Our History

Our History

In 2004, a valley rich in indigenous and endemic biodiversity was threatened by a national highway project of questionable usefulness. Some citizens took action to #Save the Vallée de Ferney. The mobilization not only ended successfully but became a model. Indeed, it is the first & only park co-operated by the private sector (the owners) and the state that has been created form the actions of citizens having brought together in a consortium, the industrial group owning the land, the Mauritian government and NGOs as well as the UNDP – GEF tandem as donors. Some time later, the majority of these same citizens, having previously distinguished themselves, joined a movement of residents of the Albion region in the west of Mauritius to contest a coal-powered electricity project.

It was in the wake of this second victory that was born the idea of acting to prevent other projects that are potentially harmful to the environment and according to their criteria, against the principles of sustainable development in Mauritius, which however was only at the beginning of a frantic real-estate development. It followed from their analysis of the Vallée de Ferney dossier that the most appropriate approach would be raising awareness and advocating for the conservation of natural spaces and the environment, as well as the preservation of the commons.

mru2025 was founded in the wake of the ecological movement caused by the creation of the Maurice île durable (MID) commission in 2008, with year 2025 at its horizon and the aim of using the then modern media for the raising of awareness to the concept of sustainable development in the region. Thanks to the Small Grants Program (SGP) of the Global Environment Fund (GEF), the first videos were made and the first podcasts recorded and made public, notably through the national television channel.

Through workshops, collaborating with other environmental NGOs as well as with government officials at the time, mru2025, through its main organizers, notably Nadia Peerun, Stéphan Palmyre and Yan Hookoomsing, participated in the foundation of the landscape of environmental NGOs.

With hotel and land projects swarming along the coastline, helping themselves with the most beautiful public beaches on the island, already in short supply, the founders of mru2025 had to mobilize and wear their activists caps again and carry-out fight at ground level, through the raising of awareness, mobilization as well as on the legal level. Given the pace at which new projects appeared, it was time for permanent activism and the citizen platform Aret Kokin Nu Laplaz known by the acronym AKNL, (literally “Stop grabbing our beaches”) was set up in 2015. This platform specializing in the protection of the coastal zone against major hotel and real estate projects, is today a benchmark in terms of citizen mobilization.

Today recognized, willy-nilly, by all the protagonists of development, it was time to adopt, in parallel, a sober approach, over a longer scope of time, with an enlarged vision of the coast, adopting the concept of Ridge to reef. In addition of activism, the action plan includes legal aspects, pedagogy, advice, advocacy and consultation. mru2025 will also act as a foundation, with the aim of putting at the disposal of other organisations or individuals, know-how expertise as well as scientific findings.