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Independent School gets support to rehabilitate wetland |26 February 2018

 

The Independent school has received a batch of equipment which will help in the rehabilitation of the wetland near the institution’s secondary school at Ile du Port.

This follows the signing of an agreement on the mangrove habitat rehabilitation project being funded by the Mangrove for the Future (MFF) Initiative and undertaken by Independent School in partnership with SIDS Youth Aims Hub (SYAH) Seychelles and Green Islands Foundation (GIF).

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the GIF chairperson Marlon Naiken and the director of the school Sherley Marie during a short ceremony at the school last week.

This education driven rehabilitation programme will be conducted until October from a MFF grant of US $25,000.

Through capacity building and a field-based education programme, schoolchildren, teachers and SYAH members will restore, protect and monitor the wetlands near Independent School while learning about their biodiversity value and ecosystem functions.

This project seeks to promote the importance of wetlands throughout the community and to encourage similar community-driven mangrove restoration initiatives on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue.

The 11-month project, which started in December 2017, seeks to raise general awareness on the importance of wetlands not only for biodiversity, but for learning, recreation and socio-economic reasons.

The GIF general manager Wilna Accouche said the consignment of shovels, boots and gloves that the school has received will be used for the first phase of the project which is to clean up the area and plant mangrove seedlings in the designated area.

“Further materials and equipment will be given later on during the year such as current measuring and water testing devices for educational purposes and canoes for recreational purposes,” she said.

She said the first educational session was held on February 3 to commemorate Wetland Day at the University of Seychelles where Terence Vel spent the day teaching the wildlife students about wetlands and their benefits. They also had the opportunity to visit the nursery and plant seedlings which will then be brought to the wetland area next to the school.

She said they are planning to organise the first clean up session by next month.

Ms Marie said they are blessed to have a wetland area near the school.

“The mangrove habitat rehabilitation through fostering of joint school-NGO custodianship will further develop collaboration between our school and other partners with the aim to restore, protect and monitor the wetlands. Furthermore, the activities planned will empower our students and teachers to learn more about their biodiversity ecosystem functions with the aim of conserving the area for future generations,” she said.

She said it will also serve as a laboratory for students and teachers alike to experiment and interact with this ecosystem.

Ms Marie extended her sincere gratitude to MFF for providing the finance and GIF for the technical assistance.

 

 

 

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