EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Republic of Seychelles is a collection of more than 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean, south of the Equator. The country’s ocean territory is approximately 3,000 times larger than its land area owing to the distance between islands. The islands are of two types; approximately one-third are granitic, and the remainder are coralline. The three major granitic islands are the “Mahé Group” – Mahé, Praslin, and La Digue – at the northeastern end of the country’s ocean territory. Mahé, by far the largest island, is also home to nearly 90% of the population, and most of the remainder of Seychelles’ residents live on Praslin or La Digue. Most of the outer islands host only seasonal tourists, researchers, or Coast Guard and meteorological service personnel.
Tourism and fisheries make up a large portion of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As a high-income country, Seychelles delivers health and education services, public utilities, and social safety net programs to its people. However, it remains vulnerable to many of the same challenges as other small island developing states (SIDS), including but not limited to remoteness, a small market, limited revenues, exposure to global commodities price shocks, and climate change impacts.
The country’s exposure to natural hazards is concentrated on storms and subsequent flooding, as well as landslides, mudslides, and rock falls. Major hazards are linked to sea level rise, which will increase exposure to storm surges and tsunamis generated elsewhere in the Indian Ocean, and to sea temperature changes, which will impact marine ecology. In addition, the country confronts challenges related to “anthropic” hazards – e.g., pollution, chemicals, solid waste, and ship or aircraft accidents. Although Seychelles continues to invest in its ability to confront these hazards and to cooperate internationally to address them, the country’s geographic isolation means that any incident will have to be handled locally until external assistance can arrive from far away.
Since 2014, the Disaster Risk Management Division (DRMD) has been a separate government department tasked with comprehensive all-hazards management. Alongside the Division, there are three oversight and advisory committees - the National Disaster Risk Management Committee, the Vulnerability Assessment Committee, and the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. National policy also demands that each local authority establishes and implements a disaster risk management (DRM) framework. Separately, the Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment (MACCE) oversees ecological protection, safe water resources, and strengthening of capacities to address the impacts of climate change and climate-related disasters. Risk management and reduction are parts of the DRM and climate change sectors, and both integrate non-government and community groups.
Disaster response under the DRMD focuses on an incident command system, local leadership, and all-hazards functional capabilities. In case of emergency, the DRMD Director General is responsible for establishing and running the National Emergency Operations Centre and supplementary emergency operations centers, as required. Key partners involved in a response are the national police and fire-and- rescue services, as well as the Seychelles Defence Forces and the Red Cross Society of Seychelles. The country has built strong cooperation with United Nations (UN) system agencies and regional inter-governmental organizations, including the Indian Ocean Commission and Indian Ocean Rim Association. Beyond disaster management support, these groupings likely will prove to be important to Seychelles’ climate change actions since the impacts of climate change can be expected to affect the economy and society, both of which require multilateral and multi-sectoral strategies.