Andrew Chapman-New just finished a 10-week volunteer stint at Cousin Island Special Reserve. This is an account of his time there.

Nature Seychelles' LEAP (Local Empowered Area Protection) project, located at Cap Ternay, recently welcomed two young and enthusiastic conservation volunteers to assist with mangrove surveys at the Port Launay – Port Glaud RAMSAR site.

World Reef Day is an annual celebration of coral reefs, held on June 1st. It kicks off ocean awareness month, also held yearly in June. It is used to raise awareness of the importance of these underwater ecosystems.

Coral reef restoration projects are becoming a popular corporate environmental responsibility activity at hotel resorts. Such involvement of private businesses offers the opportunity to expand coral reef conservation. Unfortunately, these projects are oftentimes PR-heavy but scientifically light. The main problem is that the hotel staff don’t monitor the restored reef over time to quantify the success or failure of the restoration activity. There is a lack of user-friendly monitoring methods for hotel staff that are robust enough to detect changes over time.