lindsay chong seng is a biologist and expert on the animals and plants of the archipelago. lindsay: it's the main thing for me. i like to see the endemics. i think before you can appreciate what you have you need to know about it. a lot of these things are so cryptic, and only the specialist knows about it. i'm trying to get them into mainstream. reporter: lindsay chong seng teaches at the university of seychelles in victoria, the capital, on the main island of mahe. most of the country's 90,000 people live there. the seychelles gained independence from britain in 1976. its colonial heritage is still very present. you can see it in the architecture; cars drive on the left; and the name of the capital is a dead giveaway. the people involved in biodiversity management here meet regularly at a hotel in victoria. among them is a team from the united nations' biodiversity finance initiative, biofin. it takes considerable amounts of money and other resources to maintain and protect nature. david: what does it cost to really do biodiversity conservation effectively? how many consul