Chair of the Island Conservation Society (ICS), Mr Adrian Skerrett, heralded on Thursday October 16,  handover of Aride Island to the ICS as a great day for the Society and for Seychelles.

Speaking on Aride itself, Mr Skerrett said that the decision of the island's current owners, the Royal Society for Nature Conservation (RSNC), to hand the lease to ICS was a recognition of the talents of environmentalists working in Seychelles.

The ICS Chair was addressing an audience who included the Minister for the Environment Mr Ronny Jumeau and Dr James Cadbury, the son of the late Christopher Cadbury who bought Aride.

Having been purchased by Mr Cadbury in 1973 the freehold lease for Aride had been entrusted to the RSNC, who have managed the island ever since. The Thursday morning ceremony on Aride saw the lease transferred to the ICS for a three-year trial period.

At the end of the three years the RSNC will assess the work of the ICS and, if found satisfactory, will grant the local NGO the freehold of the island.

Mr Skerrett said that the standard set by the RSNC was for the ICS to meet 70 per cent of their conservation and management targets, before adding that the ICS would be aiming to meet, "over 100 per cent of the targets we have set."

Following Mr Skerrett's address, Minister Ronny Jumeau said that the hand over was an historic event as an example of a lease being returned to Seychelles, as well as for the type of top level partnership it represented.

Minister Jumeau acclaimed the hand over, and the financial assistance of Seychelles Breweries in the ICS plan, as an example of one of the Ministry of the Environment's aims this year, being the encouragement of,

"Local conservation NGOs to take more responsibility for managing our environment in partnership with the government, the private sector and civil society."

The minister added:  "I have no doubt that the ICS, with such corporate sponsorship and its own undoubted technical and scientific skills and environment qualifications, will definitely attain the various conservation and management targets it has agreed to under the lease."

Speaking on behalf of the RSNC, Dr Cadbury said that he had visited the island on 17 occasions and that it was, in his opinion, a "natural treasure, not just for Seychelles, but for the World."

He added that it had always been his father's intention to return the island to Seychelles' management and that he was sure he would have been delighted to see the ICS take over responsibility.

Dr Cadbury was then presented with a coco de mer by Minister Jumeau as a token of appreciation of the work his family had put into the restoration of Aride.

Mr Skerrett said that, due to paperwork, the official date for the transfer of the lease would likely be December 1.

He also offered his thanks to Dream Yachts, Seven Degrees South and the Island Development Corporation for their assistance with transport to Aride.

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