INDIAN OCEAN/SEYCHELLES: Ministry launches beach monitoring programme

 Ministry launches beach monitoring programme 
Workshop provides practical know-how 

  
The Ministry of Environment’s beach monitoring programme (see lead story) got 
underway on Monday July 21,  with a workshop aimed at educating participants 
on the basics of beach monitoring. 

The workshop, hosted by the Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Hotel, was designed to 
better instruct representatives from the ministry, hotels and other 
organisations, such as the Solid Waste and Cleaning Agency (SWAC), on beach 
monitoring and management practices.

Environment minister Ronny Jumeau officially opened the workshop, followed by 
a short ceremony in which Bernard Shamlaye, Secretary General to the 
Seychelles National Commission for UNESCO, presented the minister with the 
beach monitoring instruments that will be used under the programme.

After presentations by officials from the Ministry of Environment on the 
basic issues of beach monitoring and the overall national programme, Dr 
Gillian Cambers from the University of Puerto Rico conducted a practical 
training session to familiarise the participants with the monitoring 
instruments and techniques.

She said the most important benefit of a beach monitoring programme was in 
the capacity it built for local hotels and developers to know how to carry 
out their projects without disrupting a beach’s natural processes.

“The best measure to combat erosion takes place before a hotel is even 
built,” Dr Cambers noted.

However, she said that there were still various ways to fight against 
existing erosion problems once more information was known about the accretion 
and erosion trends for a given beach.

Dr Cambers said that the profile database created under the beach monitoring 
programme would help in determining what trends were seasonal and what trends 
might be influenced by other factors, such as rising sea levels or man-made 
disturbances.

From there, she said the appropriate action could be taken that is best for a 
particular beach, be it through additional planting of trees and vegetation, 
breakwaters or other methods.

Dr Cambers, an expert in coastal erosion, has helped with the implementation 
of beach monitoring programmes in 13 Caribbean islands, including Jamaica, 
St. Lucia and Antigua.

Andy Rath, Lemuria Resort’s beach service manager, was one of a number of 
hotel representatives who participated in the workshop.  He said that from a 
business point of view, the effects of beach erosion could ripple across a 
number of hotel services.

“Our beaches are one of the biggest experiences for our guests,” Mr Rath 
said.  “We provide food and beverages directly on the beach, and if it is no 
longer an attraction, the hotel would lose out on valuable business.” 
 
Source: Seychelles Nation, 22 July 2003