Proposed protection status for Montagne Corail, Collines Du Sud, Grand Police |05 December 2022

One of the presentations during the meeting on Saturday (Photos: Louis Toussaint)

• Consultations ongoing with landowners and stakeholders

By Patsy Canaya

The Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment and its stakeholders, namely private landowners in Montagne Corail, Collines du Sud and Grand Police in the Takamaka district are discussing the way forward to protect and manage these areas that are important for conservation.

On Saturday, findings of an assessment of key biodiversity for future protection in these areas, mostly found on private land, were presented to landowners and stakeholders at a public meeting held at the Takamaka primary school dining hall.

The meeting was attended by the principal secretary for Environment, Denis Matatiken, who said it was important to have these consultative meetings throughout the process to engage the landowners, get their views and for both parties to reach a consensus.

“There are concerns and beliefs that when we talk about conservation it means swooping in and seizing people’s lands. This is not the case. If you agree then we include part of those land in our key biodiversity protection plan or we can also work with you and advise you on the best possible ways to protect your land,” explained Mr Matatiken.

The assessment, by three private consultants, namely Bruno Senterre, Rachel Bristol and Dr Elvina Henriette, were done through a GOS-GEF-UNDP Ridge to Reef Project for the Environment department.

PS Matatiken said their assessment is a comprehensive one and the findings can also guide the landowners who had already planned their projects for development.

It should be noted that the conservation project in these areas needs the landowners’ consent prior to being declared a protected area.

“As assessment provides all the facts that make it easier to make decisions. It is important to have that communication between the parties because protection does not mean taking away the land from private ownership. In the olden days, it could have been done that way and I know that some people are still frustrated but nowadays with the new procedures, we have the consultative process and we follow them accordingly,” said Mr Matatiken.

Saturday’s meeting was attended by less than a dozen landowners in the area. Based on the findings, the consultants informed the meeting that some of them understood the importance of biodiversity and protection, and they had also voiced they would like to develop some portions of these lands.

Speaking to media, Dr Elvina Henriette said since 2013, they had carried out a lot of research in mainly granitic islands and found rare biodiversity that were mapped.

She said using the same data, they have now set boundary lines around areas that should be protected as well as those that have resources needed by humans for survival, such as water.

“We know that water is important and that forest is also important for economic use such as timber, medicinal purpose, to cool down the temperature and absorb carbon released in the atmosphere. So we need to take all this into account when protecting the forests,” she explained.

According to Dr Elvina, although the areas, mainly Collines Du Sud and Montagne Corail are not home to rare species, they are however an important habitat, not found elsewhere on Mahé with species like jasmine, which is a white flower used as essential oils, ‘bwa kafoul trwa fey’, ‘lafous ti fey’ and rare type of orchids.

She said these places with their endemic native species as well as exotic ones have not seen human interference, and has their own natural beauty.

“As consultants we are showing the landowners the value of their lands, in terms of bidoversity and the areas that we advise should be protected with their agreement. If they do not agree there is nothing we can do but we do hope these areas could remain untouched, and we limit any form of development there, because Seychelles is slowly losing its natural state because we cannot find a balance between development and conservation,” said Dr Henriette.

According to Dr Henriette, Seychelles has only 17 percent of protected forest in the inner islands and the country needs a minimum of 50 percent of forest to provide resources needed for human survival.

The GOS-GEF-UNDP Ridge to Reef Project being undertaken will give an additional 10 percent of protected forested areas.

“Of course we cannot turn all areas intro protected zones but the way we human develop these areas are also important. We need to do sustainable development at all times,” said Dr Henriette.

Other than Montagne Corail, Collines du Sud and Grand Police in Takamaka, other areas being assessed are Curieuse, Montagne Brulée in the Montagne Posée area, on Praslin, from Anse Kerlan to Grand Fond in Zimbabwe, and Nouvelle Découverte to St Sauveur.

Saturday’s meeting will be followed by another one between the consultants, the Environment department and the landowners to finalise the proposed boundaries, prior to the document being presented to government.