Eco-tourism is much talked about, but we all know that it differs from destination to destination. The ecotourism that is promoted in Mauritius is different from that in Seychelles, for example.

It is said that Seychelles has some outstanding ecotourism sites. But how do we really judge whether this the case or not? Well, one way is to ask the visitors. A study has been ongoing on Cousin Island to look at this subject. We are studying the visitor experience, examining the impacts and reviewing the way tourism is handled.

Seychelles has an incredible 32 species of land, shore, brackish water and freshwater crabs. These do not include all the marine crabs that inhabit the sea. We were interested in knowing which species of crabs inhabit the dry or terrestrial part of different islands and in what kind of numbers because crabs can be a good indicators of environmental changes.
 

Cousine is a small island about 6 kilometres from Praslin. It is owned by a private company The island is a wildlife hotspot and has been protected over the years by the previous owner with the help of BirdLife International. Under the present owner Cousine Island Pty, a conservation program has been running for about 15 years. The company has built a very small and ecologically friendly luxury hotel.

After the first find  of  the Wedge-tailed Shearwaters   in December 2005, we are now celebrating another finding on the island. On 25-5-06, our Island Conservationist Unels Bristol found 1 nest of another sea bird on the opposite cliff of the first finding. Nesting in a cavity at the base of a very old Casuarina tree, a black and white bird with a very long tail was spotted for the first time, confirming breeding on North Island (*). Yes, it was the Whitetailed Tropic bird sitting on an egg!