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.[…]

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  • 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[…]

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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

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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.

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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
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Reef rescue: ordinary people can participate too

Nature Seychelles has called for the participation of local volunteers to carry out the Reef Rescuer project that will restore reefs destroyed by climate-induced bleaching. The participation of local people is crucial to the success of the project the technical manager for the project Dr. Gideon Levy has said. Participation could be in the form of volunteering and volunteers can help in preparing sites by filling nurseries with corals and in the future transplantation of coral colonies.

"Local people can learn valuable techniques for reef restoration. As we have done with our pioneering land-based island restoration programmes in the past we would like to generate a pool of skilled local persons for sustained reef restoration." Nirmal Shah, Nature Seychelles Chief Executive said on Praslin.

The call was made at a stakeholders workshop to introduce the USAID-Reef Rescue project being implemented by the organisation. Held at the Island Conservation Centre, Praslin, the workshop brought together representatives of the Seychelles National Parks Authority, Seychelles Fishing Authority, Seychelles Hospitality & Tourism Association, Praslin Development Fund, Seychelles Islands Foundation and local boat charters.

Levy introduced participants to the reef gardening concept that will be used to restore coral reefs on two sites on Praslin and Cousin Island Special Reserve. Although there are a number of techniques being used globally to re-grow corals, this model has been selected for its simplicity, cost effectiveness, and low negative impact on donor sites. The technique is called gardening due to its similarity to terrestrial forestation methods.

During the first stage, Levy explained, coral nurseries will be established in sheltered areas away from harmful human and natural impacts. They will be given the best conditions possible to help high growth rates and survivorship of the small coral fragments.

In the second stage, corals that have grown to a required colony size will be transferred from the nursery and transplanted in pre-selected and treated degraded reef sites, in similar conditions as where they originated from, to give them a high chance of survival. As they are nurtured, the corals then slowly dominate and take over the reef attracting fish and invertebrates bringing  a more healthy state, although survival is highly dependent on site selection.

Sites are usually selected based on the long-term goal of the restoration, be it to restore the ecosystem such as on Cousin or for tourism purposes. They are also selected for their natural attributes and stability - the granitic reefs for example are more stable than carbonate reefs and recent studies have shown that there is more natural recovery success on granitic reefs.

Successful re-colonisation of the sites will depend on what is stressing corals at the moment, participants heard. This could be anthropogenic impacts such as pollution, reduction of light by turbidity and siltation inflicted by construction and sedimentation and breakage caused by boat and recreational activities or natural impact like macro-algae dominance. After the bleaching occurred, algae took over the dead reefs, and the dead coral broke into rubble creating a substrate not solid enough for coral survival. Suitable sites are best located away from activities that would have a negative impact and preparation and treatment like substrate solidification and algae removal will have to take place in order to improve chances for success.

Participants at the workshop said they were keen to be involved in the projected. It is also expected that the practices, results and lessons learned will be cascaded in Seychelles and the Region through the preparation of a guidebook for restoration and a business model. People from all scopes of the community, both divers or snorkelers are welcome to get better awareness and understanding of the state and importance of the reefs of the area, and learn about reef conservation and restoration by volunteering and personally experiencing the methodologies discussed above.   

Listen to Nirmal Shah talk about the USAID/Nature Seychelles Reef Rescue project

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Partners & Awards

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Our History

Since 1998.

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

@CousinIsland Manager

Facebook: http://goo.gl/Q9lXM

Roche Caiman, Mahe

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Contact Us

Centre for Environment & Education

Roche Caiman,

P.O. Box 1310, Mahe, Seychelles

Tel:+ 248 2519090

Email: nature@seychelles.net