Words from Mars and Actions from Jupiter: Environment Policies in Seychelles without a Single Tooth to Bite?

Regar of 8-7-09 reported that “the Ephelia Resort has broken its pledge not to damage the marsh at Port Launay. In meetings with the public, the developers said all construction would respect the integrity of the marsh. If there was a crossway, it was supposed to be on stilts. But now they have chosen to build a rock and earth road right across, with only a small bridge in the centre”.

We are totally outraged by this irresponsible ‘development’ because it is not exclusively planned according to the people wishes and certainly does not have a collective social purpose with due consideration on widespread livelihood and ecosystem impacts.

There are three simple issues to analyse and understand:

Firstly, this shows that the people trust has been completely violated. This happened because the new resort believes the people of Seychelles have no power to force them to become accountable. There is no voice of accountability in Seychelles. People empowerment is weak, yet they strongly claim to be people centred (SPP)?

Secondly, were IS the so called great environmentalist from the state government? Is he just prepared to receive big projects with large sums of money only? Similarly, there is complete silence from the wet land authorities!!

Thirdly, this outrageous action reveals the real priorities of the government and it is certainly not environmental protection and management as they claim. It amounts to just big words but no effective actions.

Finally, it is yet another solid evidence that the existing environmental policies in Seychelles are just text on paper, great words from the Environment Authorities with no legitimacy and is approximately good for nothing. Sitting down with developers and chatting about environmental protection and management will not always work as was suggested earlier. We hope that if not today, but one day the people of Seychelles will have real teeth to make developers such as Ephelia Resort and the conspiring government accountable for destroying the environment in the name of development for the large benefit of the elites and the rich only.