The International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN) has recognised the Seychelles Inner Islands as an Important SharkandRay Area (ISRA).
The Seychelles Inner Islands ISRA has an area of 5,532.44 km2.
The IUCN Seychelles Inner Islands ISRA Fact Sheet at this link: https://sharkrayareas.org/wp-content/uploads/isra-factsheets/07WestIndianOcean/Seychelles-Inner-Islands-07WestIndianOcean.pdf
(Seychelles News Agency) – The Seychelles Marine Spatial Plan (SMSP) is expected to be implemented this year, with the final works now being completed, according to a top official.
The SMSP Initiative is focused on planning for and management of the sustainable and long-term use and health of the Seychelles’ ocean. The SMSP is for the entire 1.35 million km² of Seychelles’ ocean and will support Seychelles’ Blue Economy in different ways.
The SMSP will be the first comprehensive marine spatial plan for the western Indian Ocean and will be the second largest ocean area covered by a marine spatial plan, after Norway.
“The SMSP is in the Zoning to Implementation phase and is aiming to complete the Marine Spatial Plan for public review and government approvals in 2023. Significant delays have been experienced due to the global pandemic from March 2020 onward. Work progressed during the pandemic using virtual meetings and several projects were completed during this time including SMSP Policy, ecosystem service values in marine protected areas, and communications materials to prepare for implementation” said Helena Sims, the project manager for the SMSP, who works for The Nature Conservancy, an international NGO.
The SMSP team is pleased to distribute a December 2022 update on the process and outputs. Updates provided on all aspects of the MSP from Feb-Dec 2022 including workshops, science, implementation steps, Cabinet decisions, conference presentations and media articles.
The Dec 2022 update can be downloaded below or from the Updates menu page that features twice annual updates from 2017 onwards.
The Seychelles MSP contributed to a discussion at the CBD COP15 on the use of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Ecologically and Biologically Sensitive Areas, or EBSAs, in MPA and ocean planning.
The SMSP has 3 EBSAs in the geodatabase, and they were incorporated as biodiversity features in the Marxan and Marxan with Zones outputs. These EBSA layers were used in the GoS-UNDP-Gef project for expanding marine protections in Seychelles (Klaus 2015). And, they were used in the Marxan with Zones during the SMSP to identify areas for Zone 1 and Zone 2 categories.
The website for the CBD EBSAs contains information for the three areas:
Seychelles Seatizens is a fish identification website and database. It is intended to support a wide cross-section of stakeholders and enhance their understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of the Seychelles marine environment. Whether you are a fisher or fishery technician working to improve fishery monitoring and co-management; a diver or sports/leisure fisher seeking to identify a fish; a student or researcher undertaking marine studies; or just a consumer who would like to know the name of the fish they bought at market that day, the Seatizens website can support and enrich your activities.
You can search by scientific, English, Creole or French name by species or taxon. You can also scroll through the image galleries.Information provided includes description, ecology, fishery and conservation status, plus references to further sources of information. All photos are taken in Seychelles. The website now has over 490 species described on it with new species added regularly.
For information on the fish in our waters and on our plates visit: www.seatizens.sc
A new report is available for ecosystem services in Seychelles marine protection areas and MPAs! Finalised in Jun 2022, The Nature Conservancy’s Mapping Ocean Wealth team worked with Seychelles’ stakeholders to quantify, map and model ecosystem goods and services provided by Seychelles’ Marine Protected Areas and marine protection areas. Information and the report can be found here on the SMSP website. The project timeline, methods, maps and other info about this project can be viewed on The Nature Conservancy’s Mapping Ocean Wealth in Seychelles Online Project Site.
Funding and other support was provided by the Third South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Governance and Shared Growth Project (SWIOFish3) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment (MACCE).
The Seychelles MSP is pleased to announce the proceedings from the 5th International Marine Conservation Congress have been published in an e-Book and is now available online.
We are pleased to tell you that a Frontiers e-book, comprising all the articles featured in your Research Topic, has been compiled and is now available online on our website, here.
Alternatively, you can also access the e-book via the Research Topic homepage, where all articles are also individually available.
