Environment ministry signs agreement with FAO |19 February 2018

An inventory is expected to be developed for the forestry sector following an agreement signed last week which will also establish national forestry policy and legislation.

The agreement was signed by the Minister for Environment, Energy and Climate Change, Didier Dogley, and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) regional representative to Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles, Patrice Talla at the minister’s secretariat at Le Chantier Mall.

Mr Talla has been in the country since February 13 and throughout his visit he met a number of high level officials from different ministries and agencies, which also included the meeting with Minister Dogley on the last day of his trip to Seychelles.

The technical cooperation programme (TCP) for capacity building from the project will be undertaken by involving four consultants - three foreign ones Filip Hajek, Radim Adolt and Michal Synek, and one local consultant.

Mr Talla said the signing of this TCP builds on the second Country Programming Framework (CPF) signed earlier last week between the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture and FAO.

“A forest inventory is an important tool for decision-making and under the new CPF there’s a new project for the ministry especially on the drafting of a national forestry legislation and policy. Once we finish this, the MEECC will be equipped in terms of legislation capacities to protect forestry in the Seychelles and we will also provide capacity building for the staff in this field,” he said.

He added that for this TCP, a first mission will be in Seychelles in mid-March and this would serve as an opportunity for the ministry to plan for the implementation of the TCP for the next two years.

Minister Dogley said although Seychelles does not have a major forestry industry, for us every square metre is important and there is still a number of forest products that are being used locally especially timber.

“We need to make use of the resources that we have in the country to make sure we create wealth and create an environment where people can live well as the forests provide clean air, store our water and also provide us with a full range of ecosystem services,” he said.

He expressed his gratitude for the financing of the inventory which will put the ministry in a better position to know what type of resources we have in our forest and that will supplement the decision-making process so that there will be better resource management.

Present during the signing were the principal secretary for environment Alain Decommarmond and the PS for energy and climate change Wills Agricole, and representatives of the Seychelles Agricultural Agency.