President Rene (left) visiting Aldabra in 1990

Even before President France Albert Rene retired on Wednesday evening (April 14), there was a tinge of sadness draped around the environment veterans at the Botanical Gardens and Promenade House.

Not because President James Michel replaced him. On the contrary, the environment portfolio was at one point under the custody of the country’s new leader himself, so he is likely to be just as environmentally friendly, if not more so.

But after 27 years as president, Mr Rene is considered by many to be the catalyst of Seychelles’ highly regarded global standing in preservation today.

“He’s the one responsible for it all,” Minister of Environment Ronny Jumeau said on Wednesday evening at State House after the presidential hand-over.

President Rene’s commitment to environmental causes, says Minister Jumeau, gave political clout to his ministry’s mission.

“Once you get the president on board in a system like ours, it makes things easy,” Minister Jumeau said. “I knew the president backed me, and because of that, despite pressures from other interests, I knew I could step on people’s toes.”

In the past year especially, the Ministry of Environment has made a strong push to enforce conservation laws and punish poachers and other offenders. Minister Jumeau believes that such actions would be hard to implement in other countries, where environmental concerns often take a back seat to industry and corporate interests.

“A lot of people thought that I would get into trouble, even with other ministries, but how can they complain when it comes straight from the top?” he said.

Minister Jumeau thinks that President Rene’s support is exactly what’s absent in many countries around the world today. In the various global environmental conferences held annually, he said, the one major complaint shared by conservationists is a lack of political will in some countries.

“That’s why you see some countries agree to all the formalities at these conventions, but no action is taken after that,” Minister Jumeau said.

Meanwhile, Seychelles is one of the leading signatories to have ratified various environmental protocols, “and that’s due to him,” he added.

The commitment extends to even more than just environment, says principal secretary for environment Rolph Payet. Sustainable development has also been high on the agenda for the country’s recently retired head of state, regarding issues such as poverty alleviation and water resources.

In the Environmental Management Plan of Seychelles from 1990, President Rene wrote in his foreword: “I believe that every island in Seychelles is like a tiny spaceship, a self-contained unit, with finite resources which need to be used and managed on a sustainable basis for us to survive. For us, therefore, sustainable development is not simply a policy choice but an imperative for our health and economic welfare.”

More than 10 years later, the recommendations outlined after the Johannesburg summit on sustainable development in 2002 paints an accurate picture of Seychelles’ stature.

“Seychelles, in terms of sustainable development, has always been forward-looking and achieved a number of these targets, well ahead of them being agreed upon by an international forum such as the World Summit on Sustainable Development,” Mr Payet said, corresponding from New York last week while attending the commission on sustainable development.

President Rene’s environmental ambitions for Seychelles were revealed – and recognised – even earlier into his presidency. In 1983, he won the Golden Ark award, an honorary order established in 1971 by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, for his conservation efforts.

Before Independence, President Rene’s Seychelles People’s United Party was vocal in its displeasure of the creation of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) in 1965. Under the BIOT, Aldabra, Farquhar and Desroches were detached from Seychelles to form a new territory, together with Chagos, ostensibly to create a permanent naval base in the region.

While the political implications of the proposed base were clearly an issue, the environmental consequences of a naval base on one of the islands could have been enormous. Aldabra alone has gone on to become a flagship ecosystem of not only Seychelles, but the entire world as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

After numerous pleas and protests by President Rene, James Mancham and others, the islands were restored under the flag of Seychelles with Independence in 1976.

It’s no coincidence, says Mr Payet, that areas under protection in Seychelles now amount to more than 45 percent.

“Without the commitment and clear vision of the future, many of these areas would have been compromised,” Mr Payet said,. “But what we have seen is in the early ‘80s, Seychelles was the only country in Eastern Africa with two World Heritage sites and the largest number of marine protected areas.”

In 2002, when the ministry held its first-ever Environment Awards, President Rene won the “individual” category award for most outstanding contributor. While some thought it was political posturing, Minister Jumeau said, the competition was decided on voting from the public.

“It was genuine,” the minister said. “He can clearly claim responsibility for our environmental progress.”

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