Seychelles’ Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT) is an innovative financing mechanism breaking the usual narrative about donor funding. SeyCCAT manages the proceeds of blended capital from the debt-for-nature swap and the Seychelles’ blue bond, providing Seychellois organisations access to funding to contribute to the Blue Economy.
The Trust stands out for many reasons:
- An inclusive approach – its eligible applicants include Seychellois citizens, businesses, and governmental departments and agencies and parastatals.
2. The projects it funds challenges the ‘business-as-usual’ practices and provides innovative solutions.
3. It is independent with a transparent and rigorous process for selection of investments.
SeyCCAT was invited to share its experience and best practice to the hundreds of people gathered at the Marine Regions Forum 2019 on the 2nd October 2019 in Berlin Germany. The overarching theme of the conference was “Achieving a healthy ocean – Regional ocean governance beyond 2020” and sought to provide a space for different marine regions to showcase impactful collaborative solutions for ocean health.
Following SeyCCAT’s presentation, the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) awarded a grant to SeyCCAT to develop knowledge management tools, including a 3-year funding cycle progress report, factsheets and infographics about the projects and key themes of the Trust. These tools will be enable SeyCCAT to share its experience, lessons learned and innovative projects to other countries of the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region, with a view towards sustaining the use and conservation of its marine resources. WIOMSA is an organisation that has a particular interest in linking the knowledge that emerges from research to the management and governance issues that affect marine and coastal ecosystem in the region.
Additionally, such tools will enable SeyCCAT to highlight its achievements in 5 years of operation and inspire investor confidence for continued investment in this innovative Trust Fund.
Read more about WIOMSA
Read more about the Marine regions Forum.