Environment minister Ronny Jumeau has asked delegates to the World Parks Congress (WPC) which opened in Durban, South Africa, on Monday September 8,  to return with ideas on how to better run Seychelles’ national parks and nature reserves and involve the community in looking after the country’s protected areas.

Eight of the ten delegates, who are invited in their individual capacity, represent various government, parastatal and NGO organisations that manage national parks and nature reserves in Seychelles.

The Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF) delegation will do a presentation on the theme ‘Enhancing World Heritage Sites’ at the request of the congress organisers. This is in recognition of SIF’s 25 years of experience in managing Seychelles’ two World Heritage Sites: the Vallee de Mai Nature Reserve on Praslin and the Aldabra Special Reserve.

Minister Jumeau met with most of the delegates last week for an informal discussion on the various subjects being discussed at the congress.

“I informed them the Ministry of Environment’s current initiative to encourage NGOs, the private sector and civil society to form partnerships with us or with each other so as to take on more responsibilities in managing and protecting the environment would extend to protected areas as well,” Minister Jumeau said on Monday Septembe 8.

Hotels and other private businesses on Mahe and Praslin, community groups on all of the three main islands, private island owners and parastatals have joined NGOs in responding to the ministry’s call, Mr Jumeau said.

However, most of the new partnerships cover the monitoring and management of beaches and wetlands, the adoption of parks and gardens and the protection of turtles.

At least one club on Praslin is keen to help out in the Praslin National Park.

“We are expecting the delegates to come back (from the World Parks Congress) with fresh ideas as to how such partnerships could be extended to more national parks and nature reserves,” Mr Jumeau said.

Other delegates to the WPC are from the Marine Parks Authority (MPA), the Silhouette-based Nature Protection Trust of Seychelles (NPTS), Nature Seychelles, which runs the Cousin Island Special Reserve, and the Ministry of Environment in its capacity as co-chair of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI).

Seychelles has no fewer than 19 national parks and nature reserves covering almost half its land territory. Another six areas are protected areas for environment reasons. Yet more areas are protected as shell, forest or river reserves.

The World Congress of Protected Areas, better known as the World Parks Congress, is expected to attract more than 2,500 delegates to Durban. “There will be a wealth of information, ideas and experiences from all over the world,” Mr Jumeau pointed out.

This year’s WPC theme of ‘Benefits Beyond Boundaries’ seeks to take environmental conservation beyond protected areas (PAs) so that communities living in these areas help protect PAs while reaping economic benefits from doing so, such as through eco-tourism, Minister Jumeau noted.

“Community participation in conservation outside of protected areas is growing healthily in Seychelles,” he added. “What we need to do now is involve the community inside protected areas.”

The congress, from 8-17 September, is held every 10 years by the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN’s) World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). Its patrons are former South African President Nelson Mandela and Jordan’s Queen Noor.

It is the first time the WPC is held on African soil, and it is the largest conference in South Africa since it successfully hosted the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) last year.

The congress is reviewing the gains and setbacks of the past 10 years for protected areas, building a more diverse and effective constancy for PAs, and redefining and enforcing their relevance in the 21st century.

Currently 12 per cent of the Earth’s surface is protected in more than 44,000 national parks and nature reserves. Nevertheless, the IUCN states that 11,167 species are known to be globally threatened with extinction.

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