Our Staff

The only human occupants of Aride Island are the staff  of Island Conservation Society, who possess a range of necessary skills including in conservation, logistics and boat handling.

Reserve Manager

Vacant

Assistant Conservation Officer

Emma Cotton
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​Emma is from the UK and has several years of experience working in conservation. Having gained a BSc in Zoology, she has developed a passion for island conservation; working within the Indian Ocean for the past few years including Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius. She has a keen interest in island restoration and birds. She enjoys all things nature.

Assistant Conservation Officer

Maria Daniella Aza
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Hailing from Mauritius, Maria Daniella holds a Bsc in Biology. She is also a graduated fellow from the Charles R. Wall Conservation Leadership Management Fellowship (cohort 2023), with the African Wildlife Foundation, which included  an internship at Ebony Forest in Mauritius.  She has previously worked for over 2 years as a Passerine Conservation Biologist  based on Ile aux Aigrettes with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, where she was mainly involved in the monitoring of the Mauritius Fody and the Olive-White eye bird’s population. 
She also worked as the Conservation Leader at Casela Nature Parks for more than 2 years, where she led education programs on biodiversity protection for school and tourists through guided tours and workshops, as well as developing capacity building for staff through training and mentorship programs.
Sharing her passion for unique wildlife has been something that she has always cherished. With her friends, she also developed an awareness campaign on biodiversity concepts via a Mountain Peak Challenge called ‘Rando dans LEO( les-hauts)’ and led several clean up campaigns as a member of the LEO Club.

Operations and Maintenance Officer​

Jean-Claude Camille
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Jean Claude is a born and bred Seychellois from Anse Aux Pins. He has had a range of jobs including chef, mason and painter. His interest in conservation, especially with turtles, sparked a career shift towards conservation in 2008. Initially he gained experience in conservation on D’Arros island where he began as a volunteer with Dr Jeanne A. Mortimer. He later joined ICS as a Conservation Ranger and has worked on Farquhar, Aride, Silhouette and Desroches. He was promoted to the post of Senior Conservation Ranger at the beginning of 2021. Jean Claude is very hands on and a competent carpenter; this skill set is particularly useful for reconstructing skeletons, and examples can be seen at the Conservation Centres on Desroches and Silhouette. His favourite island is Desroches, in his own words “the island has everything; there are tortoises, turtles, plants, fish, coral and seagrass”. His favourite animal is the Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas).




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Conservation Ranger

Steve Esther
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Steve previously worked in the hospitality industry before starting work on excursion boats. In between this, he played football for a few years followed by fishing, before starting work on Aride as a gardener and general worker in 2021. In less than a year, he was promoted to Assistant Conservation Ranger and more recently, to Conservation Ranger/ Boatman. His hobbies include TV, football, fishing and reading. All in all, he feels this is one of the best jobs in the world. ​

Other staff

Conservation Ranger - Julio Confiance
General assistant - Laurette Asba
Handyman - Stephann Antoine