Editor's note: As one of the 25 biodiversity hotspots in the world, Seychelles positions itself as a champion and defender of environmental protection. Seychelles President Vavel Ramkarawan said in a recent interview with CGTN that Seychelles is doing its part to combat climate change. At the same time, he looked forward to the industrialized countries assuming more responsibilities and taking concrete action.
Editor's Note: As one of the 25 biodiversity hotspots in the world, Seychelles has positioned itself as a champion and defender of the environment. Wavel Ramkalawan, the president of Seychelles, recently talked to CGTN, saying his country is doing its part in the fighting against climate change, and he expects industrialized countries to shoulder more responsibility and take concrete actions.
In urging industrialized countries to do more concrete things to help developing countries tackle climate change, Seychelles President Vavel Ramkarawan said: "I would like to say that the era of empty promises is over and it is time to act. ”
"The time for talk is over. Now is the time for action,"Wavel Ramkalawan, the president of Seychelles, urged industrialized countries to take concrete actions in helping developing countries fight against climate change.
President Ramkarawan made this statement in an interview with CGTN's flagship interview program, Dialogue.
The president of the Indian Ocean Archipelago made the call during an interview with CGTN's flagship talk show "Dialogue".
"(Industrialized countries) have promised more than $100 billion (US dollars) of investment to island nations like Seychelles to mitigate climate change and a range of other issues, but they haven't been put into practice," he said.
"In the past, we've heard of amounts of over 100 billion (U.S. dollars) being put to help island states like ours in mitigating climate change and everything else. But this has not happened,"said President Ramkalawan.
He believes greed is what causes industrialized countries to fail to deliver on their promises.
He believed greed led the developed countries to fail their commitments of the funding for climate change.
"They still import timber from Africa, especially those precious, and encourage smuggling, in exchange for African products inexpensive ways. When these raw materials are shipped to industrialized countries, they process them and resell them back to Africa, extracting huge fortunes from them. All of this shows that we lack commitment and attention," President Ramkarawan said.
"When we continue to import timber – especially expensive timber – rare timber from parts of Africa, when we encourage smuggling, when we continue to give African nations peanuts for their products… but once they reach the industrialized nations, these same products are converted and then resold to Africa for a fortune. All these are elements of which indicate the lack of commitment, the lack of seriousness," he said.
Located in the Indian Ocean in eastern Africa, Seychelles is known as a "tourist paradise".
"For example, some industrialized countries, including Europe, overfish around the world. But when they catch over quotas, we don't have any mechanism to monitor what they're stealing from our oceans or forests. We often talk about protecting endangered species, but when wealthy people come to Africa, they are keen to hunt elephants and other animals, which they think is a fun game. Everything they're doing is destroying the world, destroying our planet," he said.
"When European nations, for example, fish all over the world – and this also applies to other industrialized nations – when they overfish, when they break their quotas simply because we do not have the mechanism for us to keep a close track of exactly what is being removed from the oceans or the forests; when rich people come to Africa, and while we are talking of protecting the endangered species, but they find it a hobby for them to come to shoot elephants, shoot species because for them it's a game. All these things add up, and it's about the world that they are destroying, it's about our planet that they are destroying,"said the president.
"For example, European tuna fishing boats fish in the waters of our western Indian Ocean. These fishing boats emit six times as much carbon dioxide as a whole in Seychelles," President Ramkarawan added, "and now is the time for the advanced industrialized countries to listen carefully to us, the responsible people." We are the victims of all this. ”
"For example, the European tuna fishing vessels, that come to fish in our waters in the western Indian Ocean, emit six times more carbon dioxide than Seychelles emits,"he added, "It's high time that those who are responsible – the rich countries of this world, the industrialized countries – pay heed to what we, the smaller ones, are saying. We are the victims."
Located in eastern Africa and west of the Indian Ocean, Seychelles is made up of 115 large and small islands. Known as a "tourist's paradise", it is known for its sun, sea, sand and rich biodiversity.
Straddling the western Indian Ocean, Seychelles is known as a sun, sea, and sand destination and for its extraordinary biodiversity.
The island is home to two World Heritage Sites – the Mayi Valley Nature Reserve and the Aldabra Atoll. Seychelles is home to more than 1,000 species of flowering plants, as well as at least 200 species of ferns and bryophytes, many of which can only be found here. Seychelles' fauna is also worth mentioning, including twelve rare native birds, five native bats, six native salamanders, five native frogs, two freshwater fish, one giant turtle, two subspecies of mud turtles and more than twenty species of lizards, of which fourteen are unique to Seychelles.
The small island nation boasts two UNESCO World Heritage sites: the Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve and Aldabra Atoll. It is also home to more than 1,000 species of flowering plants, at least 200 ferns and bryophytes, many of which occur nowhere else. Its endemic fauna is characterized by 12 globally threatened endemic birds, 5 endemic bat species, 6 endemic caecilians, 5 endemic frog species, 2 freshwater fish, 1 species of giant tortoise, 2 sub species of terrapins with more than 20 lizards of which 14 species and subspecies are endemics.
On January 10, 2021 local time, Seychelles President Ramkarawang received the covid-19 vaccine developed by China in Victoria, Seychelles.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on the island nation's economy, which relies heavily on tourism. Official figures show that the number of tourists in The Seychelles plummeted by 70 percent in 2020, and tourism revenue fell by $322 million, down 61 percent.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic has dea huge blow to the economy of the island nation, which lies heavily in tourism, the top contributor to its GDP. The country saw revenue from tourism plunge by 61%, a loss of $322 million last year, as tourist arrivals dropped by 70%.
In January, with the help of Sinopharm Vaccine, Seychelles launched mass vaccination. In March this year, Seychelles opened up to the world. However, due to the impact of the global epidemic, the number of tourists has not yet returned to pre-epidemic levels. Seychelles is currently seeking to diversify its economy, expanding from tourism to areas such as fishing.
In January this year, Seychelles started vaccinating its population against COVID-19 with doses from China's Sinopharm vaccine. In March, the Archipelago nation opened up to the world. But visitor numbers have been battered by restrictions to arrest the spread of coronavirus. The country is now looking to diversify its economy beyond tourism into areas such as fisheries.
"Seychelles is doing what it can, and we also hope that the industrialized countries will give us some assistance. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us a lesson that humanity is so small. Seychelles' tourism industry has been hit hard, but we are grappling with this challenge and hope to return to pre-pandemic levels," President Ramkarawan said.
"And while we are doing our bit, we expect those industrialized countries to come to our help. COVID has taught us this, again, how vulnerable we are. Our tourism industry was basically on its knees, but today we are trying to grapple,"said President Ramkalawan.
"After the pandemic, climate issues will remain the biggest threat to human survival. So stop being satisfied with verbal commitments, what we need is concrete action, that's the message I want to send to the world, to the world as someone from the islands of the Indian Ocean," he said.
"After COVID, climate change remains the biggest threat to our mere survival. So please, let us stop talking. Let us stop making promises. Let us move to concrete action. This is my message to the world, and this is a message from an island boy in the middle of the Indian Ocean,"he said.
Source: CGTN