What are Environmentally Sensitive Areas?
Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) are specific regions or ecosystems recognized for their ecological, biological, or cultural significance, requiring special protection due to their vulnerability to human activities or natural changes. ESAs are critical for maintaining biodiversity, regulating climate, and providing ecosystem services like water purification and carbon sequestration. They are typically designated under national or international frameworks to limit activities such as deforestation, urban development, or pollution that could degrade their ecological integrity. Management strategies for ESAs often involve conservation plans, restricted land use, and restoration efforts to balance human needs with environmental preservation.
Legislative framework
The Environment Act 2024 made provisions, under Sections 22 to 26, for the protection, conservation and management of Environmentally Sensitive Areas. It also provides for the establishment of an ESA Committee to facilitate overall coordination between ministries and agencies to ensure the sustainable management of ESAs. The Committee have the mandate to protect and conserve ESAs through the development of policies, programmes, initiatives and standards in order to maintain their integrity and preserve their ecosystem. The Minister is empowered to make such regulations to manage, protect and enhance ESAs. The First Schedule of the Act lists the 14 ESAs as follows:
Boreholes (wells)
Caves (and other geological features)
Coastal freshwater marshlands
Coral reefs
Forests with high native content
Inter-tidal mudflats
Islets
Lakes and reservoirs
Mangroves
Rivers and creeks
Sand beaches and dunes
Seagrass beds
Steep slopes
Upland marshlands
Government will introduce an ESA Act, in line with the Government Programme 2025-2029, which will serve as a foundation for sustainable development.
ESA Studies
An ESA study was commissioned in 2008/2009. It identified a number of ESAs based on an ecosystem approach and classified fourteen main ESA types covering terrestrial and lagoon environments.
In 2019, another study was conducted to review and update the 2009 ESAs maps in relation to coastal wetlands, upland wetlands, sand beaches and dunes, coral reefs, seagrass and algal beds, mangroves, and intertidal mud flats. It was a Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant-funded and UNDP implemented project entitled “Mainstreaming Biodiversity into the Management of Coastal Zone in the Republic of Mauritius”. However, several discrepancies and inaccuracies were identified and the data could not be validated. The issues for coastal marshlands, upland marshlands and mangroves are now being addressed through a consultancy project.
The Ministry is reviewing and updating ESA GIS datasets for coastal marshlands, upland marshlands and mangroves through ground-truthing in order to address the discrepancies noted in the 2019 Study.
The main activities are as follows:
Review, update and ground truth the GIS Datasets for coastal marshland, upland marshland, and mangroves using data previously produced under the Mainstreaming Biodiversity Project in October 2022;
Prepare updated coastal marshlands, upland marshlands and mangroves maps;
Prepare policy recommendations for development on sand beaches and sand dunes; and
Prepare guidelines for development in respect to coastal marshland, upland marshland and mangroves.
The statistics on ESAs will be accordingly updated after the finalisation of the maps.
