The D’Arros Experience 2025 ushers in a new cohort of young ocean leaders |27 March 2025
Some of the students having fun during last year’s D’Arros Experience
Sixteen young learners have been selected to attend the 2025 D'Arros Experience. The group comprises nine boys and seven girls representing 10 different schools across Seychelles.
Their submissions were part of the widest spectrum of applications yet: poems, videos, essays and artworks, sent in as responses to this year’s competition theme, ‘If the Ocean Was A Person, How Would it Present or Describe Itself?’
The SOSF D’Arros Research Centre (SOSF-DRC) has been in operation for over 13 years, conducting monitoring and conservation research to keep tabs on the phenomenal marine biodiversity at D’Arros Island and St Joseph Atoll. The D’Arros Experience is its youth-oriented programme that is designed to be jam-packed with presentations about ecosystems and endangered species, field excursions and snorkelling trips, and hands-on conservation efforts such as beach clean ups.
Students in past years have been immersed in a unique environment – a haven with little human interference – and experienced once-in-a-lifetime opportunities like swimming with wild sharks and rays. It is this real-life immersion that is so fundamental to the success of the D’Arros Experience, because there is a far greater impact on scholars than simply reading about these places in books or being instructed about conservation in a classroom.
An extraordinary 93 submissions were received from 20 schools, with a representation of both private and public schools. Six new schools joined the cohort of applications, an exciting development that signals increasing interest in the value that a wonder-filled week in wilderness holds for young people of Seychelles. The rise in entries could be attributed to two factors: increased creative flexibility afforded by the expanded categories, and the targeting of school visits to schools with lower participation rates from the previous year.
Richard Louv, in his book ‘Last Child in the Woods: saving our children from nature-deficit disorder’ says: “Every child needs nature. Not just the parents who appreciate nature. Not only those of a certain economic class or culture or set of abilities. Every child.” A key facet of the D’Arros Experience is its potential to positively impact children in the manner they might need it most.
The 16 students will visit D’Arros in the April school holidays over the span of two weeks. A key outcome of the camp is to instil a sense of custodianship in the learners. By being included in educational trips like the D’Arros Experience, young people in Seychelles gain a greater understanding of environmental issues and develop a stronger commitment to environmental protection, leading to more sustainable behaviours. Importantly, access and encouragement at a young age can help foster a new generation of environmental leaders in Seychelles, a cohort of conservation champions whose voices will be vital on the world stage as we work to protect our shared future.
Founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2003, the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) is a philanthropic organisation whose ultimate goal is to create a legacy of securing the health and sustainability of our oceans, and the communities that depend on them, for generations to come. Its support for research, conservation and education projects worldwide focuses on endangered sharks, rays and skates. Three permanent SOSF research and education centres reinforce its actions in Seychelles, South Africa and the USA.
Contributed
Photo credit: Dillys Pouponeau | © Save Our Seas Foundation