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Angelique Pouponneau, the CEO of SeyCCAT, was invited to speak at the flagship panel on Building a Blue Economy at the Business Conservation Conference, which took place on the 8th to 9th September in Kigali, Rwanda. There, she shared insights on the ethos and values of the Trust in placing a healthy ocean at the centre of all its investment and the projects it is currently financing to build the blue economy. 

Victoria, September 9 – Chief Executive of SeyCCAT, Angelique Pouponneau, was invited to the Business Conservation Conference to provide insights on the ethos and values of the Trust in placing a healthy ocean at the centre of all its investment and the project it is currently financing to build the blue economy.

(L-R) David Obura – CORDIO East Africa; Dr Rashid Sumaila – The University of British Columbia Canada; Penelope Shure – Changing Tastes United States Of America; Arlin Wasserman – Changing Tastes United States Of America; Angelique Pouponneau – Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust(SeyCCAT); M. Sanjayan – Conservation International United States Of America

Blended finance remains critical in solving many of the challenges facing the ocean as public funds is simply not sufficient. SeyCCAT, a trust fund capitalised by blended finance through the debt-for-nature swap and the blue bond, provides funds to local communities and private sector partners to deliver on the blue economy in the face international challenges such as climate change and overfishing.

Pouponneau, opened her presentation with an emphasis that the Blue Economy is not possible without a healthy ocean and closed with the need for continental and international collaboration and coordination to achieve a healthy ocean, which is the basis of the blue economy. She pointed to a SeyCCAT-funded project which involved the clean up of Aldabra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where 25 tonnes of waste were collected and of that, 55 000 flip flops. She’s assured the crowd that these were not from the small population of researchers living there but neighbouring coastal communities. The necessary pre-condition to address the health of the ocean is to have all countries working together and treating the ocean as one ecosystem rather than looking at it in one EEZ at a time.

This was a flagship panel to address the request for more marine focused discussions at the Business Conservation Conference.

Pouponneau was also interviewed by Mongabay for a podcast.