The damage appeared on Google Earth, and then was somehow scrubbed: but we have obtained a before and after photo of Qatari development on Assomption Island in the Seychelles. The same images appear on the landsat open source data supplied by EU’s Copernicus. Why this matters? Assomption Island, one of Seychelles’ Outer Islands lying just 25 miles from Aldabra Atoll, is being rapidly transformed by large-scale construction despite global concern over its ecological importance.
Once lightly inhabited and largely recovering after decades of limited human activity, Assomption is now the site of major earthworks, dredging, and runway expansion for an ultra-luxury development on the beach –– that conservationists say could permanently alter the island’s environment and threaten nearby Aldabra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the “outpost of evolution.”
Photographs and satellite images taken between approximately 2023 and June 2025 show widespread clearing of dunes and vegetation, the extension of the airstrip across the center of the island, and the preparation of foundations for as many as 40 villas. The development, backed by Qatari investors through a company Assets Group, aims to create a luxury resort enclave marketed to the ultra-wealthy. Only the ultra wealthy can hope to dive around the atoll. Getting there means a small plane into Assomption and then a charter boat to the island. Guests need to sleep on the boat. Read this personal account of being a dive master at Aldabra Atoll.
Conservation groups, including Friends of Aldabra and Seychelles at Heart, say the project has proceeded without proper environmental oversight and in violation of Seychelles’ own constitutional protections guaranteeing citizens the right to a healthy environment.
Environmentalists have warned that Assomption’s beaches are vital nesting sites for green and hawksbill turtles and that dredging and construction will destroy their breeding grounds. One widely circulated photograph released by Friends of Aldabra shows a dead turtle crushed in the sand by machinery.
Researchers who have studied the island for decades describe it as a key ecological buffer for Aldabra, helping to protect the atoll from pollution, invasive species, and light disturbance. If Assomption’s natural systems collapse, they warn, Aldabra could be next.
In September, two Seychellois citizens, Victoria Duthil and Lucie Harter, filed a constitutional petition in the Supreme Court of Seychelles to halt the project, arguing that it undermines the country’s environmental laws and its international obligations under UNESCO conventions. The petition targets the government, which granted the development lease and continues to issue work permits despite the legal challenge. The lawsuit has become a rallying point for citizens alarmed by the scale of change occurring on the remote island and by the lack of transparency surrounding the project. This issue will probably determine the next election in the Seychelles.
An Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for the resort identified major long-term risks to turtle nesting, dune stability, and coastal habitats, yet many of its recommendations appear to have been ignored. Conservationists say the new lighting and air traffic alone will devastate nocturnal wildlife. Beach dredging, they add, has already altered currents and sediment flows, increasing the risk of erosion and devastating turtle nesting sites. Pollution and runoff from the site in water and by air are expected to travel toward Aldabra, which hosts 100,000 giant tortoises and some of the most diverse coral ecosystems in the world. Every visitor to that island must have their clothing and shoes checked for the tiniest of seeds.
Developers have advertised the Assomption project as a sustainable tourism venture that will bring jobs and foreign revenue to Seychelles. They have hired a British PR firm called the PC Agency headed by Paul Charles and a Swedish “environmentalist” photographer Jesper Anhede to scout locations and to court buyers and “eco” builders. We reached out to Charles and Jesper to which there has been receipt of our inquiries, but no comments made. Jesper blocked us on Instagram.
Environmental groups like Friends of Aldabra are worried because they counter that the resort’s marketing materials promise exclusive access to Aldabra, a strict conservation zone closed to mass tourism. They warn that the development of Assomption creates an open channel—physical and economic—between Aldabra and the luxury market, undermining decades of conservation policy designed to keep the atoll isolated from human disturbance.
The controversy comes at a politically fragile moment. National elections remain undecided, with about 10 candidates facing pressure to define their positions on the Outer Islands. We spoke with one candidate, Marco Francis, candidate of the Seychelles United Movement, who has pledged to strengthen protections for Seychelles’ marine reserves and eradicate corruption. The outcome of the election may determine whether construction on Assomption is paused, reversed, or expanded.
Until recently, Assomption had been protected under national environmental frameworks, serving as a controlled buffer to Aldabra’s strictly protected ecosystem. Conservationists say that status has now been effectively removed. What began as a quiet island has become a construction hub for a luxury enclave which will give access to Aldabra and other isolated islands that most Seychellois, a nation of 120,000, will never see.
Environmental observers argue that the issue is larger than Assomption alone. It symbolizes the growing global tension between development and conservation in fragile island states. If this project continues unchecked, the “outpost of evolution” may be destroyed.
Aldabra faces another global problem — plastic pollution washing up from across the Indian Ocean. Cleaning it up would cost millions. Even a lost flip-flop from Zanzibar can end up on its beaches.
Get educated about protecting Aldabra Atoll:
- Seychelles activists sue government for Qatari development on turtle nesting sites
- Seychelles’ Assomption Island Sold to Qatar: An Alleged $50M Deal Sparks Uproar
- Seychelles’ UNESCO island under threat from luxury development and Qatari-linked terror funds
- Seychelles and the battle with royalty, rats, and the last truly wild places left on Earth
- Q&A: Dr. Nirmal Jivan Shah on Assomption Island, Qatar, and the state of conservation in the Seychelles
- “They Knew They Shouldn’t Be There”: Journalist Kevin Gepford on rising pressures at Aldabra
- They Call Her Madam Torti. She Might Be the Only One Who Can Save Seychelles Turtles
- Yaniv Levy’s lifelong quest to protect sea turtles in a time of war and greed
- Light pollution on animals
- Flip flops take over shores of the Seychelles
