I have spent the past two years working for Nature Seychelles, living on Cousin Island Special Reserve. The price for living on such an island is paid in full when it is time to leave. Last night on my way home from dinner at my volunteer’s house across the island I was reflecting on how natural island life has become.

PRESS RELEASE

On 10th March from 11.00am to 12.30pm Nature Seychelles will launch the “Green Health on the map” project in partnership with the Rotary Club of Victoria. Under this project, Nature Seychelles will kick off activities and create information targeted at the various groups Nature Seychelles works with. An example of such a group is students, some of who will be in attendance at the event. This is in addition to other invited guests including representatives from the Ministry of Health, as well as Nature Seychelles’ partners, board members and staff.

Nature Seychelles will in June this year offer a six week training course in coral reef restoration. Under the Reef Rescuers Project, Nature Seychelles has worked on restoring degraded coral reefs using experts and specialists in marine science. The work was funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with added financial support by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The coral reef restoration project began in 2010 and was implemented on Praslin, Mahe and Cousin Island Special Reserve.

 Over 25000 nursery-grown coral colonies were transplanted on 5000m2  of degrgaded reef at Cousin photo by Phanor Montoya-Maya

Coral reefs are dying around the world. By the 2030s, 90% of reefs are expected to be at risk from both human activities and climate change. By 2050, all coral reefs will be in danger. Although recent research in Seychelles shows that some of our reefs have bounced back from the massive coral bleaching caused by climate change all is certainly not well.