Constance Ephelia Seychelles commemorates World Environment and World Oceans days |14 June 2023

To commemorate the recently celebrated World Environment Day (June 5) and World Oceans Day (June 8), Constance Ephelia Seychelles’ Green Team organised a beach and reef clean-up, as well as a nature hike combined with endemic tree planting.

“At Constance Ephelia we understand the importance of preserving our natural environment which is quite unique at the hotel, being surrounded by the RAMSAR mangrove wetland, Port Launay, Mahé Island - Seychelles marine park and the Morne Seychellois national park. In our holistic sustainability approach we believe in taking concrete actions to support conservation and biodiversity,” explained sustainability coordinator Hilary Albert.

The week started with a nature hike and planting of some rare endemic trees. For that the sustainability team chose Bwa sandal (Carissa spinarum), Bwa sitron (Rothmania Annae), Bwa zoliker (Pittosporum senacie), Bilenbi maron (Colea sechellensis), Vakwa parasol (Pandanus hornei), Vakwa Bor-d-mer (Pandanus balfourii), Lantannyen lat (Verschaffeltia splendida) and Lantannyen oban (Roscheria melanochaetes).

All participants enjoyed giving their impact as endemic species play a crucial role in maintaining the delicate balance of our ecosystem.

The beach clean-up was organised at the remote Anse Trusalo. The Green Team passionately collected plenty of plastic bottles, shoes, cans that had been washed ashore. Proper waste disposal is the first step to keep our environment clean and healthy as this year’s theme for the World Environment Day was ‘Solutions to plastic pollution’. On the other hand Constance Ephelia Seychelles has an extensive waste management programme in place to reduce, reuse and recycle strong efforts to find alternatives to single use plastics.

The reef clean-up was organised at the Port Launay marine park. After the designation of the St Anne marine park, Port Launay together with Cap Ternay and Curieuse were designated marine parks in 1979. The reef on both sides of the Port Launay bay creates a perfect spot for snorkellers. However, like all over the world the corals have degraded over the years mainly due to coral bleaching. In the years of higher water temperatures in 1998, 2010 and 2014 most of the coral reefs around the world got seriously affected, but they are slowly recovering. Other threats to corals are increased boat anchoring, acidification of the oceans and littering.

For the special occasion of the World Environment Day and World Oceans Day, Constance Ephelia Seychelles’ Green Team also took the opportunity to create awareness about endemic species and their importance in our ecosystem as well as to understand the current conditions of the corals and to create awareness about these precious marine habitats as healthy oceans provide for healthy people.

The accompanying photographs show some highlights of the activities organised by the Constance Ephelia Seychelles’ Green Team to mark World Environment Day and World Oceans Day.

Text & photos contributed