Seychelles is commonly catergorised as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) due to its size and challenges it faces. However, we have come to recognize ourselves as a Large Ocean State because the area of ocean that we have largely surpasses our land area, with a total land area of 455km2, scattered over 115 islands, and an ocean size of 1.3 million km2. 30 of our ocean territory is protected.
We are an ocean-dependent economy – held strong by the tourism and fisheries industries, which are in turn supported by the natural environment. Therefore, ocean health is crucial to us. However, Seychelles has all the classic limitations and vulnerabilities of SIDS countries – climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification, extreme climatic events, coral bleaching, and increased climate sensitive diseases. Nature Seychelles’ Blue Economy Knowledge Centre aims to build content on the blue economy model by sharing best practices and knowledge.