TRASS raises awareness of staff from government agencies and parastatal on ecosystem restoration through an EU funded project

Raising awareness and engaging local communities into environmental protection particularly ecosystem restoration is a key mission of the Terrestrial Restoration Action Society of Seychelles (TRASS). Public servants especially those responsible for making key decisions needs to be informed of environmental issues that can impact on socio-economic development. TRASS managed to achieve this through a project funded by the European Union through the Southern African Development Community (SADC) under the GCCA+ project ‘Community-led rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems using an Ecosystem-based and Ridge to Reef approach, Praslin, Seychelles’ being implemented jointly by TRASS and Gaea Seychelles.
Over a hundred of personels from government agencies were engaged in plant propagation, site discoveries, replanting and workshops throughout the project. This included the Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment, Climate change department, Ministry of Habitat, Infrastructure and Land Transport, Local Government (District Administrators), the Public Utility Corporation, Seychelles Parcs and Gardens Authority, Seychelles Petroleum, Seychelles Civil Aviation amongst others.

The TRASS project offers a good perspective of the issues being faced by Praslin in terms of land degradation. It also contributes to meeting the country’s commitment under national policies and strategies as well as international multilateral environmental agreements like UNCCD, UNFCCC and CBD.