Invasive species: Can the Vallée de Mai win this fight? |16 April 2013

During the Vallée de Mai Science Symposium held recently at the Seychelles Trading Company (STC) conference centre,  a presentation on the Invasive species attacking this World Heritage Site was held. Under the  theme “ Invasive Species – can the Vallée de Mai win this fight?” - the speakers noted that the foreign species are causing major damage to our local diversity there.

In a project run by the Seychelles Island Foundation in collaboration with the National Parks Authority and funded by the European Union, it has been discovered that the invasive species displace and reduce native species and  reduce native wildlife habitat. As for the Valléd de Mai it has been discovered that snails, birds, rats and tennrec are the main destructive animals in there.

In a research project done in that World Heritage site, a plant method with survey 10m x 10m plots using GPS was utilized. The result was that 97 different species were found in which 47 were native and 50 introduced. It must be noted that Latanyen Fey,  Lantanyen Milpat and Palmis are some of the native species there.

Ongoing experiments and development of controlled methods like Herbicide control experiment, are current projects being undertaken to curb the invasion of such species.

Yellow crazy ants with uncertain origins introduced to Seychelles in 1962 were found in abundance in the north east area of Vallée de Mai. It was found that Crazy Ants are not spreading but they need constant monitoring. The effects of rats and tennrecs are still not clear.Overall Vallée de Mai is still in good condition but more experiments are needed.