because we are island states, we are most exposed to climate change, and therefore we are most vulnerable. so when we talk about states graduating from a developing country to a high income, and of course, once this happens, then we do not have access to concessionary funding. and this is why we, as sids, are fighting for the mvi to be introduced so that we can have access and keep on the development. well, you ve touched upon something which i know for you is a very big deal. that is the fact that at the moment, the way the rules work, you re sort of too rich to qualify for the concessionary funding, which comes for those poor and developing nations which are being right now impacted by climate change. and we ll get to your proposals on funding in a minute. but before we do, are you in danger of exaggerating just how much the seychelles is going
as president, i receive recommendations from the constitutional appointments authority. you make the decisions. i listen to what they tell me. i do not dictate to them. and so far, what i ve done is to respect their independence when they make the recommendations. and you re talking about the chiefjustice, and let me tell you, the chiefjustice was the attorney general when i filed a petition in court after the 2015 elections, and he stood against me. he stood against me. and this is just to show you that it s not about standing against me, it s not about. i depended on what the constitutional appointments authority put before me. and my policy has been seychelles is for all her children. and, therefore, i m not after your political affiliation,
to be able to do a day s work, for example. and as they fight their addiction, hopefully, to remove them from the methadone so that they can live a normal life. and this is the dilemma which any country faces. we are both fighting the drug traffickers way. again, you asked me earlier about what we ve done. in prison today, we ve got some very big traffickers and there are some that are waiting to be tried. so, fight the big traffickers, take care of the addicts and, hopefully, we ll get the balance. i noted that you put much of the blame for the scale of the drugs problem on previous administrations. and you came to power after the other big party in seychelles that basically dominated politics for four decades, so you came in saying, i m a new broom and i m going to clean up seychelles,
and a political culture tainted by allegations of corruption. well, my guest is seychelles president wavel ramkalawan. is this a story of paradise lost? president wavel ramkalawan, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much. well, it s a pleasure to have you in the studio. you in the seychelles are known at the un as one of the sids nations. that s the small island developing states. do you think the world listens properly to the sids? i would say no.
danger of exaggerating just how much the seychelles is going to be damaged by climate change and sea level rise? you ve claimed, i think, that 60 of the 115 islands in your archipelago could be lost. i don t know that most people think that s true, do they? well, it s because people don t really follow what s happening. you ve got to understand what the seychelles is all about. we ve got about 39 granitic islands. of course, mahe, being the main granitic island, goes up to 3,000 feet up, but the other islands are just a mere four metres, three metres above sea level. and already what we are seeing is, with the rise in the sea level and with greater surges, a lot of these islands