The Seychelles government will establish up to 400,000 square kilometres of marine protected areas by 2020 as part of a comprehensive marine spatial plan for its entire exclusive economic zone.  This will be achieved via a debt swap of up to $27 million with its Paris Club creditors and the government of South Africa, with the support of the Nature Conservancy and private capital investors interested in marine conservation. The announcement was made by Rebecca Loustau- Lalane, the principal secretary in the Blue Economy Department, on the main stage of the recent ‘Our Ocean conference’ at the US State Department in Washington D.C. Also attending the two-day conference was the chief executive of Nature Seychelles, Dr Nirmal Jivan Shah, who said that the main aim of the conference was to galvanise countries and institutions to do something real to protect this lifeblood of humanity.

Photo: Seychelles Nation

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(Seychelles Nation 24 Sep 2016)