“Without biodiversity and protecting it, we cannot address the climate change issue”

Through the grant of USD 272 071 from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), Ebony Forest aims at restoring degraded native forests in Mauritius over the next three years. Christine Griffiths, General Manager of Ebony Forest, gives a brief insight into the non-profit organization, as well as the need for climate change awareness and biodiversity protection. 

What is the importance of the grant from the CEPF? 

The signing today (Wednesday 17 April) represents the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) supporting Ebony Forest for the fourth time. So, we are incredibly lucky. Since 2016, we have had support from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, and this new signing represents a project which will enable us, for the next three years, to continue expanding our conservation work, contributing to climate change mitigation, restoring forests, improving local livelihoods, providing jobs and addressing the critical biodiversity issues that are present in Mauritius. 

What have you noticed over the years? Are people more aware of climate change, its impact, and the need for biodiversity? 

I think there has been a lot of work on climate change awareness, and people are aware of climate change. But then we kind of go back to our day-to-day lives. It is quite a large topic to digest, because it is having an impact on us. More and more, for example, we have flash flooding. We’ve had these recent disasters. They reawakened our understanding. It’s like “Ooh, there’s climate change”. But then we kind of go back to normal. 

Climate change and biodiversity crisis go hand in hand. In fact, without biodiversity and protecting biodiversity, we cannot address the climate change issue, because the protection of forests to prevent flooding, the protection of mangroves is crucial for us. For centuries, we have taken them for granted, and we continue to build. We are not taking account of the important services that these things provide, because they provided them to us, in essence, for free. And we only really start to notice when they are gone. But once they’ve gone, it’s very much harder to bring back. 

We have malls everywhere, and we all spend our time at the malls, and not necessarily in the park or connecting with nature.

We are talking of Ebony Forest. Can you please explain the essence of the organization? 

Ebony Forest is a non-profit organization, which has been restoring forests since 2006 in Chamarel. We started off with forest restoration, but that was mainly about removing invasive plants and propagating plants and replanting to recreate large areas of native forest. We are now at a stage where we are expanding. A forest is not just a collection of trees. We must have animals in it to help with all its functions, like pollinators, seed dispersers… So, we’re reintroducing these species as well. However, we can’t do it alone. We need supporters. 

Do you feel that Mauritians have this connection with nature?

I think it’s human nature to want to be in nature. Yes, we are in a very materialistic world, but I would say that deep down, in our DNA, we all love enjoying a beautiful sunset. We all can appreciate a beautiful forest. When we are born, we have an affinity for animals. All the books we read have animals in them. They’re all about nature. You don’t read books about going to shopping centers and things like that. But we have kind of broken that connection. And I think it’s just about getting that connection back. 

We have malls everywhere, and we all spend our time at the malls, and not necessarily in the park or connecting with nature. It is very challenging, because that is the kind of instinctive go-to thing to do. But more and more people are doing trails, visiting the national parks, going and exploring, because material things are short-lived in our lives, and basically, we’re not really nurturing the spirit in that sense. We need that connection with nature. It’s for our own well-being. There’s an enormous amount of research showing that time spent in nature is incredibly good for your health, not just physically, but mentally. I mean, we live in such a stressful world. 

Do you have any regional project, or are you only focused on Mauritius? 

We mainly focus on Mauritius, but we do have an NGO in Madagascar. So, there is work that is done there. It is a much more community-based work. We are also awaiting another CEPF project, which will be a regional one. We are in the last stages of finalizing it.