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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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.