World Ocean Day arrived this week on Wednesday, 08 2022. To mark this, we take a look at innovative projects undertaken in communities within the Seychelles to combat the impact of plastic in the Indian Ocean.
More than 250 million tons of plastic are estimated to land in our oceans by 2025, painting a worrying image of the future. As Governments and international organisations seek new policies at Ocean Conferences on the environmental impact of plastic, small Non-Governmental Organisations of the island state of Seychelles are combating the scourge of plastic in community-building ways.
The Ocean Project, the SIDS Youth Aims Hub and the Seychelles Islands Foundation, are three of the many non-governmental organisations at the centre of projects such as beach clean-ups and educating people on sustainability.
In 2017, the result of fervent campaigns by numerous NGOs, saw Seychelles ban plastic bags, cutlery and take away boxes. The efforts for policy change and outreach to encourage sustainable consumer habits have also encouraged actions on the outer islands, of which are out of reach and largely unpopulated but are negatively impacted with coast line plastic pollution. The Island Conservation Society (ICS) and the Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF) are two environmental organisations that manage several of Seychelles’ outer islands and have been carrying out beach clean ups in the areas under their remit.
The Ocean Project Seychelles (TOP)
In response to the global issues of marine plastic pollution affecting Seychelles, two young women, Zara Pardiwalla and Karine Rassool co-founded The Ocean Project Seychelles (TOP) in November 2016 with a mission to tackle the problem through education, action and research.
Since its establishment the Ocean Project have hosted coastal clean ups, engaged thousands of volunteers and have collected tons of rubbish consisting of plastics. This passionate group combine education and action on the plastic pollution issue, with an additional goal to spark positive and lasting changes in consumer habits.
For more information, see the TOP website: www.theoceanprojectseychelles.com
