Wakashio Recovery Action Plan

The coastal trees on Ile aux Aigrettes were also contaminated by the black sludge. Martine Goder, Education and Flora Programme Manager at the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation confirmed that some of the trees next to the sea were covered in oil and had to be trimmed during the clean-up operations. These trees are recovering but they will take time to grow back to their original size. The affected vegetation is being monitored to investigate the long-term impact of the exposure to oil.

Martine Goder also explained that plants from the Ile aux Aigrettes nursery were transferred to mainland Mauritius during the oil spill as a precautionary measure to potential access restriction to the lagoon and Ile aux Aigrettes. August usually marks the beginning of the drier months, without daily care and daily watering, we would have had a high mortality of the endemic nursery plants, some of which are critically endangered. On the 9^th of August, all the nursery plants (nearly 4000) were moved off Ile aux Aigrettes to the mainland and were transferred to the Forestry Service nursery in Mahebourg, where space was kindly provided to hold the plants until the situation improves. The plants remained on the mainland for a period of nearly 2 months, where our horticulturist Pascal, assisted by other staff took care of the plants. A lot of the plants had to be re-potted due to damaged pots during the transfer. All the plants were transferred back to Ile aux Aigrettes in the first week of October. The plant transfers required an enormous logistics effort and was possible with the help of the MWF staff, volunteers, and funders. Although we did lose some cuttings and very young seedlings due to lack of the appropriate facilities on the mainland, the great majority of the nursery plants are doing well.

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