Plan to put traditional plants in schools gets German backing |16 May 2005

German Ambassador to Seychelles Bernd Braun and WCS coordinator Terence Vel signed the agreement earlier this month at the WCS centre at Roche Caiman, in a ceremony attended by German Honorary Consul Maryse Eichler, WCS chairman Nirmal Shah, project coordinator Kerstin Henri and a number of Wildlife Club leaders.

The funds will help to set up a nursery at Roche Caiman and provide equipment and materials for individual clubs to promote the gardens in schools. “We hope that the gardens will eventually be so successful that they can also generate some funds for the clubs,” Mr Vel said.

The WCS and the Department of Natural Resources have noted with concern that certain fruits and food crops are disappearing both from farming communities and local cuisine.

“(Traditional fruits) have been marginalised,” said Antoine-Marie Moustache, the department’s director general for crop promotion and development. “They’re just names now.”

Establishing the rare plant gardens in the schools, however, would hopefully serve to educate young people about the plants and their uses, while also allowing the plants themselves to grow in different locales for their own preservation, he said.

A variety of traditional apples, cherries, berries and other fruits often are ignored due to the demand for imported apples and oranges. But contrary to some beliefs, the nutritional value of traditional fruits can largely outweigh the more “productive” hybrids that are imported.

“Now most people associate Vitamin C with the orange,” Mr Moustache said, “but one little gooseberry has three or four times the amount of Vitamin C of an orange.”

Traditional fruits were only introduced to Seychelles with the start of human settlement – coconuts are thought to be the only “food” crop that pre-dates man in the islands, he added.

But unlike invasive plant and animal species that environment officials are trying to eradicate, traditional fruit trees are disappearing largely on their own because many residents are simply forgetting about them.

And that’s a shame, said Mr Moustache, because they’re a “cheap and accessible” food complement “to have around the house.”