SYAH-Seychelles’ mangrove adventure |21 June 2018

Following the success of its free movie screening of ‘A Plastic Ocean’, SYAH-Seychelles in collaboration with Ephelia Resort also hosted a ‘Mangrove Adventure’ to celebrate World Ocean Day.

The half-day event was held on June 9 at Port Glaud in the mangrove forests within the Ephelia Resort compound.

The aim of the event was to sensitise participants on the important and often undervalued and underappreciated role that mangrove forests play towards the health of our oceans. Some of these are:

• Serving as a nursery for many fish species including coral reef fish
• Providing coastal protection as its dense root systems minimises erosion by waves
• Trapping sediments flowing down rivers which helps prevent coral reefs from becoming silted
• Acting as a carbon sink i.e. a natural deposit that absorbs carbon from the atmosphere and contributes to reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air.

During the activity, the Health, Safety and Environment Project manager, Markus Ultsch-Unrath, gave participants a tour of the seven different species of mangroves found in this RAMSAR site. A RAMSAR site is a wetland whose fundamental ecological functions have been internationally recognised. Seychelles is home to three RAMSAR which are the Aldabra Atoll, Mare aux Cochons and Port Launay.

Following the educational tour, SYAH-Seychelles proceeded to undertake a mangrove clean-up.

Sherbrah Michel, a member of SYAH, commented: “When we were given only 20 minutes for the clean-up, we all thought this was too little time to collect litter. But once we delved into the mangrove, it was shocking and quite disheartening. Between the 12 of us in the short space of time, we accumulated approximately 12 gunny bags full, demonstrating just how much garbage flows down our rivers or is dumped into our mangroves through human activity and negligence.”

The group then proceeded to plant mangroves. Altogether they planted 90 seedlings for the mangrove nursery maintained by Ephelia Resort and transplanted 60 mangroves from the nursery into the wetlands.

Another participant, Derick Pillay, shared the following: “The Mangrove Adventure was an exhausting but enlightening experience. Being my first time, it gave me a new perspective and appreciation for the mangroves. I would strongly encourage others to participate in similar activities as it is an eye-opening experience that snaps you back to reality to make you realise the negative impact of our consumerism.”