7 MARINE AND FISHERIES PROJECTS GET GRANTS
(Posted 02nd April 2019)
(An African travel media group, hosted by the Seychelles Tourism Board, visits Nature Seychelles to better understand the archipelago’s conservation policies, measures taken and challenges faced)
Following a visit to Nature Seychelles’ CEO Dr. Nirmal Jivan Shah, can it now be revealed that as many as 7 marine and sustainable fisheries projects across the archipelago will receive grants to the overall tune of 5 million Seychelles Rupees, which translates into over 360.000 US Dollars.
Dr. Nirmal is a globally respected conservationist, who, besides being Chairman of the Seychelles Fishing Authority is also Chairman of Seychelles’ National Environmental Advisory Council and Special Envoy in the President’s Office for Environment and Climate Change.
The Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaption Trust, in short SeyCCAT,
confirmed that the funding comes from the ‘Blue Grants Fund‘ which was formed last year under an arrangement which saw the Seychelles government swap debt for environmental and conservation commitments.
In fact will SeyCCAT later today call for proposals for new projects which will receive grants to the tune of US Dollars 750.000.
Nature Seychelles became a pioneer in research and practical application of growing corals for relocation into the ocean through their Reef Resources Project. When ATCNews first reported about it did Dr. Nirmal say: ‘We have grown over 50,000 coral fragments in our underwater nurseries and planted an area of about 6,000 square metres in the protected area of the Cousin Island Special Reserve, probably the world’s largest ongoing reef restoration project using the method called coral gardening‘.
He then added: ‘So far on our transplanted areas we have around 95 percent survival rate for the corals transplanted from the nursery; it is [however] too soon to compare growth rates with non-transplanted corals in the same area‘ before concluding: ‘The coral reef is, next to the tropical rainforest, the most complex ecosystem on earth and we can’t expect to train just anybody to restore it, otherwise good intentions may lead to disaster‘.
https://atcnews.org/2018/08/15/hilton-northolme-creates-snorkeling-trail-for-guests/
https://atcnews.org/2018/02/21/coral-nursery-set-up-in-seychelles/
