Environment ministry celebrates first anniversary of conservation milestone |29 March 2021

Mr Dupres (far right) in a souvenir photograph with stakeholders after he had presented them with a painting (Photo: Thomas Meriton)

Thirty percent (30%) of Seychelles’ ocean territory was officially designated as a Marine Protected Area in 2020.

This means that approximately a third of Seychelles’ ocean territory, an area larger than Germany, is protected under the National Parks and Nature Conservancy Act, totalling an area of 410,000 square kilometres.

This is a result of the Seychelles Marine Spatial Plan, an output of the award-winning debt-for-nature swap co-designed by the government of Seychelles and The Nature Conservancy.

Half of these areas are of high biodiversity and gazetted as Marine National Parks, where almost no human activity other than sustainable tourism is permitted. These areas include the waters surrounding the Aldabra group, marine areas in the Amirantes including D'Arros to Poivre, and the south of Amirantes and Bird Island, one of the only 2 sand cays in the inner island group.

To promote this achievement James Dupres and his team of seven produced a series of pictures and content which emphasises this environmental success.

In a ceremony on Friday at the Botanical Gardens, Mr Dupres presented these pictures to the Minister for Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, Flavien Joubert, and the principal secretary for Environment, Alain Decomarmond along with other NGOs

“The series of images represent Seychelles, the Indian Ocean and the elements that represent our biodiversity,” said Mr Dupres.

He further added that in his work he used colours that will stand out, not only on digital but also on print. Some elements chosen were marine life under the sea such as octopus.

Mr Dupres noted that it took close to a month to complete his series of work.

He also called on other people to come forward and create pieces related to our rich biodiversity.

On his part Minister Joubert thanked Mr Dupres for his work as well as everyone who worked hard in the 30 percent initiative and added that this is a big achievement for Seychelles.

PS Decomarmond also explained that they wanted to launch the initiative last year but due to Covid-19 the event was cancelled.

He added that since the 30 percent has been designated they have worked with an international firm to plan which departments will manage which area of the 30 percent.

Christophe Zialor