Seychelles gets 100% project endorsement by GEF |10 January 2014

Seychelles has been able to get all its projects approved in time by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

This was announced by the Minister for Environment and Energy, Professor Rolph Payet, as the GEF-5  programme, known as GEF5, comes to an end.

According to Prof. Payet it is through the dedicated and hard work by the staff of the Project Coordinating Unit within the ministry that all projects have been approved before the deadline.

Under the indicative system for transparent allocation of resources for the GEF5 period, Seychelles was entitled an allocation of US $7.6 million, subject to submission of projects to be approved by the GEF Council.

To ensure efficient use of the funds so as to benefit civil society, non-governmental and other community organisations, the funds were divided between the three GEF work programmes, namely biodiversity (US $4.9 million), climate change (US $2 million) and land degradation (US $710, 000).

Last November saw the approval of the latest two national projects under the biodiversity programme of work.  These were the project proposals for the expansion and strengthening of the protected area subsystem of the outer islands of Seychelles and its integration into the broader land and seascape amounting to US $1.79 million and US $2.78 million for the Seychelles' protected areas finance project, which aims to strengthen the financing of protected areas in the country through sustainable financing measures.  The total amount for the outer islands project also includes the US $0.71 million allocation for land degradation.

All funds identified to tackle climate change have been invested in programmes to strengthen our national efforts to improve energy efficiency in buildings and the introduction of renewable energy technologies.

The first project of this kind to be financed by GEF in Seychelles is the grid-connected rooftop photovoltaic project of US $1.16 million. The project was approved in September 2012 and is currently under implementation.  Under the 2014 national budget this project has received substantial financial support from government to upscale the amount of incentives offered to interested parties.

In June 2013, the promotion and up-scaling of climate-resilient, resource efficient technologies in a tropical island context project, which will mainly address energy efficiency in buildings, was approved at project concept stage. The total amount earmarked for this project is US $1.77 million and it should start in the first half of 2014.

With all these projects now approved, Seychelles is perhaps one of the few countries that has fully utilised its GEF5 funding allocation.  At the 5th GEF general assembly to be held in Cancun, Mexico, from May 25-30, 2014, the GEF is expected to approve the GEF6 replenishment at the total cost of US $4.89 billion, representing an increase of 15 percent over the GEF5 programming level.  If all goes well, Seychelles should maintain the same level of GEF allocation due to its excellent performance.

GEF is an independent financial organisation that provides grants to developing countries for projects that benefit the global environment and promote sustainable livelihoods in local communities.

 GEF projects address six complex global environmental issues: biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs).  Since 1991, GEF has provided $7.5 billion in grants for more than 1,300 projects in 140 countries.