So the lease of Assumption Island, or at least part of it, to the Qatari royal family has stirred sensitivities. Via a Middle East investment company, Assets Group, the Qataris are currently building an exclusive, 40-villa luxury resort there, with an upgraded concrete airstrip capable of receiving executive jets, far from prying eyes.”Assumption has one of the longest beaches in Seychelles, which is probably one of the most important green turtle nesting beaches in our country,” says conservation campaigner Lucie Harter. “It’s a really important place to preserve.”Crucially, Assumption Island is the gateway to the Unesco-listed Aldabra atoll, just 27km (17 miles) to the north.
One of the most pristine and fragile ecosystems in the world, Aldabra is home to 400 species found nowhere else on the planet. Sir David Attenborough described it as “one of the world’s greatest natural treasures”.But noisy neighbours risk disrupting nature’s delicate equilibrium.”We’ve seen that picture of a tortoise shell that has been smashed by construction machinery,” says Ms Harter. “Where is the oversight?
There’s no transparency. The way these decisions are taken is quite under the table.”A stop notice on the development, issued by the country’s planning authority in May this year, appears to have been ignored. Construction work continues.Last week, two campaign groups, Friends of Aldabra and Seychelles at Heart, lodged an injunction against the government at the country’s Constitutional Court to halt the project, pending a fuller, verifiably independent environmental impact study and guarantees that international observers will ensure nature is protected. Seychelles drops opposition leader’s witchcraft caseBlue whales return to ‘safe’ tropical havenCriminals and sanctions-busters exploiting UK secrecy loopholeSeychelles: The island paradise held prisoner by heroin
