Biodiversity is a word that is slowly entering our common awareness, to such extent that now a Biodiversity Day will be legally and duly celebrated on 22nd May. It is also known to function like a house made of bricks. Each brick, like a unique component but perfectly fitting species, has its importance in the whole structure, harbouring life of which human beings are a part. But some occupants seem to have forgotten that gift, engaged in activities that satisfy their immediate gratification in the pursuit of consumerism. In other words, the brick house has become an issue of the utmost importance since climate change, due to some human activity, has had more and more manifestations of dread, from landslides to giant cyclones.

In face of this insidious threat, all participants to a site visit held last Friday in Ferney Valley, ranking from government representatives to those of UNDP Global Environment Facility?s Small Grants Programme (GEF SGP), could recognize the effective value of collective support : ?The Ferney Valley is the result of the fight of different types of people, including ONG like Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF), sponsors like Fondation Ciel et Nature or White Sand Tours and other energies, authorities and public awareness.? Without betraying anyone, this quote, from the manager of Ferney Ltd, Bertrand Adam, could be attributed to Jean-Claude Sevathian, rare plants coordinator for the MWF, David Martial, communications officer at Ciel Group or Robert Pallamy, chairman of Discovery Mauritius.

As the whole nation knows, Ferney, which hosted the first migrants in Mauritius, has been the battlefield between parties for or against the sparing of a last spot of pristine nature in Mauritius at the expense of its crossing by the ongoing South East Highway. When political decision came, the valley was preserved and ecological experts allowed to work in a brand Conservation Area, whereas a eco-tourist path was set in part of the region and the road made to pass on another, less harmful, trajectory.

Some partners, with the help of government officers like S. Mooloo, acting deputy director at the ministry of Environment, are involved in the settling of a trust, which will operate like a private-public venture ensuring the viability of the eco-tourist and ecologic management of the region.

This happened after months of protest, negotiation, so long that the ?salvation? from authorities was decided by a then new government, decades after the ratification of the Biodiversity Convention (1992) and the creation of the ministry of Environment (1972)?

<B>help without discernment

But ?this? may in fact not have happened without the unrelenting work of ?outsiders? like MWF but also UNDP. ?The UNDP GEF SGP funds attribution relies fully on the idea of partnership, mediation, community involvement and commitment from government?, stresses its coordinator, Pamela Bappoo-Dundoo. Transparency is a first point where UNDP sets the example. The SGP, present in 116 countries and addressing projects that cost less than $ 50 000, does not help without discernment. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) implicated in environmental issues like the fight against pollution or conservation have to be credible and rise to the challenge. And the actual allocation, under the supervision of the ministry of Finance, has to be discussed first by a steering committee allowing representatives from ministries, NGOs and the private sector to have their say.

Pamela Bappoo-Dundoo is also proud to have indirectly given support to the advocates of composting, who were finally heard by the authorities themselves: ?In the case of Association des Producteurs et exportateurs des produits horticoles de Maurice (Apexom), the European Community had frozen its orders because the local producers used pesticides. We financed a project of composting that enabled them to generate income again.?

?We try to reply to needs of the country by seeking for maximum partnership, stressing on participation, monitoring and regular auditing?, adds the coordinator, who has just returned from a visit in Rodrigues where she followed the implementation of various programmes, including the setting up of a pilot project of energy saving lamps in 25 houses (that could be extended to thousands, thanks to Philips Réunion), which has lightened substantially the electricity bill of inhabitants, from their own opinion.

<B>Sensible and sustainable decisions</B>

The human, local touch is, as one understands so essential for any sustainable economic project that UNDP GEF SGP is calling for public attention through the installation of four billboards in the Tamarind Bay region to warn people who would like to see dolphins there about the threat that a close, aggressive exploitation of their resting site, can represent before embarking on boats that don?t respect the source of their income.

Inspire sensible and sustainable decisions is in fact a goal common to UNDP GEF SGP, wherever it is present (the Comoros representative, who had valuable interaction, attended the meeting) as well as NGOs like MWF. Remember: in Ferney all the collective, nationwide movement, started back in 2004, when at least two environmentalists, Jean-Claude Sevathian and Vikash Tatayah, both of the MWF, fellows from the NPCS and from University, tried to resist the slow march of excavators and boulder-breaking trucks. They were later joined by others but, meanwhile, nature had expressed itself: it had unravelled forgotten endemic species. For those who believe in memory, plants like the Sevathiana Fandia, discovered by Jean-Claude Sevathian during the conservation management process, shall always stand as a sign of hope.