BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE ISLAND CONSERVATION SOCIETY

Adrian Skerrett, Chairman, is a businessman and conservationist born in Stoke-on-Trent, UK, resident in Seychelles since 1980 and naturalised since 1994. He has authored or co-authored many books about Seychelles and its natural history including Birds of Seychelles (2001) and Aldabra (2006) together with scientific articles and many popular articles including a weekly nature column in the newspaper Seychelles Nation since 1994. He co-authored the first Seychelles Inventory of Important Bird Areas. He founded Seychelles Bird Records Committee in 1992 and is a Trustee of Seychelles Islands Foundation and Nature Protection Trust of Seychelles. He is a Director of the Seychelles Centre for Marine Technology-Marine Parks Authority. He is country representative for the African Bird Club and a member of the BirdLife International Rare Bird Club.

Glenny Savy, Vice-Chairman, has been the Executive Chairman of the Islands Development Company since 1982 and the Chairman of the Seychelles Fishing Authority since 1987.  He graduated in Economics at the University of Merdoch (Australia) and later obtained a pilot license in the Republic of South Africa. He was also trained and licensed as a professional diver in Australia and Seychelles. In the early 1980s, he initiated environmental conservation in the outer islands of Seychelles managed by IDC in close collaboration with several wildlife specialists. Later on, he developed close links with the Nature Protection Trust of Seychelles for the environmental management of Silhouette Island, also managed by IDC.  Glenny Savy also worked in tourism development in several islands of Seychelles.

Dr Gérard Rocamora, Science Director, is a French ornithologist and consultant affiliated to the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris.  He has worked in various countries of Europe, Africa and tropical America with institutions including BirdLife International, Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux, the Seychelles Ministry of Environment. He has authored or co-authored many technical publications, book chapters, audio CDs and scientific papers on rare and threatened species and priority sites for conservation, including two national inventories of Important Bird Areas (Seychelles and France), species and habitat action plans, and the French red data book for birds.  He initiated the Seychelles White-eye Recovery Programme and is now working on island rehabilitation and bird research projects in the Indian Ocean.

Edwin Palmer, Treasurer, is a businessman born in UK, resident in Seychelles since 1984 and naturalized since 1996. He graduated in Physics at Oxford University and then joined Guinness as a brewer. He ran a number of Companies for Guinness including Guinness Malaysia and Guinness Cameroun, and looked after Guinness interests in Africa until 1984. He then ran Seychelles Breweries for twelve years. He has served on the Board of the Environment Trust Fund and on the National Monuments Board.

Riaz Aumeeruddy, from Mauritius, is a marine biologist. He holds a “Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies” in Biological Oceanology from the University of Brest, in France, and has specialised in fisheries and aquaculture. He started work at the Coëtivy Shrimp Farm in 1990, and was the manager of the farm from 1993 to 1995. Since then he has been working for the Seychelles Fishing Authority as aquaculture manager, but has also been involved in fisheries and environmentally related projects. From 1998 to 2001, he was the National Focal Point of a regional coral reef monitoring project, initiated by the Indian Ocean Commission and funded by the European Union. Since September 2003, he has been nominated as the National Coordinator of a resource assessment project of sea cucumbers, funded by the FAO. He currently represents SFA on several national committees such as the EMPS steering committee and the Biosafety Framework committee. He is an experienced diver with a Dive Master rating.

Eddy Belle, from Seychelles, is an executive with Seychelles Petroleum, has also served as Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and Transport and taught biology at Seychelles College. He graduated with First Class Honours in Chemistry at the University of  Lancaster (UK), and later obtained a Masters in Geology at the University of Texas in El Paso (USA). After on-the-job training with the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate and training in management  in Washington D.C.,  he was appointed as Managing Director of the Seychelles National Oil Company. While he was working for this company, he authored or co-authored several papers on the geology of the Seychelles. He serves on several other boards, including as Chairman of the National Monuments Board, as well as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Seychelles ex-servicemen.

Pat Matyot is a Seychellois naturalist. He has authored or co-authored a number of scientific papers and other publications on the natural history of the islands and has a special interest in entomology. He is employed by the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation and has produced many television features on the country’s flora and fauna. He has taken part in several scientific expeditions both in the granitic and coralline outer islands of Seychelles. He also serves as a Trustee of the Seychelles Islands Foundation, the Nature Protection Trust of Seychelles, the Marine Park Authority, and is a member of the Seychelles National Environment Advisory Commission, and of various entomological organisations such as the Orthopterists’ Society (USA).

Dr Jeanne A. Mortimer is an American biologist/consultant specialising on the biology and conservation of turtles. She has worked in some 20 countries on six continents for institutions that include World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC), Fauna & Flora International, Museo Goeldi of Brasil, and The Nature Conservancy (TNC).  Her primary studied since 1981.  She has worked as a consultant to the Seychelles Ministry of Environment since 1995.  She has authored some 125 publications and reports including 30 on the fauna of the Seychelles.  She is a member of the Scientific Sub-Committee of Seychelles Islands Foundation, and is Chair of the Hawksbill Task Force of the IUCN/SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group.

Carlos Cassina Vejarano is a conservationist from Spain, CEO of the Aldabra Foundation, Switzerland and a Trustee of several conservation and cultural trusts including the Seychelles Islands Foundation, Nature Seychelles, Silhouette Foundation and Marine Conservation Society Seychelles. He is also the Founder and President of the Islands and Oceans Foundation, Switzerland and a Director of D’Arros Development Ltd. Carlos is active in the Seychelles and throughout the world in environmental and cultural activities.

Colin Bell is a tourism / wildlife specialist who has spent his adult years living and working throughout the more remote corners of Southern Africa. In 1977, after graduating with a degree in economics, he began his working career in Botswana as a wildlife and safari guide.  He later founded a company called Wilderness Safaris which grew over time to become one of the world’s foremost eco-tourism companies, managing over 2,500,000 hectares of some of Africa’s most pristine and prime wildlife land.  In the late 1990s, he was fortunate to be introduced to Seychelles, resulting in the conceptualising and developing of North Island into a very special product which has recently been voted as the best hotel in the world. “Hotel” is the wrong terminology as Colin’s company specialised in creating very small, low impact lodges usually with between 3 and 8 rooms per lodge.  Colin retired from the company he formed in early 2006 and has teamed up with friends to create a new venture that is taking on projects within Africa and the Indian Ocean.  One of these projects is Alphonse Island where they aim to transform this into a wonderful, new prestigious development with a strong rehabilitation, conservation and research focus.  It was here he met many of the people on the ICS board and seeing that there was a lot of synergy and chemistry was invited to become an ICS board member.

Tim Sands is a Trustee of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT) and a Director of Wildlife Travel.  Tim retired in 2005 after working for forty years in natural history and nature conservation, first at the City Museum in Sheffield and the Council for Nature in London and then for thirty years at the RSWT.  Latterly he was Director of Conservation and then Head of Parliamentary Affairs at RSWT and throughout his career has specialised on campaigning work in the Westminster Parliament.  He is currently writing a history of the Society.  For more than twenty years Tim has looked after RSWT’s interests in Aride Island and in that time has always taken a close interest in Aride’s management.  He has led several Wildlife Travel holidays in Europe and Canada and has been a regular visitor to the Seychelles and Aride in particular.  He has joined up with Adrian Skerrett to run successful Wildlife Travel holiday trips to nine of the inner islands of the Seychelles in 2005 and 2007.

Ron Gerlach. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Ron Gerlach trained as a civil engineer but always showed a passionate interest in natural history. He first came to Seychelles in 1968, later leaving engineering to pursue a career as a full-time artist, specialising in batik art and bird-life painting. After an absence of ten years, Ron returned to the Seychelles permanently in 1988. He founded the Nature Protection Trust of Seychelles and is Chairman of the organisation, based on Silhouette (since 1997) running projects including tortoise, terrapin and sheath-tailed bat conservation. He is Editor of the quarterly journal Birdwatch, a member of Seychelles Bird Records Committee and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Seychelles Island Foundation. He is co-author (with Gill Gerlach and Justin Gerlach) of the book Silhouette- Nature's Island.

Dr James Cadbury has served Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for many years as Head of Research, Senior Ecologist and as an advisor for the management of RSPB reserves. From 1987-1998, he was editor of RSPB Conservation Review.  He has an extensive knowledge of the vascular plant flora in Europe and Seychelles. For several years, James was a member of the Council of the Botanical Society of the British Isles. He is a vice-president of the Cambridgeshire Bird Club and a member of the English Nature Management Committee for Wood Welton Fen, the National Trust Local Management Committee for Wicken Fen and the Devon Wildlife Trust Management Committee for Welcombe and Marsland reserves. He is a Trustee of Plantlife International and is Chairman of the ICS Scientific Committee for Aride Island.

Professor Chris Feare, from UK, is an ornithologist specialising in the management of birds for pest control and conservation. He has published 4 books and over 150 scientific publications, including 40 on his research in Seychelles. In 1972 he began a study of Sooty terns in the Seychelles in relation to the harvest of its eggs, and he visits Seychelles annually to continue these studies and to address other issues of conservation concern for the Division of Environment. Formerly a researcher at the UK Ministry of Agriculture, he now runs his own consultancy. He is a Council member of the British Ornithologists’ Union and chairman of its conference committee and is editor of two scientific publications, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club and Advances in Vertebrate Pest Management. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Leeds.