Veld: A Visionary's Ecotourism Triumph at North Island Seychelles
From the much-anticipated, sumptuous new book Veld — The Gardens and Landscapes of Patrick Watson, written by Garreth van Niekerk, we bring you an extract from an extraordinary rehabilitation project off the east coast of Africa.
Featuring 23 gardens and landscapes, glossy photographs and artwork, Veld is a tribute to a man whose clarity of vision has had a profound influence on his profession. It is the point at which landscape architecture, artistic expression and a deep connection to the natural world meet. North Island, a privately owned island in the Indian Ocean’s Seychelles archipelago, has been turned into a multi award-winning luxury resort that is redefining the possibilities of ecotourism. Rehabilitation of the 200-hectare island, located some 40 kilometres from the eastern coast of Mahé, the main island of the Seychelles, began in 2002, led by
Patrick and Wilton Sikhosana (who is today based at Spier Estate). Following their two-decade-long effort, the property is seeing highly threatened indigenous flora and wildlife returning to the forests and white beaches, ushering in a wave of conservation practices spearheaded by the island’s new environmental custodians. Patrick and Wilton transplanted trees from undisturbed parts of the island into the developed areas, and worked with neighbouring islands and nurseries on Mahé, to source further indigenous and endemic specimens, introducing them in planted ‘islands’ as Patrick describes them.
Groupings of mangrove-loving Fish Poison Tree (Barringtonia asiatica), Powder-puff Tree (B. racemosa), Tamanu or Tacamahac-tree (Calophyllum inophyllum), the local fig (Ficus rubra), Zebra Wood or Beach-medlar (Guettarda speciosa), flowering Borneo or Pacific Teak (Intsia bijuga), and the iconic Coco de Mer palm (Lodoicea maldivica), with its distinctive double coconut, one of the largest seeds in the plant kingdom, are now established and thriving across the island. A nursery was created and continues to expand the populations of these beautiful and rare indigenous trees.
The North Island team describes the undertaking as their ‘Noah’s Ark Project’, with the dedicated conservation teams continuing to implement Patrick, Wilton and Wilderness Safaris’ original restoration programme. An ongoing focus is the eradication of colonies of problematic rodents that pose a threat to the survival of land birds.
Thanks to the food web of fruit-bearing indigenous flora established by Patrick and Wilton at the start of the project, the island is now seeing the return of rare bird species, like the Seychelles blue pigeons, breeding populations of Wedge-tailed shearwaters and White-tailed tropicbirds, all in healthy populations. The endangered Seychelles Magpie Robin is also being reintroduced from its original home on Fregate Island. In the 1970s, the Magpie Robin was on the brink of extinction, with a population of only 17 birds recorded on North Island.
But hard-working conservation teams at five islands throughout the archipelago have helped the population increase to somewhere over 300 birds. Shoreline conservation initiatives have also resulted in Hawksbill and Green Turtles beginning to nest on the beaches once more in gradually increasing numbers — a testament to the success of hospitality projects and landscaping initiatives that put conservation at the forefront of their visions.
Text by Garreth van Niekerk
Photography by Elsa Young