Climate Action Seychelles Project #6375

Create a Carbon Neutral Research Base, Seychelles

by Action Change (Formerly GVI Trust)

Project Report | Oct 11, 2012
GVI Organises Beach, Reef and Mangrove Clean-up!

By Alice Hawkes | Charitable Trust Team

On Thursday 27th September Global Vision International Cap Ternay Expedition organised a beach, reef and mangrove clean-up as part of the ‘Debris Month of Action’. The month of activities is organised and promoted by PADI project AWARE to raise awareness of the importance of keeping our coastlines clean. The aim of the month was to get organisations across the globe take part in beach cleans and clean up dives.

The GVI base at Cap Ternay organised and hosted a day full of clean up events. Project partners from across the Island of Mahe including Seychelles National Parks Authority and Save our Seas representatives, joined together with staff and volunteers to collect an amazing amount of debris throughout the day. The day was split into sections with the morning groups sent out on foot across the Cap Ternay Marine Park collecting close to half a ton of rubbish from the beaches and surrounding area.

A wide array of items were found and collected including 12 bags of plastic bottles, a sink, a toilet and an air conditioning unit! After a morning of heavy duty clean up, the volunteers were rewarded by a Creole style BBQ. In the afternoon everyone took to the water to take part in clean up dives within the Baie Ternay Marine Park. Luckily the Baie Ternay park is well maintained and little litter was found, however it was also an opportunity for the Marine Parks Rangers to get out into the Baie and remove some fishing traps and equipment which are prohibited within the park boarders.

Taking part in the mornings events was ‘Akyson pou lanvironnman’ a group of local teenagers who have formed an Action for the Environment club who take part in local environmental activities. As many of this group were too young to join the dives, they instead formed a snorkel group and with the guidance of GVI volunteers enjoyed an afternoon of 'Snorkelling for Debris within the bay.

The day was a huge success with 436Kg of Debris collected. Once the rubbish had be weighed it was separated so that items such as plastic bottles and Tin cans were able to be sent away for recycling.

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Aug 14, 2012
Carbon Neutral in Curieuse

By Alice Hawkes | Charitable Trust Team

The Curieuse Island Expedition base is home to the GVI Seychelles Terrestrial Expedition. Curieuse Island and its surrounding waters are a national park and have remained free from development over the years. Home to a population of Giant Tortoises as well as the most extensive area of mangrove system remaining within the inner granitic islands, Curieuse is of significant biological importance. Along with neighboring Praslin Island it is the only place in the world where the Coco de Mer palm can be found. A slow growing palm which produces the largest nut in the world, the Coco de Mer can be found all over the island. Curieuse also has several important nesting beaches for Hawksbill and Green turtles. The endangered Hawksbill is a frequent visitor and during nesting season can be seen dragging itself up local beaches during daylight hours.

It is with a view to protecting this amazing biological diversity that GVI has established a Terrestrial programme on Curieuse Island. As the expedition base is located in such an ecologically sensitive area GVI is determined to minimize our impact on the environment as much as possible and has instigated a number of initiatives with this in mind.

This month has seen the installation of a new photovoltaic system at the GVI Curieuse Island base, the first step towards achieving our goal of becoming carbon neutral. The solar panels are already busy turning sunlight into valuable electricity reducing our need to rely on a generator for power. Other developments include the completion of our new water catchment system, allowing staff and volunteers to collect rainwater. This is of particular importance as fresh water is extremely limited on the island. The harvested water will be used for numerous purposes including watering the organic garden that is starting to take shape.

Over the following months GVI will continue to develop green initiatives on Curieuse Island. The long term goal is to become carbon neutral and minimize our impacts further so that GVICurieuse is viewed as a working example of a model research station.

If you would like further information on the research carried out by GVI Seychelles please visit the website http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/wildlife-conservation-expedition-seychelles.

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Jul 13, 2012
Bi-Annual Science Report

By Alice Hawkes | Charitable Trust Team

As we see the end of the first 6 months of 2012 GVI Seychelles is now ready to produce it’s bi-annual science report, containing information on all the surveys and research conducted over the past 6 months. With the help and hard work of the GVI Seychelles staff and volunteers we have managed to survey 12 Core research sites on the reefs surrounding North-West Mahe. This includes surveying over 34,938m of coral reefs!!

Volunteers joining the GVI Seychelles expedition over the past 6 months were assigned to either fish, corals or inverts, throughout the early weeks of their expedition they were taught to identify and survey a selection of target species which have been chosen by our projects partners, each one giving valuable information about the health of the coral reefs around Mahe.

During the past six months we have collected data on the density and diversity of commercial and reef fish species, the percentage of benthic cover (sessile organisms living on the reef), density and diversity of invertebrates on the reefs and diversity and abundance of coral genera. In addition to these main aims we have also collected numerous plankton samples to assist with ongoing whale shark research within the Seychelles and recorded interesting data on turtle behavior within the Bay Ternay Marine Park.

All of the information collected in the past 6 months will be sent to our project partners within the Seychelles, which
include, The Seychelles National Parks Authority, Seychelles Fishing Authority and Marine Conservation Society Seychelles. In the past this data has been used by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, which produces publications detailing reef health around the world.

As we look back over the past 6 months we are able to see the magnitude and importance of the data collected by the staff and volunteers of GVI Seychelles. Only through the education and research provided by projects such as GVI are we able to see the how crucial conservation and management of marine protected areas is in ensuring the sustainability and health of Coral reefs surrounding the Islands of the Seychelles.

If you would like further information on the research carried out by GVI Seychelles please visit the website http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/marine-conservation-seychelles-expedition

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