Diana Renaud
- Project name: Effective long term conservation of the Seychelles sheath-tailed bat
- Project site: Mahé, Praslin and Silhouette islands, Republic of Seychelles
- EDGE species: Seychelles sheath-tailed bat Coleura seychellensis
- Active: 2014 - 2016
Biography
Diana is a passionate conservationist who was worked within government ministries for the past six years. Diana’s experience in environmental research will allow her to carry out extensive research on her focal species.
Diana is especially interested in raising awareness of endangered species within local communities in the Seychelles. Through her Fellowship she has developed her project management skills with the hope of being able to manage a larger project in the near future.
This project fit within a larger collaboration with the Darwin Initiative entitled ‘A cutting-EDGE approach to saving Seychelles evolutionarily distinct biodiversity’.
EDGE Project
For her EDGE Fellowship Diana aimed to improve the conservation status of the Seychelles sheath-tailed bat by:
- Implementing an on-going monitoring and recovery plan;
- Providing legal protection for the bat, its roosts and immediate surrounding foraging areas with the intention to conserve current and future populations;
- Mitigating the impact of human development around the roosting and feeding areas;
- Raising public awareness around the species.
Achievements
- The sheath-tailed bat now has legal protection in the Seychelles under the Wild Animals and Birds Protection Act, thanks in part to the efforts of the project team. Diana wrote the background information document on the bat for the Minister, and The Seychelles EDGE species project had a significant impact in terms of convincing ministers that the bat required immediate protection under the act.
- Al Jazeera filmed and aired a documentary on the Seychelles EDGE Fellows, highlighting both their work and their EDGE species.
- Diana will work alongside ICS to develop this campaign further.
- Diana wrote an article on her EDGE project and the Seychelles Sheath-tailed bat, which was published in the Seychelles newspaper NATION.
Project Gallery
