Seychelles’ Island Development Company eyes airstrip on Cosmoledo

SEYCHELLES GOVERNMENT PLANS TO PUT UP AN AIRSTRIP ON COSMOLEDO ATOLL

(Posted 02nd July 2014)

Further to a recent article sourced from the Seychelles News Agency about the Cosmoledo Atoll, a remote part of the Seychelles’ archipelago, was it learned that plans are underway to open up the atoll for tourist visits by putting up a small airstrip capable to receive light aircraft flying in from the main island of Mahe. The Island Development Company, a parastatal company tasked with a variety of functions to develop islands, appears set to first restore the dilapidated airstrip on the nearby island of Astove before exploring where on Cosmoledo a new airstrip can be established.

Cosmoledo is located some 1.000 kilometres from the main island of Mahe and seen, together with the Aldabra Atoll, as one of the last untouched marine areas in the world. Few visitors make it to Aldabra due to the complex logistics required to reach the distant atoll, which in fact is located nearer to Madagascar than to the core island of the Seychelles. By boat from Mahe it takes several days and the only other option to reach the atoll at present is by flying to the island of Assumption and from there take a boat transfer which, depending on weather, still can take several hours. While Aldraba however is home to a small group of researchers and managed by the Seychelles Island Foundation and enjoys special protection as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Cosmoledo is not inhabited and as such also not protected against marine poaching. An airstrip would allow for that to change and have a presence on the atoll, for scientific purposes as well as to ensure that the atoll is kept safe from marine poachers and other intrusions.

Wrote a contact from Mahe when passing the information: ‘Aldabra is a very special place and one of the least visited global attractions of its kind. Apart from the living quarters and offices of the staff there is no place for tourists to sleep. Most visitors arrive there on a yacht or on a cruise ship and just spend the day exploring the atoll but sleep on their ship. Cosmoledo has a similar potential for such tourist visits. There are no plans to allow for a resort as far as we know, so visitors need to sleep somewhere else, on their ship or another island. Like Aldabra there is very good diving, marine life and a large bird population and the island is completely untouched. The two atolls, under controlled access, can expand the Seychelles unique attractions for high spending tourists’.

In a related development it was learned that efforts are underway to substantially expand protected areas in the extensive Indian Ocean area controlled by the Seychelles which would create clearly demarcated areas open for fishing, for the exploration of resources on and below the ocean floor but also for conservation purposes.

Watch this space for news updates from the Seychelles and other Indian Ocean islands.