Gran Kaz staff plant trees for World Environment Day |10 June 2022

In commemoration of World Environment Day, which was on June 5, volunteers from Gran Kaz – with the assistance of the Seychelles Parks and Gardens Authority (SPGA) – planted an assortment of tree saplings at the Salazie trail in the Morne Seychellois National Park.

This activity falls in line with the Carbon Offsetting Project being implemented by SPGA within the Salazie trail area. The project, which kick-started in April last year, has seen about 900 seedlings planted so far. However, about 300 dead plants have been recorded, hence the need to replace them.

The native species planted by the Gran Kaz group during this particular activity was Heritiera Littoralis better known by its Creole name ‘Bwa d’tab’.

Terrence Alphonse, a forest ranger at the SPGA, explained to us that due to its commercial use as marine timber Bwa d’tab started to become scarce in Seychelles, landing it endangered and protected status locally.

“Historically, due to its toughness, durability and resistance to seawater, this tree’s timber was used to build boats. With its high commercial value, it was cut down quite a lot, and this is why it is now protected. Activities like this one allow us to repopulate the national parks with species such as this one.”

Volunteers planted and tagged the trees in an area that had already been cleared of invasive species, while nearby other members of the SPGA were clearing another area in preparation for further reforestation activities.

“The reason we tag them,” explains Terrence “is so we can monitor them. This way we can see how well they are doing, if any of the trees don’t survive, we know we have to replace them and also we can keep track of how many of each species we plant.”

The Gran Kaz team left the activity with a great sense of satisfaction.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to do something like this, knowing you are contributing to the protection and the betterment of our environment. It’s also incredible to discover different places, and learn new things at the same time. Seychelles has so many incredible hidden treasures and we are so grateful to the SPGA for helping us to have such an incredible experience,” says Shama Amesbuy, PR and communications manager at Gran Kaz.

The accompanying photos show some highlights of the tree-planting activity at Salazie.

Contributed