Kelly has many years of academic and corporate experience in environmental and sustainability roles. She is one of the co-founders and Management committee members of the IBC. Her focus has been with the administrative and logistical management of the centre and its staff, as well as financial aspects including obtention and management of international grants, and serving as the link with UniSey. She has an MSc in Environmental Management from the University of Johannesburg. Kelly has also been the Director of the James Michel Blue Economy Research Institute.
During her ten years working at UniSey, she was Head of Programme for Environmental Science and she developed and lectured courses relating to global change, environmental research, earth system science, tropical land management and biogeography. She further developed her passion for nature conservation and sustainable development, encouraging people from different disciplines and backgrounds to work together in addressing complex global problems. She feels that making science accessible to communities, decision-makers and investors is crucial to advancing sustainable development and empowering communities to take positive actions that support human development and a healthy environment. Prior to joining the University of Seychelles, she worked as an environmental consultant in the field of Contaminated Site Management as well as Impact Assessment and Risk Management.
Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College of London, UK (Monitoring and conservation of Seychelles amphibians).
School of Biology, Chemistry and Forensic Science, University of Wolverhampton, UK (Monitoring and conservation of Seychelles amphibians)
Department of Life Sciences; the Natural History Museum, London, UK (Monitoring and conservation of Seychelles amphibians)
Independent researcher and consultant, Senior Seabird Manager, The Red Sea Development Company, Saudia Arabia; former Science Officer of Aride Island Nature Reserve, Island Conservation Society, Seychelles (Monitoring, ecology and movements of Seychelles seabirds)
Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Niort, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France (Monitoring, ecology and tracking of shearwaters)
Conservation biologist, independent consultant, former employee of Island Conservation Society & Blue Safaris Seychelles (Monitoring, ecology and movements of Seychelles turtles and seabirds)
Rich Baxter is the director of the Indian Ocean Tortoise Alliance (IOTA) which focuses on island ecosystem restoration and giant tortoise rewilding in the Western Indian Ocean. Rich has worked on islands in Mauritius and Seychelles for the past 15 years, starting in Mauritius working on invasive species control in the Black River Gorges National Park. He worked on Ile Ronde (Round Island), Mauritius, running the field research station, and developing habitat restoration strategies with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, which included introducing Aldabra giant tortoises to promote habitat restoration of the island. Rich graduated with an MSc in Environmental Science from the University of Zürich where he studied several years Aldabra giant tortoise movement ecology on Aldabra atoll during his role as lead field ecologist for the Zürich Aldabra Research Program. His other roles in Seychelles include being the conservation and sustainability manager of Frégate Island (2017-2019), and as an ecological consultant, he has experience working with international private companies on sustainability projects and environmental management. Rich is passionate about chelonians and he is a member of the IUCN SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group (TFTSG).
André Labiche BSc, Technical Officer
André Labiche obtained in 2002 a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Management from the Edith Cowan University of Western Australia. His areas of interest and expertise include birds, invasive species management (particularly rodents), vegetation management and ecosystem restoration. He worked several years implementing local environmental projects with the Department of Environment of the Ministry of Environment, then with the Island Conservation Society between 2005 and 2009 as Biologist Project Officer for the FFEM funded ‘Rehabilitation of Island Ecosystems’ project. He has considerable experience in the management of invasive species and played a key role in several rat eradication on islands (Conception, several islands of Cosmoledo Atoll, Grande Soeur, Petite Soeur). He is also knowledgeable in monitoring techniques for landbirds, reptiles, invertebrates and plants. In particular, he has been since 2013 a key player for all monitoring and research activities of the Seychelles White-eye Recovery Programme, including in the latest translocations undertaken by IBC between Ile du Nord and Frégate and Grande Soeur islands. He has also been involved with island translocations and monitoring of giant tortoises and terrapins. André also works part-time as a private environmental management practitioner with control of invasive plants, the replanting of native woodland including mangroves, and the control of invasive birds.
