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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TREASURES OF THE SHELF

It is a subject least talked about.....yet its an issue of immense bounty.....Nirmal has some insights

[VICTORIA 17/03/2008] “It may be quite misleading to equate a small island with a small nation. An island with an Exclusive Economic Zone  (EEZ) covers a sea area of 431,000 sq. kilometers while an extended archipelago country may extend over a much larger area, such as the 1,374,000 sq. kilometer EEZ of the Seychelles. Measured per capita, most small island islanders are therefore enormously rich in terms of marine resources.” These words are from an 18 page article I wrote in the UNESCO journal, Nature and Resources, back in 1995.

The Seychelles had already laid claim to its territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zone  between 1977 and 1978. A new Maritime Zones Act was enacted in 1999 to be in conformity with UNCLOS, the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, which came into force in 1994.

Under this landmark Convention every coastal State gets a 200-mile continental shelf automatically and this is the basis of the EEZ. But, some coastal States can claim an extended continental shelf beyond 200 miles if the shelf meets the criteria under Article 76 of Convention. Article 76, is entitled "Definition of the Continental Shelf” and it lays down technical criteria for defining the shelf and its extensions.

Countries have 10 years following ratification of the Convention to make a claim for extended continental shelf. Currently 145 states have ratified the Convention. The deadline for claiming an extended continental shelf is now May 2009. About 60 countries have a potential extended continental shelf. Most have begun work to support a claim.

Now, in a major move, the Seychelles is preparing to make its claim for extending its continental shelf along with Tanzania because of shared borders.  All such claims are based on very technical criteria and involve data collection and analysis. Joint submissions, as in our case with Tanzania, are also a challenge. And time is not on our side. But the stakes are very high.

The State has exclusive sovereign rights over the natural resources of the shelf. This includes oil, gas, and other mineral resources and bottom-living species  such as clams, crabs, scallops, sponges, and mollusks. The State also has control over marine scientific research on and below the continental shelf. There may be untold riches lying on the shelf just waiting to be discovered.

An extended continental shelf will secure maximum territorial advantage for us. As I said in the 1995 article, “It might seem more appropriate therefore to shift perceptions away from seeing island states like Seychelles only as nations  with a tiny land mass and more as nations with large coastal and marine territories”.[ENDS]

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