Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health of the Aldabra Group, Southern Seychelles: Scientific Report to the Government of Seychelles.

National Geographic's Pristine Seas project, in collaboration with the government of the Seychelles, the Island Conservation Society (ICS), the Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF), and the Waitt Foundation, conducted an expedition to explore the poorly known marine environment around these islands. The goals were to assess the biodiversity of the nearshore marine environment and to survey the largely unknown deep sea realm. The data collected contribute to the marine spatial planning of the Seychelles, in particular the creation of large marine reserves

Notes on Seychelles mosses : 5., mosses of Frégate Island

In May 1997, the first collections of bryophytes were made on Frégate island, Seychelles. A list of collections is provided. Fissidens sciophyllus is recorded for the first time from the Seychelles

Women’s political representation in small island developing states : a comparative analysis of Mauritius and Seychelles

A notable feature of the island studies literature is the gap at the level of research and data on gender issues. This paper look at the gender dimensions of political representation in two Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Indian Ocean: Mauritius and Seychelles. The paper discusses the gendered aspects of scale, boundedness, isolation and fragmentation that are characteristic of island states in the contexts of Mauritius and Seychelles. Mauritius and Seychelles both inherited British colonial structures and became independent in 1968 and 1976. Smallness is a salient feature of both islands, but women’s political trajectories and success differ substantially. Drawing from published sources, this paper attempts to explain the different trends in gendered political presence in Mauritius and Seychelles. The paper also discusses the implications for women’s political empowerment in SIDS.peer-reviewe

Modelling International Tourism Demand and Uncertainty in Maldives and Seychelles: A Portfolio Approach

Maldives and Seychelles in the Indian Ocean are small island tourism economies (SITEs), both of which have relatively small populations, territorial sizes, land area and narrow productive bases. The two SITEs are surrounded by vast ocean and have an overwhelming reliance on international tourism for economic development. Variations in international tourist arrivals to these 2 SITEs have been affected by unanticipated oil shocks, natural disasters, crime and global terrorism, among others. An accurate assessment of the variations in international tourist arrivals, particularly the conditional volatility, is essential for policy and marketing purposes. The conditional mean and conditional variance of the weekly international tourist arrivals to Maldives and Seychelles from 1 January 1994 to 31 December 2003 for the 5 main tourist source countries are modelled. Multivariate models of uncertainty are estimated and tested. An assessment and interpretation of the estimates are made for policy makers and tour operators to reach optimal decisions on the basis of a portfolio approach to international tourism demand. The paper assesses 4 sets of country spillover effects between Maldives and Seychelles, namely: (i) the own country effects for Maldives and Seychelles; (ii) the country spillover effects from the remaining four countries within each of Maldives and Seychelles; (iii) the own country spillover effects between Maldives and Seychelles; and (iv) the cross-country spillover effects between Maldives and Seychelles. The empirical results for both Maldives and Seychelles are discussed in terms of each of these components.Small island tourism economies, Weekly international tourist arrivals, Uncertainty, Conditional volatility, Country spillover effects Acknowledgements: The first author wishes to acknowledge the financial support of the School of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Edith Cowan University. The second author is most grateful for the financial support of the Australian Research Council.

A small collection of bryophytes from the Seychelles

16 taxa of mosses and 4 taxa of hepatics have been identified from a recent collection of Seychelles bryophytes. Isopterygium subleptoblastum C.Müller is new to the Seychelles. Ectropothecium squarrifolium (Broth.) Nishimura is new to Africa 3 sensu Index Muscorum, but the identification is somewhat uncertain

The literature study programme trial: Challenging constructions of English in the Seychelles

This paper provides an outline of the development and trialling during 2004 of the Literature Study Programme (LSP), a literature programme designed for use in the junior secondary classes of Seychelles. The programme was developed as a teaching and learning component concerned with the study of literature within the English language programme in the Seychelles, which had been hitherto absent in both the enacted and intended English language curriculum of the country. This paper reports on the structure and organisation of the LSP, its design philosophy, the assessment procedures employed, the results of the evaluation, and the implications for teaching literature at the junior secondary level in Seychelles. The results of the evaluation show a high level of support for literature as an area of study by both students and teachers. The programme as an initial design for teaching literature has also received a high level of approval from participants. Recommendations for the programme are also highlighted in this paper. The writer concludes with a word of caution against relegating literature study to the background

Fostering internationalization of African businesses

Some of the top African investors in China are from Mauritius, South Africa, Seychelles and Nigeria.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324503392_Fostering_Internationalisation_of_African_Businesses/statsPublished versionPublished versio

Museum DNA reveals the demographic history of the endangered Seychelles warbler

The importance of evolutionary conservation – how understanding evolutionary forces can help guide conservation decisions – is widely recognized. However, the historical demography of many endangered species is unknown, despite the fact that this can have important implications for contemporary ecological processes and for extinction risk. Here, we reconstruct the population history of the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis) – an ecological model species. By the 1960s, this species was on the brink of extinction, but its previous history is unknown. We used DNA samples from contemporary and museum specimens spanning 140 years to reconstruct bottleneck history. We found a 25% reduction in genetic diversity between museum and contemporary populations, and strong genetic structure. Simulations indicate that the Seychelles warbler was bottlenecked from a large population, with an ancestral Ne of several thousands falling to <50 within the last century. Such a rapid decline, due to anthropogenic factors, has important implications for extinction risk in the Seychelles warbler, and our results will inform conservation practices. Reconstructing the population history of this species also allows us to better understand patterns of genetic diversity, inbreeding and promiscuity in the contemporary populations. Our approaches can be applied across species to test ecological hypotheses and inform conservation