April 29th 2011 - Seychelles and Mauritius have received official notification from the Secretariat of the United Nations (Division for the Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs) that following a Joint Submission both countries will now have jurisdiction, as provided under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), over an extended Continental Shelf of 396,000 sq. kilometers in the Mascarene region outside the border of their two respective Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs).

The Secretariat to the  Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)  has said  it has extended the deadline  of voluntary reports for the in-depth review of implementation of the programme of work on island biological diversity, in order to allow for, and encourage, additional inputs. The deadline is now 30 June 2011.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has informed parties to the CBD and to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety that the GEF is making available expanded and expedited access to funding for enabling activities, including national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs), and national reports under the CBD and the Biosafety Protocol.

After years of restoration works at the former 'wasteland' Nature Seychelles has now added another feather on her cap. The former 'wasteland' is now The Sanctuary at Roche Caiman. A wetland of international repute.