Managing the threat of Marine Plastic Pollution in Seychelles

Partnerships with local stakeholders, including the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change (MEECC), the Islands Conservation Society (ICS), the Islands Development Company (IDC) and the Landscape & Waste Mangement Agency (LWMA), have been established through this 3-year project. Having built relationships with these key local stakeholders and knowing the importance of long-term data collection, TOP Seychelles will take the necessary steps to help build continuity in monitoring marine litter around the Seychelles’ islands. There is currently no new project secured but TOP has met with local stakeholders to discuss the integration of the marine litter monitoring methodology in other marine waste projects.

The grant lead to networking opportunities as TOP Seychelles was invited to present the Seychelles marine litter monitoring programme on international platforms, such as the 2021 Marine Science webinar on Tackling Plastic Pollution in the Indian Ocean, and at local workshops. Such interventions have allowed the methodology and preliminary results of the study to be shared and discussed with academic insititutions, scientists, local authorities and other NGOs who are directly involved or have shown strong interest in waste management.

A national technical report is aimed to be published by the end of the year 2022 and a peer reviewed paper in 2023. A joint publication on plastic management with other local organisations is additionally in the talks.

Local and international students have also been involved in this research study and have used TOP’s data to write-up their Master’s thesis.