Fragile ecosystem: SIF questions hotel project design on Seychelles' Assumption Island
The Seychelles Island Foundation (SIF) is not against a hotel development on Assumption Island as it will bring many benefits for the island and the Aldabra Atoll, a UNESCO World Heritage site next to it, but is questioning whether the current project is suitable for the island, given its fragility.
The Assumption Hotel development project is awaiting approval from the Planning Authority, after already having the green light from the environment ministry after the completion of an environmental impact assessment (EIA). The Qatar-based developer, Assets Development Company, which owns several luxury tourist establishments in the Maldives and elsewhere in the world, plans to build 37 luxury villas and 4 restaurants on the island.
In an interview with reporters during a visit to the island late last month, the chief executive of the state-owned Islands Development Company (IDC), Glenny Savy, said he had a meeting with the board of directors of the SIF, at which further studies were requested, and all their requests were approved.
However, SIF still has reservations. Assumption is 27 kilometres from Aldabra and is geologically similar. According to Dr Frauke Fleischer-Dogley, the chief executive of SIF, which manages Aldabra, Assumption has long been considered a potential ark for endemic species of Aldabra in the event of a catastrophic occurrence. It is seen as a second home for the preservation of species from Aldabra.
Frauke said in an SIF press conference on Monday, “These are our main concerns, and we have made this very clear to IDC. […] SIF is not against development, but the development needs to be compatible with the Aldabra Group, with strict biosecurity measures in place and all processes followed.”
She said that there is a biosecurity management plan for the Assumption development, “but we have no information on the conditions of when it comes into place and any other specifications.”
Bernard Georges, the chairman of the SIF board, who is also the Leader of Government Business in the National Assembly, told reporters that the Foundation was not involved in the concept of the development and did not get the possibility to express what needed to be considered in the project development.
“What we would have liked but that did not happen was that before the project started with the construction of the runway was that we were invited onboard for the whole project,” he explained.
“We have been told it will be a six-star airconditioned hotel because of the people coming to the establishment. There will be 350 staff who will need housing facilities. We have seen in the plan that the hotel will extend all along the large beach on the island, which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the Seychelles' territory,” added Georges.
He said that it seems the developers were not given any parameters for the development on a fragile island like Assumption.
“So, they have simply designed a six-star hotel...and in my opinion they did not take any consideration for the island. What we are doing now is reverse engineering, something that has already been planned, to make it environmentally friendlier,” he added.
Georges said, “We must not forget that Assumption is part of the Aldabra Group and Aldabra has a special designation under the Marine Spatial Plan and our environmental laws and that is why we are making those statements today.”
On the subject of UNESCO being informed of the project development, Fleischer-Dogley said, Seychelles signed the World Heritage Site Convention and “we have obligations. We have to submit heritage outlook reports and fill in questionnaires on any situations happening and also to IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) and they will evaluate.”
