World Day to Combat Desertification activity |16 June 2018

Mont Fleuri school students plant 300 endemic palm trees

The tree-planting exercise

Students from Mont Fleuri primary schools joined forces with the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, the Environment Trust Fund and the Seychelles National Park Authority yesterday to plant 300 endemic plants.

The tree-planting event was organised on a terrain in Bel Air to celebrate this year's World Day to Combat Desertification (WDCD), which is observed on June 17 each year.

The activity is in line with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) which Seychelles ratified in 1997.

The WDCD was established by the UN 23 years ago to raise awareness on the global and national actions that address desertification, land degradation and drought. The day is a special reminder that these problems can be solved through strong community involvement and cooperation at all levels.

"Every year we plan an activity to coincide with the WDCD as it is our mandate to draw attention to various land issues and educate the public on the matter," said the national focal point person at the local UNCCD secretariat, Nanette Laure.

"However because the day falls on a weekend we decided to host the tree-planting today," she clarified.

This year's WDCD theme 'Land has true value: Invest in it' reinforces the need to prevent land degradation.

Mrs Laure added that primary students were chosen to take part in the event because of the importance of instilling environmental values in children at a very young age.

"They are our future generation and hence need to understand why we are taking up such initiatives."

Indeed, interactions with a group of P4(1) students at the tree-planting site indicated that they were fully aware of the dangers of land degradation.

"We are learning about the different kind of roots in our science class and how they protect the land from degrading," one of the students, Dorianne Bristol said.

It is to be reminded that the Seychelles Lions Club planted around 200 similar endemic plants in the same area a few weeks ago, which means that the terrain now holds 500 fresh endemic plants.