Protecting environmentally sensitive areas in Mauritius

IELP helped the government of Mauritius, an island nation in the southwest Indian Ocean about 1250 miles from the African coast, to develop legislation to protect its environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs).

Mauritius is home to wildlife species found nowhere else in the world, many of which are now threatened with extinction due to habitat loss and invasive species.

IELP students worked with IELP Director Chris Wold to assess the strengths and weaknesses of Mauritian environmental legislation for protecting ESAs.

After traveling to Mauritius to participate in stakeholder consultations, Professor Wold and IELP students drafted a Law to Protect Environmentally Sensitive Areas, which the Mauritian Ministry of Environment is now reviewing.

For this project, Prof. Wold twice traveled to Mauritius to work with government officials and civil society to design conservation strategies appropriate to Mauritius.

*Photo by Tim Parkinson from Sheffield, UK [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons