free of rats and mice, and hence cats were never introduced to control them. With the recovering forest and absence of alien predators native animals flourished. The Seychelles warbler population increased 10 fold, colonies of seabirds expanded greatly, and the endemic skinks and Bronze eyed gecko occur at high densities.  A small number of Seychelles Magpie robins were introduced in the mid 1990s; there is now a thriving population of 30 birds.

Restoring whole island ecosystems on Denis Island: A private sector and NGO collaboration

Denis island has seen extensive environmental disturbance in the past, with removal of guano and creation of a coconut plantation over most of the island.  Pesticides have been used in the past and the island was infested with mice and rats. Like many islands in the Seychelles its flora and fauna consisted mostly of alien species. The island owners have been desirous for some time to restore Denis to its natural state.

In 1999 the island management agreed on a joint program with Nature Seychelles which has proven expertise in species rehabilitation and island restoration.  Denis Island management funded the eradication of rats and mice in 2000 and 2002. Nature Seychelles through a World Bank GEF project has undertaken a complete biological assessment of the island, cost analysis of restoration and maintenance, an island management plan and planting of native trees. It has undertaken the translocation of globally threatened endemic species.

The aim of the habitat management was to promote a more extensive high-canopy forest of native tree species which provide plenty of invertebrate food for birds and other endemic wildlife. The first stage of the habitat management by Nature Seychelles’ island assessment and restoration teams involved the removal of hundreds of coconut palms, most of which were self-sown plants from the original plantation palms, from around thirty hectares of woodland. In places these palms grew so thickly as to exclude all other vegetation.

A nursery was established by Nature Seychelles to provide about 2000 young trees of various native species for planting out. The second phase of work by the team was the planting of these saplings in the areas cleared of coconut growth.  With additional natural regeneration, all the woodland areas should begin to fill with native trees in a few years time.

Denis Island now has no introduced predators: during this project, two cats (apparently the last individuals on the island) were killed, and the population of Mynah birds was considerably reduced. Unfortunately, despite an eradication attempt by the island management in 2000 black rats were once again on the island. However, in 2002 another eradication was successful. 

Two rare species of Seychelles birds the Seychelles Warbler and the Seychelles Fody were transferred by Nature Seychelles to Denis in 2004 and these are successfully breeding.

Since 2002, Denis island management pays for a permanent conservation officer. The officer undertakes measures to guarantee that rodents do not re-invade the island and has ensured that dangerous pesticides have been phased out and practices on the island are compatible with conservation. It is hoped the full potential of the island will be realised when the native habitats fill most of the island and other endemic wildlife is established.

Seychelles Warbler: saved from extinction

In 1959, the endemic Seychelles warbler was one of the world’s rarest birds.  The establishment of coconut plantations on the Seychelles had resulted in massive levels of habitat destruction.  As a consequence the warbler had been wiped out from most of its original range.  Only one population of just 26 birds survived in a mangrove swamp on the tiny island of Cousin.

Seychelles Warbler © Will Meinderts

Partners & Awards

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3

Our History

Since 1998.

Seychelles Nature, Green HealthClimate Change, Biodiversity Conservation & Sustainability Organisation

@CousinIsland Manager

Facebook: http://goo.gl/Q9lXM

Roche Caiman, Mahe

Donate

We accept donations. Your support and generosity help us continue with our work in nature conservation in Seychelles. Email nature@seychelles.netdonate

Contact Us

Centre for Environment & Education

Roche Caiman,

P.O. Box 1310, Mahe, Seychelles

Tel:+ 248 2519090

Email: nature@seychelles.net