Nature Protection Trust of Seychelles approach to conservation

The NPTS aims to restore and preserve viable ecosystems.  Many conservation projects around the world focus on single species and require intervention indefinitely.  In contrast we are trying to ensure that the species and systems we work with can continue to evolve and adapt to changing conditions.  Ultimately the natural dynamism of these systems should allow them to persist without human intervention.  Our single species conservation projects (such as the giant tortoises and terrapins) are primarily aimed at restoring significant components of the ecosystems.

We take a long-term view of ecology  and when faced with problems such as alien invasion prefer to monitor the changes and evaluate natural processes rather than intervening from the start.  Our research in this field has revealed that dramatic alien invasion by 'Koster's curse' Clidemia hirta is only a temporary phenomenon in a healthy ecosystem.  The identification of the species in Seychelles in 1987 was followed by its recognition as a major invader, dominating significant areas of the island.  However, over the following 10 years it was excluded by natural forest regeneration without any intervention.  We now actively remove this species only in selected management areas where rare plants are being established or protected.

Currently we are researching the longer-term ecological dynamics of alien and native tree species.  New observations suggest that introduced tree species are less stable than the indigenous and endemic species.  Tree falls are very frequent on the steep, shallow soils of Silhouette island but almost all of these are introduced species.  This may not be an unexpected observation as the alien species have only been in the islands for 230 at the most, whilst the endemics have adapted to the island conditions over many millions of years.  There may be interesting implications for forest dynamics, recruitment and regeneration.

Our active intervention is limited to selected areas where we are re-establishing pockets of native vegetation.  This produces reservoirs of a range of forest plants which enhances the natural process of regeneration.  The first site to be managed in this way was started in 1997 and now closely resembles natural habitats.  Within 5 years the native invertebrate fauna had returned and recolonisation of this site by endemic skinks was observed in 2001.  Increases in the endemic skink-eating snakes may also be associated with the success of this restoration.

The NPTS believes in a scientific approach to conservation and has based its Policy on Reintroductions on the IUCN Reintroduction Specialist Group's Reintroduction Guidelines.  We have been working to get this policy accepted at a national level.  The scientific work of the NPTS is organised by Justin Gerlach

NPTS works in collaboration with the Islands Conservation Society, Islands Development Company nad the Seychelles government.  NPTS is a member fo the Alliance for Zero Extinction.

NPTS believes that all conservation action requires the sharing of reliable data and has signed up to the Conservation Commons