Mini Symposium – World Biodiversity Day

Students from ISS were invited to participate in a live conference held by the Biodiversity Conservation Section of the Ministry of Environment. Ashley Dias chaired the meetings and speakers from all departments talked about how we can be part of the solution. Students from local schools and International School were very interested to hear about Biodiversity issues in all areas of society. Governmental and non governmental organisations spoke about a number of subjects.
The students learned about coastal management in Seychelles from Ms Annie Simeon and Fisheries management from Elisa Socrate. There were other speakers from the Blue Economy research institute Ms Kelly Hoareau spoke about many career opportunities regarding the ocean and Maria Brioche at SIF inspired the children with her presentation about the Vallee de Mai.
Corrine Julie from Nature Seychelles talked about their success in Cousin island with the Seychelles warbler translocation as well as the Reef Rescue project which has been planting corals on the ocean floor.
Ashley Dias spoke about the many endangered species in Seychelles and about poaching, alien species in Seychelles and illegal trading and she explained how important education is for all these things.
The students were happy to hear that there is volunteer work in many of these fields and that students will be invited to Beach clean ups and even to help with Sea turtle monitoring.
At the end of the symposium the students from ISS were free to ask questions and many of them did. Thank you to the Ministry of Environment Biodiversity section and Ms Lynndina for inviting our students to attend this interesting conference. The power points will be available for more students to learn about Biodiversity. Thank you also to Vanshika Parikh, Srimugan Sankar, Yan luc Morel, Ema Jesic, Darnell Vincent, Estelle Brown, Axel Albert and Noele Betty Namukose for attending the Symposium.