Sea Level Rise Foundation mobilises €2m for Seychelles
26.05.2009
The Sea Level Rise Foundation launched by President James Michel has successfully mobilised €2 million from the European Union’s Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) fund.
This was announced by EU commissioner Joe Borg during the opening of the Seychelles Forum on Monday last week.
The GCCA is an initiative of the European Commission, and its overall aim is to build a new alliance on climate change between the EU and developing countries that are most affected and have the least capacity to deal with the change.
The project will help strengthen the response of the Department of Environment and other government bodies to climate change, in particular coastal erosion.
Dr Rolph Payet, chairman of the Sea Level Rise Foundation – which was set up at the 2nd conference of the Global Island Partnership in 2007 in Rome – said the fund is an important initiative of the EU to address climate change in developing countries, and Seychelles is among the first small island states to benefit.
The project was conceived by the foundation, in collaboration with the Department of Environment and Seychelles’ embassy in Brussels, through a competitive submission. The foundation will provide technical oversight, drawing expertise from its growing global network.
To date the foundation has become partners with the Many Strong Voices UN Environment Programme/GRID information initiative, the Polar Foundation, the Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts and Islands, and the Global Environment Facility International Waters’ learning programme and is now negotiating cooperative agreements with a number of countries.
Its blog, sealevelrise.blogspot.com, launched in January 2008, is a popular site creating sea-level rise awareness around the world.
An education programme involving schools in Seychelles and countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean is being developed, and details will be announced later.