Welcome to the Official Website of Gaea Seychelles
Date: Upcoming project – April 2023 to April 2026
Summary
The project aims to achieve a comprehensive freshwater biodiversity database to address conservation and management issues in the Seychelles. It will target notably freshwater fish, micro and macro invertebrates.
The first component contributes aquatic data to the ‘Seychelles’ Holistic Biodiversity Database on species and ecosystems’ (Bio database) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Freshwater biodiversity data from scientific publications, museum collections etc will be compiled into the ‘Bio database’. The number of records and species in the databases will be the main measurable indicators.
Component 2 targets baseline surveys and annual biodiversity inventories of fish, micro and macro invertebrates in 15 rivers including the collection of genetic materials through eDNA. All data collected will be integrated into the Bio database, eBioAtlas (https://ebioatlas.org/) and GBIF.
The 3rd component is the Train-the-Trainer programme to advance the understanding of freshwater systems while developing capacity through internships, graduate programmes and guest lectures. 10 students from UniSey and 5 participants from participating organisations will be trained in identification of freshwater biodiversity, surveys, eDNA sampling and freshwater ecology and 2 Seychellois trained at graduate level in conservation of freshwater biodiversity.
Component 4 is an outreach programme + Citizen Science for different target groups to raise awareness on the importance of freshwater ecosystems, and the production of 3 scientific publications of the status of freshwater biodiversity.