Seychelles participates in the 8th GEF International Water Conference in Colombo.

The Seychelles islands participated in the 8^th Biennial International Water Conference organized by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) which was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on the 9^th May-13^th May, 2016. A member amongst the183 member governments of the GEF in partnership with international institutions, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. Seychelles has benefited from a number of grants provided by the independent organization for projects in relation to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer and persistent organic pollutants. The objective of the 8^thInternational Water Conference (IWC8) was a signature learning event to facilitate cross-sectorialportfolio-wide learning and experience sharing regarding developments in accordance with transboundary waters. Transboundary waters are water parcels (basins, aquifers and even oceans)which links two or more countries.

The Minister for Environment, Energy and Climate Change, Didier Dogley was invited as a guest of honor to be part of the panel of the policymakers for the conference and to officially launch the event.In his opening speech, the Minister pointed out that apart from the existing threats i.e. pollution, over-fishing, hypoxia and periodical coral bleaching, in the recent months countries has witnessed an intensification of the impacts of El Nino, the worst in 50 years, and climate change.This phenomenon has caused extreme weather conditions throughout the world whereby in the Pacific Ocean there have been reports of seabirds dying of hunger in their thousands due to a lack of food. Since November last year, the Western Indian Ocean has experienced unusual sustained, high water temperatures and widespread coral bleaching.  The Seychelles was also directly impacted as of last month a southern atoll was hit by the worst cyclone on record for the western Indian Ocean.  Cyclone Fantala wiped out decades of development on these islands within 8 hours with gusts winds of 350 km/hr. 

In the official ceremony the Minister used the opportunity to urge collective work between countries exemplifying relations and projects between Seychelles and its neighboring countries as Seychelles is a small island developing state with resources that are intertwined. This includes Sri Lanka’s support in partnering their prestigious Colombo International Nautical and engineering College, Marine Campus with the Seychelles Maritime School, the extended continental shelf shared by Mauritius and the Seychelles under SAPPHIRE and the protocol on controlling pollution from Land based sources and activities under the Nairobi Convention. These success stories are a few compare to the extensive agenda that the Seychelles has geared towards the development of the Blue Economy and a sustainable Seychelles.  In February this year Seychelles successfully closed a debt for conservation and climate adaptation swap with the Paris Club, whereby part of the debt will now be transferred to manage a large marine protected area covering about 30% of the EEZ.  

Minister Didier Dogley announced future strategies that Seychelles would partake such as finalising a marine spatial plan, which would be launched in December this year. In addition, developing a new financing mechanism; the blue bond which will provide affordable and concessionary financing to local fishermen, eco-tourism operators and other actors involved in coastal and marine activities.  The conference which took place for nearly a week gave the member participants the opportune to interchange ideas and essentials. The Seychelles has participated in 10 International Waters regional projects financed by GEF for the western Indian Ocean and African SIDS. 

Figure 1: Minister Didier Dogley launching the IWC8.