12 August 2024
Mauritian projects of the Indian Ocean Business Biodiversity Fund are launched!
After Madagascar, it’s Mauritius’s turn to celebrate the launch of 4 new projects funded by the Indian Ocean Business Biodiversity Fund (FBBOI) under the Varuna Biodiversity program, funded by the French Development Agency (AFD) and implemented by Expertise France.
About the Indian Ocean Business Biodiversity Fund – FBBOI
Reserved for companies and business federations based in Madagascar, the Union of the Comoros, Mauritius and the Seychelles, this initiative, with a total budget of 2.5 million euros, aims to support projects led by economic actors, in partnership with civil society organizations (CSOs). The fund finances biodiversity-friendly actions in terms of preservation and restoration of marine and/or terrestrial ecosystems, with the goal of identifying and supporting economically viable, exemplary, and replicable projects at the regional scale.
A total of ten projects were selected by a jury of experts for the quality of their proposals. Six of them are located in Madagascar, three in Mauritius and one is being deployed on a regional scale by a Mauritian actor.
Julie DELAIRE, VARUNA Program Manager (Expertise France): “ We’re very proud of the cohort of laureates, both in Madagascar and Mauritius. From our perspective, the selected projects show real potential for innovation and scaling-up. By supporting these initiatives, we enable key actors in the Mauritian ecosystem to demonstrate that it is possible to combine economic development with environmental preservation. We look forward to seeing them implement this dynamic in the field and thus create an impulse effect for other similar initiatives in the region.”
Press Conference & Launch Workshops
A press conference was held on Tuesday, August 6, in Port-Louis, at the Odysseo Oceanarium, one of the 4 laureates of the FBBOI call for projects, attended by the laureates and their partners, as well as the AFD Country Director for Mauritius and the Seychelles.
The press conference was followed by two days of workshops dedicated to the effective launch of these projects, enabling the Mauritian community of laureates to work together on managing their new grant tools. These workshops were conducted at the Regional Training Center, also a laureate of the fund.
For Andriamasijaona MANDIMBIHAJA, Head of the FBBOI (Expertise France), “the kickoff workshop is an important step for the FBBOI project, as it marks the transition from the call for projects phase, where ‘competition’ was the keyword, to the implementation phase for the winning projects, where the words ‘impact’ and ‘synergies’ will take root”.
This week of activities was a resounding success, marking the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between the Varuna program and the companies. The projects presented demonstrate the growing commitment of the private sector to integrate biodiversity into their practices, paving the way for a more sustainable future in the Indian Ocean.
