Seychelles
Seychelles has 40 protected areas covering 242 km of the land and 209,930 km 2 2 of the ocean (UNEP-WCMC & IUCN, 2019q). A large proportion of the Seychelles terrestrial area is protected. Seychelles has one of the oldest networks of marine protected areas in Eastern Africa, but until recently, this only covered some 0.03% of its coastal and marine ecosystems. The shortfall was recognised, and the Government of Seychelles announced its intention to protect 30% of its waters, half of which (or 15%) would be a strict no-take zones. The Seychelles is engaging in a debt swap mechanism to enable this designation.
Protected and conserved areas designated as global sites of importance |
|
Global designation |
Number of sites |
UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserves |
0 |
UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Natural or Mixed) |
2 |
Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar sites) |
4 |
Source ((Ramsar, 2019; UNESCO, 2019a, 2019b)
Priority areas for conservation |
|
Designation |
Number of sites |
Alliance for Zero Extinction sites |
2 |
Important Bird & Biodiversity Areas |
20 |
Key Biodiversity Areas |
59 |
(AZE Secretariat, 2019; BirdLife International, 2019c, 2019a)