Seychelles Coastal Management Plan 2019 - 2024.

This Coastal Management Plan (CMP) is a nationwide sectoral document aiming at (i) assessing the risks associated with coastal flooding and erosion today and anticipates future effects; (ii) consolidating the information derived from different studies about risks and coastal impacts and providing a framework for its use for coastal management, adaptation, and risk management. The overall goal of the Plan is to help maintain and protect the coastal zone to reduce coastal risk, support healthy ecosystems, and enable sustainable coastal economic development. This goal will be achieved through the following specific objectives (i) reduce the effects of coastal hazards on humans and coastal properties; (ii) harness the function of coastal ecosystems, such as beaches and dunes, wetlands, coral reefs, and mangroves, to reduce coastal risks; (iii) improve the general understanding of climate change–induced processes that affect coastal risk and resilience; (iv) prevent the increase of coastal risk by facilitating coastal development planning and climate change adaptation; (v) strengthen the capacity within the government to effectively develop and implement coastal management policies; and (vi) promote awareness and understanding of the value of coastal ecosystems for coastal resilience. The actions included in the Plan are organized according to the following five priorities for coastal management (1) Monitoring and research; (2) Coastal infrastructure; (3) Risk-based land planning; (4) Capacity building; and (5) Awareness raising. For each priority, a set of regulatory and programmatic actions is defined and classified as programmatic or regulatory: (i) Programmatic actions are investment projects in, for example, coastal infrastructure, wetland rehabilitation, and awareness raising campaigns; and (ii) Regulatory actions include policies and legislation that affect management of the coastal zone, such as coastal setback regulations and building codes for developments in flood prone areas.
To increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the main actions under the identified priorities are: as for Coastal infrastructure (i) (re)construction of river outlets through concrete revetments, seawalls, and rock armoring to protect land or road sections threatened by erosion and flooding; (ii) restoration of the natural status of coral reefs and maintenance/improvement of their ability to reduce wave energy reaching the shore; (iii) beach restoration by placement of sand on an eroding shoreline and dune restoration with endemic coastal vegetation to enhance the sand storage capacity of the shoreline and provide additional mitigation against the effects of storm or seasonal wave erosion; (iv) management of the back shore for maintaining the beach-dune processes; (v) wetland management or restoration; and (vi) watershed management. As for Risk-based land planning, it consists of measures that address the exposure or the vulnerability to hazards, mainly (i) measures that address exposure aim to limit the amount of development in areas that are likely to be affected by flooding or coastal erosion; (ii) measures that address vulnerability make properties, people and infrastructure already in these areas less susceptible to flooding or coastal erosion. While Awareness raising it is necessary (i) among the general public; (ii) among sectors in government, civil society (such as school and university students and researchers); and (iii) the private sector.