The
Seychelles, an island country off the coast of East Africa, is nearing
completion of a plan that will see it drastically increase the coverage
of its marine protected areas.
By adopting the so-called “Third
South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Governance and Shared Growth Project”
(SWIOFish3), which includes the final phase of the Marine Spatial Plan
initiative, the Seychelles is raising its marine protected area coverage
to 30 percent of the country’s exclusive economic zone. The plan, which
has an expected completion date of 2020, will also includes reforms to
address mounting concerns on the impact of overfishing and destructive
tourism industry activities.
“Several
species of demersal fish are subject to overfishing, or at risk from
overfishing, with declining catch rates symptomatic of worsening status
in key fisheries,” the report stated.
But with SWIOFish, the
Seychelles is in a new phase of implementing measures to create a
sustainable seafood industry through improved management of the
fisheries sector that could lead to increased volumes of landed catch
for local processing and reduce the share that is transshipped, the
report added.
As part of the wider SWIOFish project in the
Seychelles, the government has developed a phased-Marine Spatial Plan
(MSP) that creates high and medium biodiversity marine protected areas
(MPAs), one where fishing is prohibited and another where it is
controlled, so to achieve sustainable utilization of the marine
environment and support growth of the country’s blue economy.
The
Seychelles has previously not had restrictions of the species and amount
of fish caught, or the seasonality of the capture hence raising concern
over the drop in total country catch in some fishing areas.
In
the first phase of the MSP two locations with a combined area 210,499
square kilometers have been declared marine protected areas.
The
first area, measuring 74,499 square kilometers, is located around the
deep waters surrounding the Aldabra Group. The area hosts endangered
marine species such as the Indian Ocean’s only dugongs, a critically
endangered sea turtle species.
The Seychelles wants to use the
second area, which measures 136,000 square kilometers, to showcase how
sustainable economic development can be balanced with its
well-performing critical economic sectors of fishing and tourism.
An
additional 200,000 square kilometers will be brought under marine
protection by the end of 2020, increasing the total marine protected
areas in the Seychelles to 410,000 square kilometers, or nearly 30
percent of its 1.4 million-square-kilometer exclusive economic zone.
The
Seychelles seems to have successfully tackled the first hurdle in
achieving the objectives of the SWIOFish3 project, which is financing.
One
option embraced by this archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean
is the debt-for-climate-adaptation swap, which entails converting part
of the debt it owes other countries into a more manageable locally held
debt.
The Seychelles will access USD 23 million (EUR 20.7 million)
in an impact capital loan and another USD 5 million (EUR 4.5 million)
in grants to buy back USD 29.6 million (EUR 26.7 million) national debt
at 5.4 percent discount. This financing plan has been organized by The
Nature Conservancy.
Part of the debt service payments is now being channeled to the repayment of impact investors,
increasing Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust
(SeyCCAT) endowment capitalization and also providing funds for “work on
the ground that advances marine and coastal conservation, including
strategies for ecosystem-based climate adaptation and disaster risk
reduction.”
The advantage for Seychelles from this financing
option is that the country will for example invest USD 13 million (EUR
11.7 million), channeled through SeyCATT, to conservation activities
“with nearly 70 percent of this payable in local currency rather than
hard currency, averting the extra cost of conversion.”
Furthermore,
the debt payment period has been reduced from 20 years to eight years,
with an annual government debt service of about USD 2 million (EUR 1.8
million), hence “freeing up funds for other needs of the citizens of
Seychelles.”
Additionally, in 2018, the Seychelles launched a USD
15 million (EUR 13.5 million) sovereign blue bond to finance the
fisheries and aquaculture projects under SWIOFish, the first such
country to embrace this innovative fund mobilization instrument.
Seychelles Vice President Vincent Meriton said previously
the blue bond that draws investment from both public and private
sectors will “mobilize resources for empowering local communities and
businesses, greatly assist Seychelles in achieving a transition to
sustainable fisheries and safeguarding our oceans while we sustainably
develop our blue economy.”
Earnings from the blue bond will be utilized as grants
for fisheries management planning activities and also as bait in the
form of loans to woo more public and private investment in sustainable
fishing opportunities such as post-harvest value addition and
conservation of ocean resources.
The SWIOFish project is expected
to “lay the foundation for the sustainable development of the fisheries
value chains and improve the business climate,” according to Meriton.
The
project includes a draft plan for the Mahe Plateau Fisheries project,
which entails transitioning, albeit in phases, from an open-access
fishery to a more controlled fishery. That plan has been completed and
is in the phase of consultation ahead of final roll-out.
Additional
financing for the project is also coming from the International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development, which is providing a USD 5 million
(EUR 4.5 million) loan and Global Environment Facility that has extended
USD 5.3 million (EUR 4.8 million) grant.
