1 · Position
The island’s ecology had been wrecked over two centuries, most destructively by the European black rat arriving on ships. North Island was purchased with the stated goal of returning Seychelles biodiversity to it, and rehabilitation began in earnest in 1997. Feral animals were gone by 2003; a large-scale rat eradication in 2005 made this the largest tropical island with hills ever cleared of black rats. Endemic forest is being restored through a nursery and replanting programme, under a five-year vegetation plan to 2010, a second to 2017, and an Environmental Management Plan from 2016.
2 · The numbers
Green turtle populations are up 29-fold since monitoring began in 1995. Hawksbill nests have increased sixfold, with more than four hundred nests recorded in both 2023 and 2024. The island now holds the highest density of nesting green turtles in the inner Seychelles. It took the National Geographic World Legacy Award for conserving the natural world in 2017.
3 · ⚡ It is a programme, not a body
Every other entry in this group is a registered organisation with a deed or a charitable number. Noah’s Ark is a named, dated project run by the island’s own environmental team with Wildlife ACT as partner — no separate legal existence, no independent trustees. It is admitted because the Library’s test is authorship rather than incorporation: a private company rebuilding an entire island ecosystem, and publishing thirty years of numbers, is a model that others cite. The distinction is stated rather than hidden, because it changes what the entry guarantees: a programme can be stopped by its owner without anyone’s consent.
4 · Candour
The turtle and vegetation figures are the island’s own, gathered by its environmental team and volunteers. Eleven villas fund the work, which makes the ecology dependent on the tariff, and a rehabilitated island closed to all but its guests is a sanctuary and a private garden at the same time. The Library records both readings.