VICTORIA, Seychelles — After a delay, the variety show in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Vallee de Mai as a Unesco World Heritage Site is finally set to take place on February 2, 2024, at the Grand Anse Praslin football field. The variety show will bring together top local artists showcasing their singing, dancing and acting talents, including popular band from Praslin, Island Vibration. The Vallee de Mai site manager, Marc Jean Baptiste, explained it is meant to bring together the Praslin community and the performance will be centred on the Vallee de Mai as a heritage site.
One component will be a one-hour performance by school children, depicting the history of the Vallee de Mai, from its discovery, to its designation as a heritage site, until today. This will be done through music, poems, reflection and dancing, which will even include the participation of some of the original members of the Vallee de Mai team. After that, the adults will take over until late in the evening. Speaking about the world heritage site, the accomplishments and its future, Mr Jean-Baptise said the new team has an obligation to ensure the site is preserved at all cost.
This is reflected on the international level such as on Trip Advisor which has awarded us certificates for multiple years and we have even entered the Hall of Fame, and recognised for Travellers Choice Award and many more, Mr Jean-Baptiste said. The team maintains the legacy of what made the Vallee de Mai a Unesco World Heritage Site. The work that is being done also helps the sister park on Aldabra which struggles financially and is unable to stand on its own, due to the lack of tourism in that region. This is just some of the balance between our tourism activities and conservation. One is never detrimental to the other. We found a way to make it work side by side, Mr Jean-Baptiste said.
He took the opportunity to thank the former teams that built the foundation for the site to achieve the level of World Heritage. I take my hat off to those who worked here before us. In terms of future plans, Mr Jean Baptiste noted that the most ambitious vision is to work in a way that copes with the pressure of the rising number of visitors and to find a balance. He proclaimed that on a good year, the park is receiving more than 100,000 visitors. Key community members should get together to point out their concerns and address the existing challenges, the site manager added.
There also needs a way to look at the projection of an increase in visitors and what negative and positive impact that it brings. We can come up with a good plan that states that from now until the next ten years, we can identify our priorities and come up with a visitors’ management plan, which is more adaptable for the area, Mr Jean-Baptiste said. The variety show on February 2 is expected to draw a large crowd from across Praslin and the surrounding islands, and will serve as both a community celebration and a reaffirmation of the site’s place in the national cultural calendar.
