Seychelles has enlisted youth organizations to help protect wetlands (under the Ramsar Convention) and other habitats for migratory species (under CMS). Much of the country is a fragile ecosystem, however expansion into wetlands, mining beaches for sand, dumping waste, and other land and resource uses have affected many of the sensitive areas that are habitats of rare species of plants and animals, including migratory species. In many instances, environmental laws and regulations exist to protect these habitats, but enforcement is difficult due to limited resources and personnel as well as occasional overlapping or inadequate legislative authority.
The Government has responded with a campaign to build public awareness, focusing on the youth, so that people can better understand the impacts of their actions on these sensitive areas of their country. The Youth Initiative is a strategy for protecting and managing sensitive areas of the Seychelles draws upon Principles 4 and 10 of the Rio Declaration. By this approach, youth organizations at the district level play an active role in working with governmental bodies to protect and manage the environment. The Ministry of Education has the leading role of implementing this policy, with the Ministry of Local Government assisting in logistical matters and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MENR) providing technical support.
Under the Youth Initiative, youth groups “adopt” sensitive areas. They undertake activities to raise environmental awareness and knowledge of the youth, encourage youth to participate in protecting the country’s fragile ecosystems, and reduce impact of human development on these areas. In particular, youth organizations have adopted sensitive areas (including wetlands, rivers, beaches, and estuaries) in different districts. Once they have adopted a particular area, they participate in its protection and management. They carry out periodic clean-up activities and help to maintain the areas. They conduct inventories of animal, bird, and plant species found in sensitive areas (including a census of migratory birds and count of turtles), and they help to manage this information. They carry out surveillance of protected and migratory species of animals and birds, and they report to the MENR on poachers or other people who conduct activities (such as dumping waste) that could destroy the habitat of the species or otherwise affect the area. The youth organizations provide the biological data and information on environmental violators to the MENR.
In addition to learning, the youth also undertake various activities to educate others about the sensitive areas. They go from house to house raising awareness of people living near the sensitive areas, sharing information; they act as guides for visitors who visit these areas; and they organize educational and recreational activities in these areas to sensitize other young people.
The MENR is responsible for identifying the area to be adopted; developing the management plan for the adopted area (with the involvement of youth), establishing the communication network, managing the information on the adopted area that is generated by the youth organization, collecting information on illegal activities and providing assistance to combat it, and providing technical advice and equipment.Experience thus far has been quite positive. The youth organizations have been successful in helping to enforce the environmental laws and assist in the effective implementation of the Ramsar Convention and CMS.
For more information, contact Mr. Rolph Payet at ps@env.gov.sc