Seychelles students represent Aldabra at UN ocean conference |05 June 2017
Three Seychellois students ‒ Alvania Lawen, Jean-Yves Mancienne and Neil Commettant ‒ will be taking in the Ocean conference convened at the United Nations headquarters in New York, from June 5-9, 2017.
The three students will be representing the Aldabra atoll as part of the Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) delegation at the conference.
Unesco’s World Heritage Centre Marine Programme is coordinating this exciting event in order for the youth from marine world heritage sites worldwide to advocate for protection of these sites on the world stage. In recognition of the long and successful collaboration between the Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF) and the world heritage centre, the Unesco Marine Programme is sponsoring the three Seychellois students.
The SIF is coordinating the trip locally with support from the department of education.
Aldabra is one of 12 different marine sites that will have youth representation in New York, and is the only site from a small island developing state.
As a universally outstanding example of a coral atoll, Aldabra was inscribed as a Unesco marine world heritage site in 1982. The inscription was based on the following nomination criteria as designated by the Unesco world heritage committee:
• Criterion vii: Superlative natural phenomena or natural beauty
• Criterion ix: Ongoing biological and ecological processes
• Criterion x: Important natural habitats for in-situ conservation of threatened biological diversity
All three visited Aldabra as part of Eco-schools Award trips in recent years and all are passionate environmental advocates.
The Eco-schools programme was initiated by the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development in 1994. The visit to Aldabra has been the star prize of the award since 2000 and is coordinated with support from the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change.
The children are accompanied by Maria Brioche, SIF education and outreach programme officer, and the event is being coordinated by Unesco’s World Heritage Centre Marine Programme and made possible through the generous support of partners: the government of Flanders, the Explorers Club, Stefan and Irina Hearst and the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation. The students, SIF and department of education are very grateful to Unesco for hosting such an exciting event and for providing funding for the students.
To note, this high-level United Nations Conference is to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
It is coinciding with World Oceans Day, to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14. The governments of Fiji and Sweden have the co-hosting responsibilities of the conference which aims to be the game changer that will reverse the decline in the health of our ocean for people, planet and prosperity. It will be solutions-focused with engagement from all.