THE hillsides of Praslin have been ablazed recently and arson is suspected. For the fifth time in as many months, fire at Praslin have threatened the Fond Ferdinand National Reserve, putting into peril its hundreds of Coco de Mer trees, endemic palms, ferns and other unique flora, which is paralleled only by the famous Vallee de Mai.
Fond Ferdinand on the west side of Praslin, adjoining Consolation village and Anse Marie Louise, has decades after the Vallee de Mai, been declared a national reserve to protect its unique flora, notably the Coco de Mer and also as a water catchment area. While the Vallee de Mai is managed by the Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF) like Aldabra atoll, Fond Ferdinand is run by the Praslin Development Board (PDF) on which sit several SPPF stalwarts.
In less than a week, two fires posed a menace to the reserve. One started at Montagne St Joseph, on the slopes of Baie Ste Anne and burned about 7 acres.
Last week's blaze burned 36 acres of mostly privately owned land, including that owned by Mr. Labusagne, the South African who has the “Coco de Mer Hotel".
Seychelles Weekly has learnt that last week's fire was a case of negligence, caused by someone starting a fire which he was unable to control.
But another blaze has the authorities, including the police and Environment Department pondering that this could be a case of sabotage.
The Fire Brigade deployed a team to Praslin to help employees of the Environment Department and the PDF. Helicopter Seychelles was also called and tried to stem the flames with buckets of seawater.
But, apparently, it was the Praslinois working selflessly who managed to put the fire out, albeit after consuming some 36 acres of vegetation. It never reached Fond Ferdinand.
They cleared away the vegetation around the blaze to prevent it burning beyond and the absence of high winds also helped. This is usually called “balizaz" by the brazen fire-fighters.
Some Praslinois are skeptical about the possibility of arson, noting that in such a scenario, the fire would have started at the reserve (though this is guarded) and not on private land.
However there had been threats in the past - in fact during the one party state era - by a group of people who were being victimized and targeted by the dictatorship to target the Vallee de Mai. Obviously, this possibility cannot be overlooked, however unlikely it may seem. It is believed that many are dismayed with the way this administration is selling land to foreigners and might be using arson to send a message to this government, at this stage nothing can be ruled out
The coco de mer grows naturally only on Praslin and Curieuse Island. They are collected and sold in Mahe and Praslin to dealers who in turn offer them as souvenirs to tourists.
The sexually suggestive nuts, also the world's largest seed, weighing up to 20 kgs have found its way into the Guinness Book of Records.
Suggestions that some of them may be 400 or even 800 years old may be exaggerated, but certainly, there are trees at Fond Ferdinand, Vallee de Mai and Curieuse that have been in the ground for at least 200 years. It will be a crying shame to lose them through vandalism, for they are surely unique by a thousand miles and a great asset to our tourism industry. It must be remembered that arson along with planting bombs were the tools of preference of the SPUP during the sixties and early seventies whenever they lost an election.