Hoping to nurse the Seychelles Paradise Flycatcher off the world’s most endangered species list a coalition of conservation bodies have joined hands to embark on a three year Vev protection project.

"All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds," said Dr Pangloss, echoing the philosopher Gottfried Leibniz, in Voltaire’s novel Candide.

I was in Tanzania last week helping to evaluate the progress of some projects. During the week many of the members of the team complained of sleeplessness and bad dreams.  I believed pesticides were a probable cause because I had been to that particular hotel previously and knew they used insecticides liberally. I had already asked them not to spray my room. When I checked, it turned out they were using DDT!  Of course, I have no proof that DDT was causing these problems, but we could not think of anything else.

Leading conservation body Nature Seychelles yesterday signed an agreement with an Italian university which will see environmental knowledge shared between the university and the conservation organisation.