Earth Today | Adaptation financing helps Seychelles ready for climate impacts

THE SEYCHELLES, a small island developing state (SIDS) in the Indian Ocean, faces several climate change impacts, including sharp bursts of precipitation that create heavy flooding in the wet season and imposes extended periods of drought during the dry season, leading to long spells of water scarcity.

The climate change projections in the Seychelles – comprised of 115 islands, 40 of which are granitic while the others are coral formations – show that rainfall, while increasing in overall terms, will become even more irregular. Communities living along the coasts are also vulnerable to flooding as a consequence of rising sea levels. During cyclone season, this vulnerability is exacerbated by increased storm surges.

However, a US$6.4-million project is building resilience to these effects through ecosystem-based approaches that are securing water supplies and providing protections against flooding.

“I have seen a transformation of the wetlands at Anse Royale, from all the years I have worked here. The wetlands had become a dumping site that led to environmental impacts, such as floods. The wetlands have now been cleaned, and we can bring students on educational visits by the wetland. The younger generation can now see moorhens – they are observing a livelier wetland with species that were not there before,” said Peggy Agathine, a Mont Plaisir Watershed Committee member and an active volunteer.

This wetlands’rehabilitation is part of the ‘Ecosystem Based Adaptation (EbA) to Climate Change’ project, funded by the Adaptation Fund, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme and executed by the Seychelles Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment.

The project is addressing two key issues: water scarcity and flooding that are directly related to the overall health and resiliency of the local ecosystem in both the watersheds and coastal areas.

The Adaptation Fund project applies nature-based solutions for the Seychelles community, ensuring these interventions are effective and sustainable for the community. So far, the watershed rehabilitation activities in the project have been implemented in selected watersheds covering 1,800 hectares on Mahe Island and about 1,200 hectares on Praslin Island, the two largest islands of the Seychelles.

Other project activities include maintaining and enhancing tidal wetlands, installing bollards to protect beach berms on the coast of North East Point and developing integrated shoreline management plans for the Anse Royale district and North East Point, using EbA measures that include protection to enhance their climate change adaptation role in flood attenuation. It also enhances livelihoods.

The Adaptation Fund has, since 2010, committed nearly US$912 million to climate change adaptation and resilience projects and programmes inside the most vulnerable communities of the developing world.

Source: Adaptation Fund