Vallée de Mai showcased as global biodiversity hotspot
Visitors to the Vallée de Mai on Praslin received a special welcome on Saturday May 22.
At the end of their visits to the Unesco World Heritage Site, they were each given a calendar depicting species living there and information on its biodiversity.
This was to commemorate International Day of Biological Diversity proclaimed by the United Nations and celebrated worldwide with the aim of increasing understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues.
The term “biodiversity” describes the variety of life at all different levels – diversity within a given ecosystem, the genetic diversity within a species and the many different species on the entire earth.
The Vallée de Mai has long been recognised as a site at which the diversity of endemic and endangered species is very high. This includes the world famous coco de mer and all five other endemic Seychelles palms, the endemic black parrot, five species of endemic gecko, the endemic tiger chameleon, the leaf insect and many other species.
Indeed, recent research conducted in the Vallée de Mai has revealed more species including the recently discovered sooglossus frog and the green chameleon.
Visitors on biodiversity day talked to Vallée de Mai staff and Friends of the Vallée de Mai Club from Praslin schools about the species they saw on their walks. The calendars handed out to visitors, which were produced by the Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF), portrayed the many animals, plants and sites around the valley.
The Vallée de Mai is hugely important as a site for biodiversity conservation: it is unique at both a local and global scale and is therefore aptly described as a biodiversity hotspot.
The SIF also promoted the day through informal talks on the different fauna and flora species that the Vallée de Mai hosts. Staff were given interesting information on the biology and ecology of the different species and explained that we depend on these species, as illustrated by the global theme Biodiversity is life, biodiversity is our life.
To further mark the event, Friends of Vallée de Mai members were involved in other educational activities organized on May 26, when students were prompted to identify birds, insects and seeds among many other natural objects.
This activity has helped to raise awareness of local biodiversity among the Praslinois, which in turn will help to protect their natural heritage.
Source: NATION 5-31-10