Africa-Press – Seychelles. The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), a global climate and conservation fund aimed at supporting biodiversity conservation programmes in the world’s most critical ecosystems, held its annual regional implementation team’s (RIT) meeting in the country yesterday afternoon.
The meeting, held for the first time here, took place at the Savoy Seychelles Resort and Spa, Beau Vallon, where RIT representatives from Mauritius, Comoros, Madagascar and Seychelles discussed and evaluated CEPF’s performance and explored new ways to manage the region’s grants and projects including those to benefit the country.
With the provision of financial and technical support, CEPF enables civil societies to protect the world’s biodiversity hotspots – biologically rich ecosystems that are essential to humanity, yet highly threatened, while enhancing their capacity for the protection of the key biodiversity areas.
Founded in 2000, CEPT is made up of individuals and international donors, mainly the European Union (EU), the World Bank, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Conservation International and the Japanese government.
Its focal point in the country is the Seychelles Conservation and Climate Change Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT).
The local organisation strategically invests in ocean stakeholders to generate new learning, bold action and sustainable blue prosperity in the country.
The country became a beneficiary of CEPF’s grants for the first time last year, and its first grant cycle will be starting in the second half of 2023. Four large and one small projects are expected to get support from the CEPF, which has already released its second call for proposals for the second grand cycle in the country.
Speaking to the press, CEPF grant director, Peggy Porcelet, said that they are currently working on nine biodiversity hotspots in the world among which is Seychelles.
She stated that CEPF’s investment in the country started in July 2022 and has $16 million available, spreading over a five year period up to June 2027.
She noted that they are in the country for the meeting to take stock of what happened last year including what can be planned for next year and also to see how best they can work together with the civil society to preserve our country’s ecosystem in terms of eradicating invasive alien species and the restoration of corals, among others, identified as our biodiversity hotspot in need of attention.
“In the Seychelles, the idea is to help the civil society organisations to mitigate the impact of climate change and also looking at trying to improve the resilience of the ecosystem, and also the resilience of people living in Seychelles when it comes to climate change,” Mrs Porelet said.
For his part, the coordinator of RIT, Mark Van Der Wal, said that four Indian Ocean team members work as a team through building capacity on each other’s expertise.
“We know for example that SeyCCAT is very strong at managing grants related to the Blue Economy and climate change adaptations and so that is one of the main reasons why we ask the SeyCCAT to be part of the consortium which they accepted. The idea is that we make it very clear, not only for Seychelles but for Madagascar, Comoros and Mauritius, on what are the links between economy, ecology, climate change and well-being. If we want the ecosystem to provide us with services for our children and grandchildren, we have to realise that this is the basis of our economy,” said Mr Van Der Wal who noted that it is the reason why CEPF sponsors biodiversity conservation programmes, specifically in the face of climate change.
The chief executive of SeyCCAT, Marie-May Jeremie, said that the four large and one small projects in the field of coral restoration and removal of invasive alien species put forward by three local NGOs for subventions, are still in the process of being validated by CEPF before funds will be available for implementation.
She noted that CEPF has worked with NGOs through direct contact in the past but given the shortage of applicants they have opted to seek assistance from SeyCCAT with the potential of providing support to NGOs, especially to the smaller ones having difficulty to write their projects.
CEPF’s RIT also had the chance to visit the identified projects to conclude the site visit report leading to signing and disbursement of the grant upon approval of the projects.
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