Ecosystem-based Adaptation through South-South Cooperation (EbA South) is a full-sized GEF project, implemented by UN Environment and executed by the National Development and Reform Commission of China (NDRC). The Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change (MEECC) of Seychelles is one of the executing partners of the project. It is responsible for the pilot EbA interventions in selected project sites in the Seychelles islands. The overall aim is to address the vulnerabilities of local communities to Climate Change by using ecosystem-based approaches to adapt through on-the-ground interventions, increasing institutional capacity, mobilising knowledge and transferring appropriate best-practice adaptation technologies.
However, one of the identified barriers to this objective is the relative lack of reliable, long-term scientific research to guide the design and implementation of appropriate EbA interventions. The University of Seychelles (UniSey), Blue Economy Research Institute (BERI), has consequently been engaged to initiate and sustain long-term ecological and socio-economic research at the project intervention sites within long-term research programmes (LTRPs) that will be sustained for decades beyond the initial project implementation period. As part of this long-term implementation UniSey has also incorporated EbA into the curriculum of several courses with the BSc Environmental Science Programme. Several students have also completed honours degree dissertation within the EbA mangrove research project. Long-term BERI research projects include:
GIS mapping of historic, current and potential future mangrove habitat on Mahé, Seychelles