Ministry of Environment and Energy
Message Prof. Rolph Payet, Minister of Environment and Energy to commemorate World Day to Combat Desertification under the theme: “Land Belongs to the Future - Let’s Climate Proof It’
Tuesday 17th June 2014
‘Land Belongs to the Future - Let’s Climate Proof It’ - is the theme chosen to commemorate this year’s World Day to Combat Desertification. The focus is to increase attention given to land and soil within climate change adaptation, mobilizing support for sustainable land management and inclusion of land and soil and their significance in food security into national climate change.
Seychelles as small island nation is affected by both issues, being small makes us very vulnerable to climate change risks and impacts and also land degradation due to both natural and human factors. Praslin and Curieuse are islands where this issue is more visible, being the site of many forest fires in the past. Land is one of the most precious resource of our country so it is important therefore that sustainable land management approaches and practices are applied across all sectors. Land degradation caused by over-development, excessive earth cutting, cutting of trees, forest fires negatively affects the our biodiversity, the agricultural productivity of our lands, our water sources which flows down mountains, aggravate landslides and floods.
We must act now and learn to adapt. By strengthening planning and our forest eco-system services through sustainable land management, we can help people adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. Seychelles has been implementing its National Action for Sustainable Land Management since 2011 within the context of the national land use plan. Our combined efforts with the local community, the private sector and NGO’s will lead to more safer communities, productive agricultural lands, and better landscape. Land belongs to us now and to the future generations, so let’s climate proof it!
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