Since I moved office from a typical building to a purpose-built conservation center located near a natural area, many of the staff have felt more relaxed and productive. This seems logical and one would think it is just common sense. Now a paper in the British Medical Journal provides scientific proof that being close to nature improves people’s health and well-being.

Are you constantly sniffing and suffering from respiratory problems and feeling generally run down? Perhaps you have allergic reactions from exposure to molds at home or in the office. Environmental health standards in Europe and the US state that high relative humidity, over 50 percent, encourages biological agents, such as bacteria and viruses, house-dust mites, and molds, to grow and be released into the air. But here in Seychelles the humidity can be much higher!

Most, if not all, Seychellois would find it extremely strange that some people who “have it all” in countries like the US and UK are determined to leave “all that” behind and live simpler lives with few possessions, no television or radio, and many times living off the land. Whilst we crave for shops that contain all manner of things, thousands and thousands of people in the richer countries are deliberately turning their backs on what they believe is blind consumerism and environmental over-consumption.

Beaches are being lost very year. I remember beaches that are now only memories. Climate phenomena are some of the causes of our receding coastline. But human activities also result in beach erosion.