African Bird Club (www.africanbirdclub.org) or ABC is a UK registered charity that provides a worldwide focus for African ornithology. ABC covers continental Africa, nearby islands of the Atlantic to the Azores and western Indian Ocean islands including Seychelles. ABC publishes a twice-yearly colour bulletin, which includes news from Seychelles. Seychelles Bird Records Committee publishes all interesting sightings from Seychelles in the bulletin and encourages observers to submit articles on first records of birds recorded in Seychelles. The Founding Chairman of ICS, Adrian Skerrett, has been ABC Country Recorder since the launch of ABC in 1994.
Christopher Cadbury (1908-1995) was the grandson of George Cadbury, founder of the famous chocolate manufacturers. Like his grandfather, he was a successful businessman, running several companies, including British Canners which made “pom” (powdered potato) for the UK Forces during World War Two.
Christopher Cadbury was a great conservationist who purchased more than thirty nature reserves in UK, the Falklands and Seychelles and donated them all to charitable organisations. His Seychelles involvement began with the international appeal to purchase Cousin Island and save the Seychelles Warbler. This only raised one third of the required amount. Christopher chipped another one-third and twisted the arms of the Board of Cadbury’s Chocolates to obtain the rest.
Christopher Cadbury went on to purchase Aride Island and turn it into a nature reserve, now managed by Island Conservation Society. He also leased land on La Digue to save the habitat of the Seychelles Paradise Flycatcher, this eventually becoming the nucleus of the Vev Reserve managed by the Seychelles Government. In the 1970s, he even offered to buy Cosmoledo to be managed as a reserve jointly with Aldabra. The offer was politely turned down by the then lessees of Aldabra, Royal Society, who felt they had their hands full with Aldabra.
Christopher Cadbury’s conservation work was recognised by the award of the CBE in 1975 and the Order of the Golden Ark (from Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands) in 1979. He established another conservation honour, the Christopher Cadbury Medal in 1990.
The Christopher Cadbury Trust is today administered by Christopher’s son James Cadbury. The Trust continues to sponsor much of the cost of running Aride Island Nature Reserve. A memorial stone on the Aride Island nature trail pays tribute to Christopher Cadbury’s great contribution to nature conservation in Seychelles.
The International Small Islands Studies Association or ISISA (www.geol.utas.edu.au/isisa) is a voluntary, non-profit and independent organisation established in 1992 focussed on the study of islands. ISISA encourages free scholarly discussion on small island related matters, the nature of island life, problems and prospects.
Islands Development Company or IDC is a Government parastatal established in 1980 for the management of the outer islands of Seychelles. For the early years of its existence, IDC was focussed on agricultural development particularly copra production. With rising transport and labour costs, this has become uncompetitive compared to other countries where these expenses are lower and economies of scale higher.
More recently, IDC has looked to the tourism industry to provide much needed investment in the outer islands. Partnerships have been developed for the construction of hotels on several islands. ICS too, is developing partnerships with operators in the outer islands to secure the future of the environment on these islands and to implement research, rehabilitation and monitoring programmes.
Marine Conservation Society Seychelles (http://www.mcss.sc) or (incorporating the Shark Research Institute Seychelles) or MCSS is a Seychelles based NGO that promotes the conservation of the marine environment. Since 1996 the organisation has been monitoring and tagging Whale Sharks in Seychelles waters. This project is establishing a permanent database for collecting and analysing the Whale Shark population, movements and habits in the region. A regular newsletter is published and available free of charge from the MCSS web site.
The Ministry of Environment (www.env.gov.sc) is one of the most active and respected ministries of the Government of Seychelles. ICS enjoys excellent relations with the Ministry and holds regular meetings with Minister Ronny Jumeau to exchange news and views.
Nature Protection Trust of Seychelles (http://members.aol.com/jstgerlach/) or NPTS is a Seychelles registered NGO based on Silhouette Island. Silhouette is the only granitic island managed by Islands Development Company (IDC). Island Conservation Society has an MoU with NPTS for conservation issues.
NPTS conservation projects include the establishment of the Roche Caiman Bird Sanctuary on Mahé, the Seychelles Terrapin Research Project, the Giant Tortoise Conservation Project and co-ordination of the African Waterbird Census. NPTS publications include the Seychelles Red Data Book 1997, a series of monographs on the fauna of Seychelles, the quarterly journal Birdwatch and the annual scientific journal Phelsuma.
The Plant Conservation Action Group (PCA) has the following goal, mission statement and objectives:
Goal
“The extinction crisis and massive loss in Biodiversity are universally adopted as a shared responsibility in action to reduce this loss of diversity within species, between species and ecosystems.”
Mission Statement
The PCA seeks to advance the Mission of the IUCN by serving as the principal source of advice and information on the technical aspect of the plant conservation in Seychelles. It seeks to mobilize action by conservationists and other interested parties for species conservation, in particular for those species threatened with extinction and those of importance for human welfare.
Objectives:
To increase the local capacity to provide timely, innovation and practical solution to conservation problems.
To offer opportunities for individuals interested in plant conservation to work with other similar minded professional to contribute towards conservation and to be part of a well-respected and effective body of experts.
To provide local plant scientists and other interested parties with the opportunity to do research and to publicise their findings.
To offer its members access to channels of information in various forms and to current news on topics related to the Species Survival Commission and on plants conservation in general.
To influence decisions and policies affecting Biodiversity recommendations and guidelines based on sound interdisciplinary scientific information.
To raise funds and establish a sound resource and administrative base to support the activities plan of the group.
PCA publishes a newsletter, Kapisen, is available on line at http://www.geobot.ethz.ch/publications/books/kapisen
ROYAL SOCIETY OF WILDLIFE TRUSTS & THE WILDLIFE TRUSTS
The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts or RSWT (www.rswt.org) is a registered charity, incorporated in UK by Royal Charter to promote conservation and raise and manage funds for environmental programmes throughout the UK. The Patron is HRH The Prince of Wales. The current President is Professor Aubrey Manning OBE. Vice Presidents include Sir David Attenborough, Julian Pettifer and Bill Oddie.
RSWT has owned Aride Island Nature Reserve in Seychelles since its purchase with funds donated by Christopher Cadbury in 1973. In 2004, RSWT leased the island to Island Conservation Society of Seychelles.
RSWT is the umbrella organisation for The Wildlife Trusts or TWT (www.wildlifetrusts.org) are a UK-based conservation organisation, having 47 Wildlife Trusts across the UK, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. With 670,000 members, TWT is the largest voluntary conservation organisation in UK, conserving the full range of the UK's habitats and species. 108,000 members belong to the junior branch, Wildlife Watch (www.wildlifewatch.org.uk). TWT manages 2,200 nature reserves covering more than 80,000 hectares.
SEYCHELLES BIRD RECORDS COMMITTEE
Seychelles Bird Records Committee or SBRC (http://www.stokecoll.ac.uk/sbrc/index.htm) was formed in 1992 with the following objectives:
To collect information and records relating to the status of all birds observed from the islands of Seychelles and their surrounding ocean, as defined by the internationally recognised Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the country. This area is within 200 nautical miles of the nearest island of Seychelles, except to the southern boundary, which is truncated by seas under the jurisdiction of Madagascar, France (Iles Glorieuses) and Mauritius (Agalega).
To assess reports of all birds considered to be of less than annual occurrence within the Seychelles EEZ and to permanently maintain the original bird record submissions made by observers together with all Committee comments and votes.
To publish summary details of all accepted records, encourage publication by observers of first records for Seychelles and to maintain a national list of bird recorded in Seychelles EEZ.
To provide all persons or bodies interested in the study of birds if Seychelles with scientific data pertaining to bird sight records.
To increase awareness of and interest in the birds of Seychelles both nationally and internationally.
SBRC has created a permanent archive of assessed records, available to everyone. SBRC encourages all observers to make their sightings available for confirmation in order to give them a value.
SBRC publishes accepted records quarterly in the local journal Birdwatch. A summary report is published in the Bulletin of the African Bird Club every five years. Accepted records are also made available on the internet at the website of SBRC, sponsored by Stoke-on-Trent College.
Seychelles Islands Foundation (www.sif.sc) or SIF manages and protects the World Heritage Sites of Aldabra and Vallée de Mai. The foundation was established as a public trust in 1979, with the President of Seychelles as patron. The Board of trustees, appointed by the President, has 14 members, including not less than five representing organisations concerned with the conservation of wildlife and natural history or national academics of science.
At its sites, Aldabra and Vallée de Mai, SIF protects:
The world's largest raised coral atoll.
The world's largest giant tortoise population.
Some of the world's most spectacular seabird colonies.
The largest intact coco-de-mer forest and many other endemic trees, plants and animals.
Unique birds, including the last surviving flightless bird of the Indian Ocean, the Aldabra Rail, and the endangered Seychelles Black Parrot.