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Assessing climate change readiness in Seychelles: implications for ecosystem-based adaptation mainstreaming and marine spatial planning

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Abstract

The high financial costs and institutional constraints of adapting to climate change necessitate joint planning with other development and environmental priorities, especially in Small Island Developing States. In response, ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is gaining recognition as a cost-effective and synergistic approach for enhancing livelihoods through nature’s services, building community resilience, and integrating marine spatial planning. Using Seychelles in the West Indian Ocean as a case study, we assess the readiness for climate change as a tool to implement and mainstream EbA across various spatial scales. Our assessment highlights certain governance mechanisms and policy processes that could contribute to joint adaptation and economic planning and in achieving multiple objectives. These include leadership, institutional mechanisms, science–policy nexus, decision-making structures, stakeholder involvement, and technological innovation. These readiness factors as well as knowledge gaps on future risks provide lessons for other SIDS in their climate change and integrated coastal management initiatives. As such, the needs to strengthen local governing capacity, secure sustainable funding, and promote adaptation research for long-term monitoring and cross-scale linkages are warranted.

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Notes

  1. Wetland Tourism: Seychelles-Port Launay: http://www.ramsar.org/pdf/case_studies_tourism/Seychelles/Seychelles_EN-.pdf Last accessed Dec 6th 2013.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for technical inputs from consultative stakeholder meetings during a GEF-SCCF project inception workshop in Seychelles on the theme “Enhancing capacity, knowledge and technology support to build climate resilience of vulnerable developing countries” in September 2012. The administrative support from Alain De Cormamond of the Climate Change Affairs Adaptation and Information in Seychelles and field support from Petra de Abreu (C4 EcoSolutions) and Ole Vestergaard (UNEP) are greatly appreciated. We also thank participants at the international EbA workshop held in Beijing in China in October 2013, especially Elvina Hoarau and Nimhan Senaratne and other presenters at the coastal session. UNEP-IEMP colleagues provided useful comments on various versions of this paper. Thanks to Erasme Mbanzamihigo for timely inputs for Fig. 1, Elyn Albert for Fig. 2, and Ling Ge for Fig. 4. The first author acknowledges funding from the CAS Young International Scientist Fellowship during his UNEP-IEMP tenure (Grant no. 2012 Y1ZA0010). Two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments and suggestions that improved the manuscript.

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  1. Ahmed Khan

    Present address: School of Business & School of Environment, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NS, B3H 3C3, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. United Nations Environment Programme- International Ecosystem Management Partnership, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Beijing, China

    Ahmed Khan

  2. Department of Environment, Climate and Environmental Service Division, Ministry of Environment and Energy, Victoria, Seychelles

    Vincent Amelie

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Khan, A., Amelie, V. Assessing climate change readiness in Seychelles: implications for ecosystem-based adaptation mainstreaming and marine spatial planning. Reg Environ Change 15, 721–733 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-014-0662-4

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