Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The island nation plans to protect 30% of its seas by 2020

The Seychelles has created protected areas "the size of Great Britain" in the Indian Ocean.

In exchange for getting some of its national debt paid off, the island nation has agreed to protect 210,000 sq km (81,000 sq miles) of ocean.

The reserves will limit tourism and fishing activities in the Seychelles to halt further damage to aquatic life.

A foundation set up by actor Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the investors that worked on the deal.

The Oscar winner said: "This effort will help the people of Seychelles protect their ocean for future generations, and will serve as a model for future marine conservation projects worldwide."

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Leonardo DiCaprio is among investors who helped fund the deal

Seychelles President Danny Faure said: "Our large ocean brings development opportunities but also responsibility.

"By planning properly to protect our environment, we can be sure we are also protecting our people and their livelihoods against an uncertain future. "

What is the deal?

This is understood to be the first debt swap designed to protect ocean areas in the world.

The Seychelles government agreed the debt swap with the Nature Conservancy, a US charity, and a number of investors back in 2016.

Under the terms of the $21m (£15m) deal, the charity and the investors - including the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation - paid for a portion of the Seychelles national debt.

The country will then direct future national debt payments into a new trust, the Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT).

This trust will offer lower interest rates on debt repayments, and any savings will go to fund new projects designed to protect marine life and handle the effects of climate change.

Image copyright SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Image caption The dugong is one of the sea animals that will be protected

What will be protected?

The Seychelles is raising the percentage of its protected waters from 0.04% to 30% by 2020 as part of the agreement.

This first part of the plan creates two new marine parks.

The first covers the Aldabra islands, home to hundreds of thousands of tortoises, nesting bird colonies, and the dugong - one of the more endangered species in the Indian Ocean.

This area will be fully protected, with only research and regulated tourism allowed.

The second area concerns the seas around the Seychelles' main islands and will limit the fishing and tourism activities there.

"This is a critical accomplishment in our mission to bring conservation to scale across the globe," said Nature Conservancy CEO Mark Tercek.

"What you see today in Seychelles is what we expect to introduce in the Caribbean and other ocean regions facing the threats of climate change."</s>A vast area of ocean around the Seychelles will be off-limits to trawlers under the landmark deal

A vast new marine protected area has been created in the Indian Ocean around the Seychelle islands, the government announced Thursday.

The 210,000-square-kilometre (81,000-square-mile) zone—an area equivalent to nearly half of the Black Sea—is intended to protect both the sea and the archipelago's economy, which relies on fishing and tourism.

"Our large ocean brings development opportunities but also responsibility," said Environment Minister Didier Dogley. "Our ocean is central to our development and for the future of generations to come."

Dogley described the initiative as "a paradigm shift on how we manage and use our coastal and ocean resources."

It is the result of a ground-breaking financial deal, brokered in 2016 by American NGO the Nature Conservancy.

Under it, $21 million (17 million euros) of government debt was swapped for conservation funding to protect the low-lying, ocean-dependent nation against the effects of climate change, including warming, rising and acidifying seas.

The deal, which covers roughly 15 percent of Seychelles' exclusive economic zone, was partly funded by a foundation chaired by Hollywood actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio.

"This effort will help the people of Seychelles protect their ocean for future generations, and will serve as a model for future marine conservation projects worldwide," said DiCaprio.

"These protections mean that all species living in these waters or migrating through them are now far better shielded from overfishing, pollution, and climate change."

Almost one-third of the new reserve will be off-limits to all fishing. The remaining area will allow small-scale, local fishing but ban trawlers from the country's $300 million fishing industry.

The new protected areas include the remote Aldabra atolls, home to nesting seabirds, hawksbill turtles, giant tortoises and the dugong, or sea cow.

Dogley said that by 2020 close to a third of Seychelles waters will be protected with a new "spatial plan" for ocean use to prevent unregulated and illegal fishing as well as oil and gas exploration, deep-sea mining and dredging.

The Nature Conservancy's president, Mark Tercek, said the Seychelles would be a model for the rest of the world.

"What you see today in Seychelles is what we expect to introduce in the Caribbean and other ocean regions facing the threats of climate change," he said.

Explore further Regulators vote to protect more corals in Atlantic Ocean

© 2018 AFP</s>VICTORIA: The island nation of Seychelles designated some of its fragile coastal areas for protection from commercial fishing, oil exploration and development this week in return for a novel deal relieving it of part of its sovereign debt.

The Indian Ocean island, rich in underwater reefs and postcard-perfect beaches, defaulted on its debt in 2008 and clawed its way back to prosperity with assistance from the International Monetary Fund.

Since then, government officials have been searching for ways to preserve their environment without endangering financial stability.

So the finance ministry was intrigued when U.S.-based conservation group The Nature Conservancy approached it recently with a debt-for-nature financial proposal, the first in the world aimed at protecting a marine area.

The deep-pocketed conservation group offered to buy up nearly US$22 million of Seychelles’ outstanding US$406 million sovereign debt in return for the country designating a third of its marine area as "protected".

The East African island nation of fewer than 100,000 people mainly relies on tourism and fishing for revenue, but in recent years oil and gas companies have been exploring its turquoise waters, home to dugongs, turtle and tuna.

On Wednesday, Seychelles gave details on the first 210,000 square kilometre (81,000 square miles) area to be conserved, limiting activities like fishing, oil exploration and large-scale development in the most fragile habitats, while allowing them under certain conditions in the rest of the area.

The remaining 200,000 square km area, which will have different restrictions, will be announced later.

The Seychelles deal builds on 20 years' worth of similar debt-for-nature swaps that have preserved vast tracts of tropical forests in Latin America and the Caribbean.

But it's the first time the financing technique has been used to secure a marine environment, said Rob Weary, the head of NatureVest, which funds the group's conservation deals.

"There's not been one example of a country defaulting on a debt-for-nature swap," he said.

Weary said the Seychelles deal - which will also help fund climate-change projects - could pave the way for other, larger deals where conservationists buy a country's sovereign debt in return for policy changes designed to help the environment.

With an annual operating budget of US$650 million per year, The Nature Conservancy's funds dwarf many other, better-known charities such as Oxfam or the World Wildlife Foundation.

"Never before has there been so much funds available to support marine-based economic activities, the conservation of coastal and marine biodiversity and adaptation to climate change," said Vice President Vincent Meriton when announcing the project.

Reaction to the announcement was generally positive. PetroSeychelles’ head Patrick Joseph told Reuters that no explorers had shown an interest in the protected areas, but that he was unsure such stringent protection was necessary.

Fisherman Graham Green, 29, said he hoped it would rejuvenate traditional small-scale fishing.

"Long ago you would fish for just a few hours and not far out to sea and get a good catch of well-sized fish. But these days what you used to get in just one hour takes you a whole day," he said.</s>The tiny island nation of the Seychelles has announced a pioneering marine conservation plan as part of a debt swap deal with creditors.

The tiny island nation of the Seychelles has announced a pioneering marine conservation plan as part of a debt swap deal with creditors.

In an agreement described as the first of its kind, the Indian Ocean nation popular with tourists is designating nearly a third of its waters as protected areas, aiming to ensure the longevity of its unique biodiversity.

The archipelago’s 115 islands have been isolated by continental land masses for millions of years. The Aldabra atoll, a Unesco World Heritage Site, is home to the world’s largest population of giant tortoises, critically endangered sea cows and spawning grounds for a number of rare species, but overfishing has hurt.

The government has signed a bill restricting nearly all human activity in the waters around Aldabra and overall setting aside more than 210,000 square kilometres (81,081 square miles) as protected areas. The areas around Aldabra will ban all extractive uses such as fishing and petroleum exploration while the rest will be restricted to sustainable practices. The plan will be completed by 2021.

“A great honour and privilege,” the country’s environment minister, Didier Dogley, said at the signing. Today, Seychelles announced two new marine protected areas that equal the size of Great Britain. Join me and @nature_org in congratulating all those who made it happen. https://t.co/OygRCaKY37 — Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) February 21, 2018 The deal with the country’s creditors was brokered by US-based The Nature Conservancy and involved a one million US dollar (£720,000) grant by the foundation of actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

At the height of its debt crisis in the late 2000s, the Seychelles was one of the world’s top debt-ridden countries. Its sovereign debt peaked at nearly one billion US dollars, according to the World Bank. Today the debt stands at less than half of that, according to the finance ministry.

The new agreement has worried some who say their livelihoods will be severely restricted. “If you protect everywhere, where (will) we go fishing?” Elvis Simon Dingwall said. He echoed others who said they have to bear the brunt of the government’s past economic failures.

The head of the Seychelles’ state-owned oil and gas exploration entity, Patrick Joseph, said Petro Seychelles initially was resistant to the plan but now is cautiously optimistic. “Provided this is done properly, we choose the right companies and we do a proper impact assessment before we drill, I feel like the country will definitely benefit from oil and gas resources,” Mr Joseph said.

The Seychellois government is already benefiting from the confidence the deal has inspired in its creditors, with a separate bond deal now being finalised with the World Bank to help finance a transition to sustainable fisheries. “The Seychelles is leading the way in terms of how it is going to manage its ocean territory … in a sustainable fashion,” said Benoit Bosquet, the World Bank’s practice manager for environment and natural resources.</s>CURIEUSE ISLAND, Seychelles — With deep blue waters, white sand beaches and rich marine life, the tiny island nation of the Seychelles is announcing a pioneering marine conservation plan as part of a debt swap deal with creditors.

In an agreement described as the first of its kind, the Indian Ocean nation popular with tourists is designating nearly a third of its waters as protected areas, aiming to ensure the longevity of its unique biodiversity.

The archipelago’s 115 islands have been isolated by continental land masses for millions of years. The Aldabra atoll, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to the world’s largest population of giant tortoises, critically endangered sea cows and spawning grounds for a number of rare species. But overfishing has hurt.

The government on Wednesday signed a bill restricting nearly all human activity in the waters around Aldabra and overall setting aside more than 210,000 square kilometres (81,081 sq. miles) as protected areas. The areas around Aldabra will ban all extractive uses such as fishing and petroleum exploration; the rest will be restricted to sustainable practices. The plan will be completed by 2021.

“A great honour and privilege,” the country’s environment minister, Didier Dogley, said at the signing.

The deal with the country’s creditors was brokered by U.S.-based The Nature Conservancy and involved a $1 million grant by the foundation of actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

At the height of its debt crisis in the late 2000s, the Seychelles was one of the world’s top debt-ridden countries. Its sovereign debt peaked at nearly $1 billion, according to the World Bank. Today the debt stands at less than half of that, according to the finance ministry.

The deal allows for a certain amount of money to be repaid into a trust fund to support conservation-related projects, organizers said.

While welcoming the deal, the CEO of the Seychelles National Parks Authority warned that certain threats to the Seychelles remain beyond control. “Like climate, for example,” Flavien Joubert said.

The new agreement has worried some who say their livelihoods will be severely restricted.

“If you protect everywhere, where (will) we go fishing?” Elvis Simon Dingwall said. He echoed others who said they have to bear the brunt of the government’s past economic failures.

The head of the Seychelles’ state-owned oil and gas exploration entity, Patrick Joseph, said Petro Seychelles initially was resistant to the plan but now is cautiously optimistic.

“Provided this is done properly, we choose the right companies and we do a proper impact assessment before we drill, I feel like the country will definitely benefit from oil and gas resources,” Joseph said.

The Seychellois government is already benefiting from the confidence the deal has inspired in its creditors, with a separate bond deal now being finalized with the World Bank to help finance a transition to sustainable fisheries.

“The Seychelles is leading the way in terms of how it is going to manage its ocean territory … in a sustainable fashion,” said Benoit Bosquet, the World Bank’s practice manager for environment and natural resources.</s>The Seychelles has announced a pioneering marine conservation plan backed by Leonardo DiCaprio as part of a debt swap deal with creditors.

In an agreement described as the first of its kind, the Indian Ocean nation is designating nearly a third of its waters - spanning areas that equal roughly the size of Great Britain - as protected, aiming to ensure the longevity of its unique biodiversity.

The archipelago's 115 islands have been isolated by continental land masses for millions of years.

The Aldabra atoll, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to the world's largest population of giant tortoises, critically endangered sea cows and spawning grounds for a number of rare species - but overfishing has hurt.

On Wednesday, the government signed a bill restricting nearly all human activity in the waters around Aldabra and overall setting aside more than 210,000 square kilometers (81,081 sq. miles) as protected areas.

The areas around Aldabra will ban all extractive uses such as fishing and petroleum exploration; the rest will be restricted to sustainable practices. The plan will be completed by 2021.

'A great honor and privilege,' the country's environment minister, Didier Dogley, said at the signing.

The deal with the country's creditors was brokered by US-based The Nature Conservancy.

Under it, $21 million (17 million euros) of government debt was swapped for conservation funding to protect the low-lying, ocean-dependent nation against the effects of climate change, including warming, rising and acidifying seas.

The deal was partly funded with a $1million grant from the foundation chaired by actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio.

'This effort will help the people of Seychelles protect their ocean for future generations, and will serve as a model for future marine conservation projects worldwide,' said DiCaprio.

'These protections mean that all species living in these waters or migrating through them are now far better shielded from overfishing, pollution, and climate change.'

At the height of its debt crisis in the late 2000s, the Seychelles was one of the world's top debt-ridden countries.

Its sovereign debt peaked at nearly $1 billion, according to the World Bank.

Today, the debt stands at less than half of that, according to the finance ministry.

The deal allows for a certain amount of money to be repaid into a trust fund to support conservation-related projects, organizers said.

While welcoming the deal, the CEO of the Seychelles National Parks Authority warned that certain threats to the Seychelles remain beyond control.

'Like climate, for example,' Flavien Joubert said.

The new agreement has worried some who say their livelihoods will be severely restricted.

'If you protect everywhere, where (will) we go fishing?' Elvis Simon Dingwall said.

He echoed others who said they have to bear the brunt of the government's past economic failures.

The head of the Seychelles' state-owned oil and gas exploration entity, Patrick Joseph, said Petro Seychelles initially was resistant to the plan but now is cautiously optimistic.

'Provided this is done properly, we choose the right companies and we do a proper impact assessment before we drill, I feel like the country will definitely benefit from oil and gas resources,' Joseph said.

The Seychellois government is already benefiting from the confidence the deal has inspired in its creditors, with a separate bond deal now being finalized with the World Bank to help finance a transition to sustainable fisheries.

'The Seychelles is leading the way in terms of how it is going to manage its ocean territory... in a sustainable fashion,' said Benoit Bosquet, the World Bank's practice manager for environment and natural resources.</s>Seychelles Finds A Novel Way To Swap Its Debt For Marine Protections

The Seychelles have brokered a novel deal that will allow the island archipelago to swap millions of dollars in sovereign debt for protecting nearly one third of its ocean area.

It's hailed as the first of its kind. "Seychelles is clearly breaking new grounds and with it, it has positioned itself as a world leader in ocean governance and management," Seychelles vice president Vincent Meriton said in remarks announcing the new protections.

And hopes are high that this could serve as a model for other countries. "If it works, it will also secure the economic future of the nation, which depends entirely on tourism and fishing," The Guardian writes. "With other ocean states lining up to follow, the approach could transform large swaths of the planet's troubled seas."

Here's how it's going to work. The Nature Conservancy negotiated a deal that "converts a portion of the nation's foreign debt into a $22-million investment in expanded marine conservation," according to a press release. Effectively, it "turned sovereign debt repayments into conservation funding," the organization said.

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation is one of the investors on the deal. It was reached in 2016, though it was this week that areas were formally designated as protected.

The entire plan is set to expand the Seychelles' protected area from less than one percent to 30 percent. Earlier this week, Meriton signed documents that started this process by protecting two huge expanses of sea. It set aside more than 28,700 square miles in the Aldabra group of islands and 52,000 square miles in the Admirantes area. Together, that's an area larger than the size of Syria.

The idyllic Indian Ocean nation is popular with tourists. But it's particularly vulnerable to climate change and has also seen overfishing.

"Half of this area will be designated as 'no-take' zones to protect fish breeding sites and scientifically identified priority biodiversity areas," according to the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. The archipelago is home to the endangered dugong and multiple species of endangered sea turtles.

The plan is to expand the protected area to nearly double by 2021, as well as come up with ways to manage the territorial waters.

"Our approach is ambitious," said Seychelles President Danny Faure in a Nature Conservancy statement. "It is about a paradigm shift on how we manage and use our coastal and ocean resources, how we work together as a government and as communities."

The Seychelles defaulted on its debt in 2008, according to Reuters. Since then it has "clawed its way back to prosperity with assistance from the International Monetary Fund." Its total debt now is $406 million, the wire service adds.

While this is a new approach for protecting marine areas, it's not unique in nature conservation. According to Reuters, there are "20 years' worth of similar debt-for-nature swaps that have preserved vast tracts of tropical forests in Latin America and the Caribbean."</s>The tropical island nation of Seychelles is to create two huge new marine parks in return for a large amount of its national debt being written off, in the first scheme of its kind in the world.

The novel financial engineering, effectively swapping debt for dolphins and other marine life, aims to throw a lifeline to corals, tuna and turtles being caught in a storm of overfishing and climate change. If it works, it will also secure the economic future of the nation, which depends entirely on tourism and fishing. With other ocean states lining up to follow, the approach could transform large swaths of the planet’s troubled seas.

The challenge for the Seychelles is clear on the coral reef fringing Curieuse Island, once a leper colony and now a national park. The mass bleaching caused by warming waters in 2016 has left the white limbs of branching corals lying like bones in a ploughed graveyard, with rare flashes of the cobalt-blue coral survivors.

“The biggest changes are climate change,” says David Rowat, a marine scientist and diving school owner for 30 years, who says storms and bleaching events are becoming more frequent. Some clownfish have never returned since the major bleaching in 1998, he says: “The ‘nemos’ all went.” As the reef recovered, the 2016 bleaching was a “kick in the teeth”, Rowat says.

Overfishing, and the killing of dolphins, sharks and turtles as bycatch in tuna nets, is also taking its toll across the Seychelles’ vast ocean territory. The new marine plan bans fishing around biodiversity hotspots, keeping them healthy and better able to resist climate change.

The biodiversity jewel in the Seychelles crown is the Aldabra archipelago, which rivals the Galapagos in ecological importance. Spinner dolphins, manta rays, humpback whales and nurse, lemon and tiger sharks share the waters with hawksbill and green turtles, and seabirds from some of the world’s largest colonies soar above. Dugongs - or sea cows - are the most endangered species in the Indian Ocean and shelter here, while 100,000 rare giant tortoises slowly roam the land.

The new protected area around Aldabra is 74,000 square kilometres - almost the size of Scotland - and bans all extractive uses, from fishing to oil exploitation. The second new protected area is 134,000 sq km, centred on the main Seychelles island of Mahe. It allows controlled activities but is, for example, banning “fish aggregating devices” – rafts that concentrate fish but drive up bycatch.

Together, the parks cover 15% of the Seychelles ocean and the government will double this by 2021, putting it far ahead of an international target of 10% by 2020. The parks resulted from the first ever debt-swap deal for marine protection in which $22m of national debt owed to the UK, France, Belgium and Italy was bought at a discount by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the NGO that has assisted the Seychelles.

TNC also raised $5m from donors to pay off part of the debt and cut the interest rate charged to the Seychelles government on the outstanding loan. This has freed up $12m over the next 20 years to help implement the new marine plan.

“The Seychelles is positioning itself as a world leader in ocean governance,” says environment minister, Didier Dogley. “But we are not doing this because we have such a great ego but because we truly believe these initiatives will create prosperity for our people, conserve critical biodiversity and build resilience against climate change.”

Leonardo DiCaprio, whose foundation donated $1m towards funding the debt swap, said: “These protections mean that all species living in these waters or migrating through them are now far better shielded from overfishing, pollution, and climate change.”

Benoît Bosquet, environment practice manager at the World Bank, which is not involved in the Seychelles marine plan, said: “They are a leader in this field worldwide and may be an example for many other countries.”

However, despite the biggest consultation since the Seychelles nation was founded, some islanders have not welcomed the new plan. On Praslin island, as he unloads his catch of job fish and white spotted snappers onto Grande Anse beach, fisherman Richard Bossy, says: “We are worried. They want to make a lot of regulated areas where we can’t fish. Fishing is already harder and we are going to lose a lot. If there is not enough enforcement, it will never be implemented.”

Leroy Lesperance, who charters glass-bottomed and game-fishing boats to tourists on Praslin, is also sceptical the plan will become a reality: “I am 44 and I have heard this talk since I was at school.”

But others have bought into the idea, including Graham Green, a young fisherman at Baie St Anne on Praslin: “If the fish are protected where they are spawning, I’ve heard they will get bigger. We need to do it if we are going to be catching fish in 20 years.”

Green expects the benefits will take perhaps five-10 years to be realised, but sees it as an investment: “You couldn’t start a business today and be a millionaire tomorrow - if you could everyone would be a millionaire.”

Another challenge to the marine plan is a controversial new military base planned for the island of Assumption, about 20 miles from the Aldabra atoll and to be paid for by India. One well-informed source, who asked for anonymity, told the Guardian: “I am worried that it could damage the biodiversity of Aldabra. We are talking about big ships coming in to berth.” That implies pollution and the dredging of channels, which can cover corals in silt, he says.

“The Assumption saga will certainly test the credibility of the marine spatial plan process,” says Keith Andre, from the Fisherman and Boat Owners Association.

But Seychelles vice-president, Vincent Meriton, says the military base will have to pass environmental assessments and will actually benefit protection, by enabling better surveillance around the isolated Aldabra archipelago: “This facility will allow us to better monitor. It augurs well.”

Meriton also says the Seychelles will need to use new satellite surveillance programmes that use machine learning algorithms to detect the tell-tale movement patterns of fishing boats, already in use in some parts of the Pacific.

Oil exploration is another dilemma for the Seychelles, which could be sitting on “world-class” reserves, according to Patrick Joseph, CEO of PetroSeychelles, a state-owned company. It has given up some high-priority prospects, such as the Wilkes seamount which is now in the Aldabra protection zone.

But, pointing to the revisions to the plan expected every five years, he says: “If the price of oil goes a bit higher, there will be companies drilling here in the Seychelles.” Andre, pointing to the possibility of seismic surveys in the protected zone around Aldabra, says: “The nature and impacts of these activities contradicts the authenticity of the entire process.”

Many of the details of exactly what is allowed in the protected zones could not be finalised until the areas were selected and are still being worked out, meaning many difficult negotiations still lie ahead. “It is a chicken and egg situation,” says Helena Sims, TNC’s project manager in the Seychelles. “But we have built trust from the bottom up and if we keep that and are transparent I am positive our targets can be met.”

The Seychelles debt swap is a vital test case for this new way of funding ocean conservation. Rob Weary at TNC did the deal and expects to close a $60m debt swap deal with Grenada this year and a series of others in the Caribbean in the next couple of years. Mauritius also has serious interest.

Despite the election of Donald Trump scuppering for now planned swaps of US debt for Palau and the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, Weary is confident debt swaps for marine conservation are going to grow: “In the next three to five years we could potentially do a billion dollars of these deals. We have a sight line to that.”

“All eyes are on us to see whether it works,” says Sims. The Seychelles, which is 99% ocean, will have gone from 0.04% to 30% protected area in a few years if it does.

Questions, such as oil exploration, remain. But environment minister Dogley says: “We don’t have answers for everything now but the marine spatial plan has started the process of thinking about these things - before we were not. The debt swap triggered everything.”</s>Seychelles has recently created protected areas “the size of Great Britain” in the Indian Ocean. In exchange for getting some of its national debt paid off, the island nation has agreed to protect 210,000 sq km of ocean, reported The Telegraph.

The reserves will limit tourism and fishing activities in the Seychelles to halt further damage to aquatic life.

This archipelago nation, which sits just under 1,000 miles east of Tanzania, is better known as a holiday haven for honeymooners and celebrities who want to escape the spotlight.

However, the announcement that it will create two colossal marine parks – where fish and coral will be protected – in exchange for debt relief brings it into focus as much more than an oasis of balmy weather, palm trees and luxury resorts on gorgeous beaches.

The sum, which is owed collectively to the governments of UK, France, Belgium and Italy, has been purchased by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), a non-governmental organisation with an eco-ethos.

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, founded by the Hollywood actor, has donated $1 million to the cause. The transaction will guarantee that 15 percent of the country’s territory will be ring-fenced for marine conservation, with this percentage set to double to 30 percent by 2021.

This adds up to a combined area of 80,300 square miles. Seychelles comprises of 115 islands and islets dotted across 500,000 square miles of ocean.

The larger of the marine parks will encompass some 51,700 square miles of sea around the main island Mahé. Here, tighter restrictions on fishing will include a ban on more intensive catching methods that regularly see large numbers of dolphins, sharks and turtles snared as a by-product of the search for tuna.

The second – a “smaller” pocket of 28,600 square miles – is arguably more intriguing from a conservation perspective. It will virtually rope off the Aldabra islands – a scattering of coral islets which hides some 700 miles south-west of the Seychellois capital Victoria (on Mahé). This out-of-the-way atoll has been compared to the Galapagos islands, such is its biodiversity. As with the Ecuadorian archipelago, giant tortoises live here in significant numbers, as do green and hawksbill sea turtles, as well as dolphins and orcas.

The inaccessibility of the Aldabras means the marine park around them is unlikely to become a magnet for tourists. However, this does not mean that tourists will be banned. Seychelles already has protected zones where holidaymakers can glimpse local wildlife with the help of a scuba mask and flippers; the Sainte Anne Marine National Park, which throws its arms around eight islets three miles east of Mahé, being a case in point.

The emphasis with the new areas will be on preserving the DNA of a country where coral bleaching and drops in fish numbers have been a growing concern for much of this century. The Aldabra enclave will be strictly regulated – all fishing is prohibited there, as is any prospect of drilling for oil.

However, this arrangement has not been accepted by all. Islanders have expressed fears that the zone around Mahé, in particular, will hinder their capacity to make a living. “We are worried,” fisherman Richard Bossy told The Guardian. “They want to make a lot of regulated areas where we can’t fish. Fishing is already harder. We are going to lose a lot. If there is not enough enforcement, it will never be implemented.”

He also questioned how Seychelles will keep track of every boat in such a broad segment of water.

Nonetheless, the country is currently riding high on a project which could turn out to be a defining concept – inspiring other nations to “sell” their natural wonders to the hope of a healthier planet.</s>Seychelles islands taken from Mahé, the nation's largest island. Scapin/Pixabay
• The Seychelles is building two gigantic marine conservation areas to help save turtles, dolphins, and other sea animals.
• It has done so in exchange for a large chunk of its national debt being paid off.
• The deal is the first debt swap agreement of its kind.

The Seychelles is stepping up its efforts to protect dolphins, turtles and other rare marine creatures in exchange for $21 million of their national debt being paid off.

The island nation, located off east Africa, plans to create two huge marine parks totalling 81,000 square miles in exchange for the pay-off, which was covered by US charity The Nature Conservancy.

Spinner dolphins by the Alphonse atoll in the Seychelles. Bennet Gevers via Wikimedia Commons

This debt-for-conservation agreement, signed on Wednesday, is the first of its kind, according to The Guardian.

The Seychelles' sovereign debt currently stands at just under $500 million (£358 million), the Associated Press reported. This deal has therefore cut the national debt by around 4%.

The new marine parks will be built around the country's Aldabra and Amirantes island groups, which make up around 16% of Seychelles' waters, The Nature Conservancy said. The area is roughly as large as the whole of Great Britain.

An aerial view of the Aldabra islands in the Seychelles. Simisa via Wikimedia Commons

The government plans to heavily restrict access for tourists and fishers and both zones. It hopes to complete the project by 2020.

The Aldabra atoll, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to hundreds of thousands of rare giant tortoises, turtles, dolphins, manta rays.

They are also inhabited by dugongs, endangered Indian Ocean mammals known as "sea cows."

Seychelles Environment Minister Didier Dogley called the debt exchange plan "a great honour and privilege" in remarks reported by the Associated Press reported.

The Seychelles, whose territory is 99% ocean, is dependent on tourism. Jobs in fishing and tourism make up just under half of the entire country's workforce, The Nature Conservancy said.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, whose foundation contributed $1 million (£720,000) to the Seychelles debt deal, said the new project would help protect the species from overfishing, pollution, and climate change.
In exchange for some of its national debt being written off, the Seychelles designates two new marine protected areas in the Indian Ocean, covering about 210,000 square kilometres (81,000 sq mi). It is the result of a financial deal, brokered in 2016 by The Nature Conservancy.