On March 26 the Government of Seychelles announced a landmark achievement—that it will protect 30 percent of its ocean territory—at 410,000 square kilometres, it’s an area larger than Germany.
Increasing the country’s marine protection from just 0.04 percent of its Exclusive Economic Zone means that a major portion of the natural world will be fully or significantly safeguarded to encourage sustainable development and to adapt to the effects of climate change.
The Seychelles are in the Western Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and the Horn of Africa. The country consists of about 115 islands, with its ocean territory spreading out across more than one million square kilometres.
Considered a global hotspot for biodiversity, the archipelago is divided into two groups: the mostly mountainous inner granitic islands, or ‘Inner Islands’, within the Mahé Plateau, and the outer low-lying coralline islands, or ‘Outer Islands’.
The UNDP-supported Outer Islands project marine sites are part of this 30 percent expansion.
The ocean is changing physically, chemically, and biologically as overfishing, pollution, climate change, and the cumulative impacts of human activity take their toll.
The human, economic, and natural capital costs are increasingly evident and urgent.
The opportunities to guide development that respects, or better still, restores, ocean health are enormous, as are the opportunities for creating jobs, income, and growth. Reciprocally, the risks of inaction are significant, both to the ocean and to our own well-being.
A ‘blue’ economy implies some measure of alignment between economic development and the health of the ocean.
Early signs are, in most countries, that a blue economy typically prioritizes growth over sustainability, but in the Seychelles, they are finding a balance.
The Seychelles has the highest Gross Domestic Product per capita in Africa. Since the early 1990s, the country has transformed its economy from mostly agrarian to being chiefly dependent on high-end tourism and industrial fishing.
For the Outer Islands, increased tourism development, although limited so far to a few islands, has yielded financial benefits. But there have been some negative environmental impacts in terms of habitat transformation, erosion and sedimentation, and increased demand for fish.
Fishing—both legal and illegal—has affected a number of species in the Outer Islands, particularly sharks, sea turtles, and sea cucumbers.
These threats to biodiversity and ecosystems are exacerbated by climate change and marine pollution.
And as COVID-19 continues to spread worldwide, it presents a major and evolving challenge to tourism.
Yet in the face of monumental odds and during a global pandemic, the Seychelles are signaling to the world that it’s getting on with the groundbreaking business of protecting ocean life. “Seychelles is a champion of environmental conservation, because we believe in it. Since 1977, we have been convinced that protecting our environment is not just the right thing to do, but the necessary thing to do,” says President Danny Faure.
The Protected Area Policy set ambitious targets to protect at least 50 percent of its terrestrial area and 30 percent of its marine environment. Previously the country’s protected area system was primarily in the Inner Islands and did not include the vast Outer Islands.
They constitute more than 80 percent of the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone and make up more than half of the number of islands within the archipelago. They include nine of the twenty Important Bird Areas of Seychelles.
A UNDP-supported, Global Environment Facility-financed project, Expansion and Strengthening of the Protected Area Subsystem of the Outer Islands of Seychelles and its Integration, is working to expand the protected areas and improve their management.
Working with the Government of the Seychelles, and the support of the Island Conservation Society and Islands Development Company, the goal of the project is to conserve biodiversity across Seychelles’ Outer Islands.
To enhance biodiversity conservation, the project supports four new protected areas encompassing both terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
Tourism is only viable in the Outer Islands if the area is protected, but this new income stream has the potential to increase pressure on the island while it provides funds for conservation. Management of such tourism requires foresight and careful planning.
Tourisms need to balance with other economic activities, such as commercial fishing, so integrated analysis and strategies will be critical to the dialogue that will inform regulations.
Safeguarding the ocean for future generations is a shared responsibility and a matter of global urgency.
"No one can argue against the importance of safeguarding our ocean. However, our ability to put into practice the true essence of sustainability and conservation is continuously being tested. Finding the balance would involve taking measures which may be unpopular today but lifesaving tomorrow," says Island Conservation Society CEO Michelle Murray.
For more information on the Seychelles project, please visit the project profile: Expansion and Strengthening of the Protected Area Subsystem of the Outer Islands of Seychelles and its Integration into the broader land and seascape.
Cover: Desroches Island. Photo: Matthew Morgan of ICS
© 2026 United Nations Development Programme
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