Seychelles Nation - 18.02.2008
Seychelles global leadership acknowledged
The leadership of Seychelles in promoting the achievement of the Biodiversity Targets for 2010 at the international level was highlighted as a model example for other countries to follow by the executive secretary of the Convention on Biological diversity in his opening remarks during a recent Global Island Partnership (GLISPA) event in Rome.
This comes in the wake of President James Michel’s vision to place Seychelles at the forefront of the international governance agenda.
As a follow-up to the Global Island Partnership Strategic meeting which was opened by President Michel in Rome in September last year, Dr Rolph Payet, Presidential Advisor, chaired a special session on lessons learned in the management of protected areas in the Pacific and the Caribbean islands.
This event was held during the second meeting of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Protected Areas organised under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Rome from February 10 – 15, 2008.
The GLISPA meeting ended with a special evening presentation which saw the participation of the executive secretary of the Convention of Biological Diversity, the chairman of the Eight Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Minister for Environment of Ecuador (and the Galapagos Islands), high level officials from the Italian government who sponsored the event, and other delegates.
Both events served to increase the profile of the Global Island Partnership ahead of its planned high-level event, scheduled for May 2008 in Germany, which will bring together several heads of state and other senior executives from intergovernmental organisations and global NGO's.
At this high level event, GLISPA will launch its first global strategy and it is expected that significant conservation announcements by other island groups and further funding commitments will be made.
It is to be noted that GLISPA, founded by President Michel of Seychelles and President Remengesau of Palau in 2005, has to date mobilised about US $30 million in funds for conservation of biodiversity in islands around the world.
