Postponed at the start of the year due to social unrest, the meeting of the management council of the Mayotte Marine Natural Park was able to be held this Wednesday at Mamoudzou town hall. On the agenda, the actors of the lagoon protection organization had to look into the new management plan and the establishment of new working commissions.
Postponed by the dam episode, the meeting of the management council of the Mayotte Marine Natural Park, this Wednesday morning, was an opportunity to discuss the results of the 2023 financial year, to decide on the programming for the year which starts, as well as addressing a series of subjects including the PLUI (local intercommunal urban planning plan) of Petite-Terre, the future seawater desalination plant of Ironi Bé, as well as the establishment of two commissions in relation to the traditional Mahorese canoe and the revision of the management plan. Concerning the latter, the environmental organization must develop a fifteen-year program. “Before this comes to an end, it is therefore necessary to create the conditions for setting up the structure which will work on the next management plan, in other words, the overall policy which the supervisory board must carry of the marine park for the next fifteen years”, specifies Abdou Dahalani, the president of the Marine Natural Park, during a press conference held at the end of the meeting.
By definition, all projects that could have a direct or indirect impact on the lagoon are of interest to the park, with project owners having an obligation to seek advice from it. Thus, examinations of the measures taken are carried out to prevent the impact in the lagoon from generating complications on water quality in particular. “This is the big news for the 2024 program. It is about initiating this great work consisting of having a critical look at what has been, looking to the past to have new capacities to write a new plan of management “, adds the director of the Marine Natural Park, Guillaume Amirault.
Desalination plant
It is for this reason that for the first time since its creation, the management council of the marine natural park was required to give its opinion on an urban planning document, in this case the revision of the local urban planning plan of the intercommunality of Petite-Terre (PLUI). The project to create a ZAE in the Badamiers sector in Labattoir is linked to this referral. Another subject which requires a position from the council, the desalination plant in Grande-Terre, in the commune of Dembéni. “I would say that it was first of all a moment of information aimed at the members of the management council so that they could have information on the state of the studies and the answers which were provided to the multitude of questions that arise from each other”, says Abdou Dahalani. For council members, it was necessary to have the information that would allow them to ask the appropriate questions when the time came. “For the moment, it was not a question of giving an opinion on the desalination plant because the obligatory referral phase has not yet arrived, this will be the case when the file is completely finalized,” continues the president. “We must see that here we have environmentalists, fishermen, many actors interested in biodiversity, scientists and academics. Everyone feels concerned by the issue of this desalination plant and its impacts on marine and terrestrial spaces elsewhere. »
Promote the canoe
Under the aegis of its management council, the park’s technical team intends to bring the traditional Mahorese canoe up to date. A specific working committee was set up this Wednesday to work on this subject. Guillaume Amirault expressed the wish not to lose any local heritage, whether tangible, intangible or cultural. “The canoe is part of it and that is why we participate in maintaining the Laka festival with the Mbouini association which has been working in this direction for ten years and which now has the support of the commune of Kani-Kéli and the community of the southern communes”, he recalls, before indicating that the commission will be keen to spread similar initiatives throughout Mayotte. A project is already underway consisting of the collection of all available heritage, oral, written, technical or other with a view to listing the laka, the traditional canoe, as the island’s intangible heritage.
This first management council of the year 2024 also had the purpose of voting on the management report of the previous year and the program for the current year. Two documents which will be made public soon after their finalization assures Guillaume who notes among the main elements, the continuation of all the projects started by the marine park, in a spirit of permanent adaptation to changes, but also the start of new projects such as a shark nursery.
