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

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.

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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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So you always wanted to know how to bring corals back to life, you just didn't know who to ask

Nature Seychelles will in June this year offer a six week training course in coral reef restoration. Under the Reef Rescuers Project, Nature Seychelles has worked on restoring degraded coral reefs using experts and specialists in marine science. The work was funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with added financial support by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The coral reef restoration project began in 2010 and was implemented on Praslin, Mahe and Cousin Island Special Reserve.

The Reef Rescuers Project uses the ‘coral gardening’ method to restore corals that have been negatively impacted by changing climatic, and therefore sea conditions. In the Seychelles, as with many countries in the region, coral bleaching and ocean warming are a threat to marine ecosystems and to the livelihoods of coastal people.

In coral gardening, as used by the reef rescue team, fragments of corals are reared in underwater nurseries then transplanted to degraded reef. In the years that the scientists have been working on reef restoration, they have come up with best practices and developed new techniques for large scale coral reef restoration. The reef rescue training program has been created from the experience of the reef rescue team.

The training program will consist of academic and practical training based on the reef gardening concept and covering how to build underwater nurseries and transplant corals to a degraded site. The course is ideal for those working in marine conservation with basic knowledge in reef ecology and the scientific method. Those who apply for the course also need to have a SCUBA diving certificate. There are only 8 places open to applicants.

The Reef Rescue Training Program was designed and will be run by Dr Sarah Frais-Torres and Dr Phanor Montoya-Maya. Sarah, a marine ecologist and biological oceanographer, is the coordinator of the Reef Rescuers Project. Sarah’s research interests include marine biodiversity, conservation biology, climate change effects on marine ecosystems, coral reef and mangrove ecosystem resilience, and developing novel low cost hi-tech ocean sensors.

Phanor is a marine biologist specializing in coral reef ecology and reef connectivity. His academic background is in biology, ichthyology and marine biology. Phanor first joined the reef rescue team in 2014 when he volunteered as a scientific diver for six months and was then appointed technical and scientific officer. Phanor has also worked as a coral specialist for the National Geographic Pristine Seas expedition to Mozambique and as a research assistant at the Oceanographic Research Institute in South Africa.

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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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