Seychelles island restoration grew sooty tern colony from 20,000 to 700,000

A tiny coral island on the northern edge of the Seychelles Bank was once close to ecological collapse. Years of commercial farming, habitat destruction and wildlife exploitation had badly damaged its natural environment. Today, after more than five decades of careful conservation, Bird Island is home to hundreds of thousands of breeding seabirds and has become one of the world’s striking conservation success stories. The turning point came in 1967, when Seychellois accountant Guy Savy and his partners bought Bird Island. At the time, decades of human activity had reduced the island’s natural ecosystem to a fraction of what it once was.Decades of environmental declineEuropean explorers first recorded the island in 1771 as a place with "birds innumerable". But by the late 19th and early 20th centuries, much of its natural environment had been destroyed.