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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What would you do if your home garden was destroyed?

I want you to imagine having a vegetable garden in your home, and you get your daily portion of veggies from this garden. But one day, a storm or a pest comes and kills most of your stock. Consequently you are now faced with protecting what is left, restocking or a mix of both. Which option would you choose so you may continue harvesting from your garden?

Dr. Phanor Montoya-Maya posed this introductory question to participants in an online webinar focusing on Nature Seychelles’ coral reef restoration work in the last five years. Phanor was the Technical and Scientific Officer in Nature Seychelles’ Reef Rescuers Program and remains an Associate to the organization. He is currently back in his home country Columbia promoting coral reef restoration work.

 Reef Rescuers Louise Malaise (L) and Phanor Montoya (R) breaking a coral into several pieces for the underwater coral nursery

The webinar, titled ‘Coral Gardening as an MPA (Marine Protected Area) Management Tool’, was hosted by Kristen Maize, Strategic Communications Manager for The Nature Conservancy, Hawai'i Program. She also runs webinars for the Reef Resilience Network. After the two met last year, Ms Maize invited Phanor to share his experience with the Reef Rescuers Project in a webinar.

“Nature Seychelles pioneered science-based, low-tech large-scale reef restoration in the Western Indian Ocean,” Phanor says. “The project has enhanced the natural recovery of a degraded reef. While other reefs around the world are struggling with the third massive bleaching event, our transplanted site, our "engineered" site, is fighting back. There is less coral mortality on our site. We can claim that we did bring a dead reef back to life. We are ready to replicate it anywhere in the world.”

The Reef Rescuers Project was realised with funding from USAID and other donors. During the webinar, Phanor outlined the genesis of the project, citing the massive 1998 coral bleaching event in Seychelles and other parts of the world, caused by El Nino. During this bleaching event, 98% of corals in the Seychelles died. Later in 2004 and in 2010 there was further coral mortality. He detailed the methods Nature Seychelles used to restore coral reefs at various sites around Cousin Island Special Reserve and Praslin Island, highlighting successes, lessons learnt and recommendations.

 The nurseries require a lot of attention including cleaning - using a recycled toothbrush

“Our Reef Rescuers Project and results are evidence that scientifically sound, well planned, properly structured, long-term and large-scale active reef restoration efforts together with enforced area protection can significantly assist in the recovery of degraded reefs,” Phanor pointed out. “More importantly, they are evidence that the two strategies are complementary if we are to restore coral reef goods and services. Reef managers and decision makers now have a baseline to initiate similar projects around the world.”

The Reef Rescuers Project used coral gardening, by creating underwater nurseries from coral fragments that had survived and were thought to be more resilient to bleaching. These underwater gardens are what Phanor alludes to in the webinar when he poses the question of how to respond to the destruction of a home vegetable garden, and therefore to the loss of one’s food source. Indeed, coral reefs are vital marine ecosystems and their health and survival is therefore integral to the livelihoods of coastal communities, not to mention the fisheries industry.

“What we lose through the complete degradation of coral reefs greatly underscores the need for coral reef protection and restoration,” Phanor stresses. “The cost of coral reef restoration, which seems high today, is minimal compared to the losses of ecosystem goods and services from degraded reefs. It will be more expensive just to sit and wait. We need to act now!”

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