Saving Paradise

[J-elle. One of the Cousin Island Wardens]

Hello there. Bonjour.

This is Nature Seychelles (Birdlife in Seychelles), an environmental and conservation NGO, involved in various activities aimed at saving and protecting Seychelles’ unique environment. We are lucky to get upfront and personal with nature here.

Our headquarters is at the Centre for Environment and Education near Victoria, Mahe, the capital of Seychelles. Seychelles species and habitats are of world importance and we hope to play a role, through this blog, in linking this world to the outside world.

Our work involves protecting important sites, conserving marine life and habitats, restoring Islands, stopping extinctions, stopping alien invasions, protecting precious plants, balancing conservation and development, investing in people, building partnerships and promoting education and awareness. And most important of all spreading the word.

We manage the Cousin Island Special Reserve, a world recognised sea and island protected area and a haven for land and sea birds. On Cousin, we conduct research and monitoring, habitat management, community involvement and tour guiding.

Cousin Island was purchased by the International Council of Bird Preservation (ICBP now BirdLife International) to save the last remaining population of Seychelles Warbler from extinction in 1968. Last year it celebrated 40 years of its existence and incredible success. You can read more about Cousin’s success story here. The success at Cousin has inspired Nature Seychelles to help restore other Islands through actions like translocation of threatened bird species, rat eradication and planting indigenous species and introducing native species.

We are also involved in coral reef monitoring and research, turtle conservation and other marine work. Next to our centre in Mahe, we manage the Sanctuary at Roche Caiman, an urban wetland near the capital city. The Sanctuary is a site for learning, conservation and recreation. At the Heritage Gardens, also next to our Centre at Mahe, we are studying and restoring native food plants.

Explore the work of Nature Seychelles in greater detail at our website here.

We hope our stories will help you witness conservation in action and inspire you to do your part.

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