JRS grantee, Gaea Seychelles, successfully launched activities within the Developing a Freshwater Biodiversity Information System for Conservation and Management in the Seychelles project on September 19. Events hosted over 70 attendees and included presentations by project Director Dr. Elvina Henriette as well as performances and role play by Gaea Seychelles’ Little Explorers Club.  The launch attracted national media attention coverage by the Seychelles Nation and on the Seychelles Public Broadcast News.

After the launch, the project team leaders were trained on data collection and management for ecological projects and conservation efforts led by Dr. Bruno Senterre from project partners: the Plant Conservation Action Group and the Natural History Museum.

The first field training undertaken was on the use of macro-invertebrates for biological monitoring of the health of rivers. The training was led by Gaea’s partner organization by GroundTruth. This was part of a train-the-trainers program where attendees gathered from: Gaea, the University of Seychelles, the Public Utility Corporation, the Seychelles Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment and the Seychelles Island Foundation.

Project leaders also organized a presentation at the Natural History Museum given by GroundTruth trainer, Juan Tedder  titled The Sassy Side of Rive Health.  The presentation focused on the Stream Assessment Scoring System (SASS) aquatic biomonitoring method as well as the miniSASS citizen science tool for developing and promoting school and community oriented river biomonitoring.

Read more about the Gaea Seychelles Developing a Freshwater Biodiversity Information System for Conservation and Management in the Seychelles here.