Bertarelli Summer2024 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 44
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learn about biodiversity and hopefully get involved in
conservation.
We essentially thought everything that could be
done to rewild Ile aux Aigrettes had been done. But
in 2020, we had an oil spill just a mile from the island.
So for several months, our work got diverted to saving
the plants, the birds, and the reptiles on the island as
well as the other southeast islands affected by the spill.
We’ve cleaned up the oil, we’ve put the plants back,
and we’ve put back the reptiles and the birds back,
too. We’re now still monitoring the island to see how
it bounces back from the spill. We have a lot of hope.
In the vein of hope, a lot of people here are dreamers. Ile aux Aigrettes has a bronze cast of a dodo, which
went extinct from Mauritius and is really the symbol
of extinction everywhere. But now, there is a company,
Colossal Biosciences, that is working on de-extinction.
And we’re now dreaming that maybe the dodo will
come back to life—and if it does, then one of the places
it could come back is on Ile aux Aigrettes.
RE W I L D I NG
So, let me introduce Aldabra Atoll. It is one of the world’s
largest raised coral reef atolls. It’s been fully protected
since the 1970s and was designated as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site in 1982. Sir David Attenborough described it
as one of the world’s greatest surviving natural treasures.
While the rest of the world races for economic
growth, the Seychelles’ decision to protect this iconic
place shows a commitment to our greatest asset: near
pristine nature. The ring of islands making up Aldabra’s
atoll are separated by four channels that pump water in
and out of a lagoon with enough water to swallow up
Miami and Manhattan. The lagoon empties out twice
a day, creating some of the world’s fastest ocean currents. Coral reefs and seagrass beds wrap around the
atoll and extend throughout the lagoon and mangrove
forests that span more than 3,000 football fields add
to its wonder.
Tell me more about Aldabra.
Raguain: No one lives on Aldabra, except for Seychelles Islands Foundation staff. No one visits except
scientists and the occasional expedition. Aldabra is by
no means lifeless. It teems with life. Around 200,000
giant tortoises roam this “land before time.” Endangered green sea turtles have experienced a population rebound of about 500 percent since protection
And Jeremy, can you tell me about your work in the
Seychelles?
Jeremy Raguain: My work is focused on conservation,
but also on small islands and developing states when
it comes to climate change and negotiations around
oceans. We know our
best defense to a crisis—
whether its biological or
ecological or the climate
crisis—is a healthy and
resilient environment.
J A N BUR ES / S H UT TER STO CK
SLOW AND STEADY
The Mauritius giant
tortoise has, sadly,
gone extinct. However,
conservationists were
able to restore a similar
tortoise—the Aldabra
giant tortoise, from the
island of Aldabra in the
Seychelles—to the area.
It was so successful they
repeated the exercise on
nearby islands.
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