Party to:	Convention	Protocols
	Signature:	-	-
	Ratification:	03 July 2000	-

Country Profile

Mauritius is situated in the south west Indian Ocean, slightly over the tropic of Capricorn, in latitude 20° south and longitude 57° east of Greenwich. It is 2,000 km off the east coast of Africa and some 855 km east of Madagascar.

An island of volcanic origin with an area of 1,864 km2, it is almost entirely surrounded by coral reefs. The land rises from coastal plains to a central plateau where it reaches a height of 670 meters. The plateau is bordered by three mountain ranges, the highest peak, the Piton de la Petite Riviere Noire, rising to 828 m.

The Republic of Mauritius include Main island Mauritius , Rodrigues, Agalega and St Brandon . The main island of Mauritius is surrounded by 49 offshore islets.

Rodrigues is an island district of the Republic of Mauritius and volcanic in origin. It is situated at latitude 19o 43’ south and longitude 63o 21’ east 320 nautical miles east of Mauritius. It covers an area of 110 km2 and is the smallest and oldest island of the Mascarene Archipelago. The island is mountainous in topography, with its highest peak rising to 400 km and is completely surrounded by a fringing coral reef of a length of 90 km enclosing a wide lagoon .

Agalega comprises of two sandy cay islands covering 21 km2 surrounded by 100 km2 of coral reef, with a lagoon of 25-100m wide.

St Brandon shoals comprises 55 low-lying islets and sand cays covering 3 km2 within a 100 km long coral reef system, and a shallow water area extending over several thousand km (Management Plan for St Brandon 1998) .

The island of Mauritius is renowned for having been the only known home of the dodo. First sighted by Europeans around 1600 on Mauritius, the dodo became extinct less than eighty years later.

The Population: 1,212,350 (World Bank 2002)

Total Sea Area: The Republic of Mauritius has an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 1.9 million km2. The coastline of Mauritius is 322 km long. It is almost fully encircled by coral reefs, 150 km long and enclosing a lagoon area of 243 km2. Breaks occur in the reef on the southern and western coasts where there is no continental shelf and at river mouths where the high influx of fresh water prevent growth of coral reefs . There is no true continental shelf - the water reaches a depth of 3000 metres at about 3 km from the coast (MoE & NDU 2005) .

Coastal and Marine Protected Areas : - Flacq Fishing Reserve, Riviere du Rempart-Poudre d'Or Fishing Reserve, Black River Fishing Reserve, Grand Port-Mahebourg Fishing Reserve, Port Louis Fishing Reserve, Trou d'Eau Douce Fishing Reserve, Coin de Mire (Gunner's Coin) Nature Reserve, Ile Plate Nature Reserve, Ile aux Aigrettes Nature Reserve, Ile aux Serpents Nature Reserve, Ilot Gabriel Nature Reserve, Ilot Marianne Nature Reserve, Round Island Nature Reserve, Ile aux Cocos Nature Reserve (Rodrigues), Ile aux Sables Nature Reserve (Rodrigues)

Climate: The climate is between tropical and subtropical with a cyclonic season of about 5 months starting from December to May . The wind blows mostly from the South East and the water temperature of the ocean varies between 22 and 28ºC. The tide variation is weak and is in the order of 0.5 m.

a)Coastal Ecosystems

Mauritius has an extremely rich coastal zone consisting of near shore wetlands and mangroves, lagoon coral, fringing coral reef and all their associated marine life. Mauritius being a small island state , depends largely on this coastal ecosystem for its tourism industry . Most of the hotels are coastal based. Moreover, the fishermen population residing in the coastal area get their daily livelihood from fishing activities. The good health of this coastal ecosystem is also very important as it provides leisure activities to the population and tourists who visit the country.

b)Species of special concern and flagship species

(i) Marine mammals
(dolphins, whales, seals, sea lions, dugongs, manatees) Sea cows, once common in the lagoons of Mauritius are extinct, and marine turtles are rarely seen due to lack of undeveloped beaches, intense hunting pressure and predation by alien species. However, these still use Cargados Carajos, Agalega, Rodrigues and Tromelin shores for breeding. Seventeen marine mammal species have been recorded in Mauritian waters – mostly as they migrate to and from Antarctica to warm tropical waters for calving.

(ii) Sea turtles
Five sea turtles species are common in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO), namely the green turtle Chelonia mydas, the hawkbill Eremochelys imbricata, the loggerhead Caretla caretta, the leatherback Dermochelys coriacea and the olive ridley Lepidochelys olivacea. Out of the five species 2 are commonly encountered in the shallow coastal waters of Mauritius, the hawksbill Eretmochelys imbricata and the green Chelonia mydas.

Source

• Mauritius National Status Report on the Marine and Coastal Environment
• Republic of Mauritius web portal
• CIA - The World Factbook

Status Report

Draft Status Report on the Coastal and Marine environment of Mauritius.
English

National Focal Points

The focal points institutions have been supported to operationalise their offices and to initiate a reporting mechanism for the Convention by compiling national status reports on the coastal and marine environment. Read More..

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