Dataset: Stakeholder questionnaire on Seychelles’ Blue Carbon context

As part of the project 'Roadmap to blue carbon opportunities in Seychelles’ funded by the Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT), this stakeholder questionnaire aimed to document the social, political, ecological, and scientific context of blue carbon ecosystems in Seychelles. The stakeholder questionnaire was delivered to over 200 stakeholders working in close connection to Seychelles’ coastal ecosystems. Stakeholder recruitment was a self-selection process, with invitations to participate in the survey distributed via direct email (by scientists from Deakin University and the James Michel Foundation) or disseminated through the internal and external communication outlets of SeyCCAT. The questionnaire was developed and delivered according to Deakin University’s Human Ethics guidelines (permit: SEBE-2020-45), with responses being non-identifiable and anonymous. Participation was voluntary, and consent implied through the completion of all the questions. Respondents were under no obligation to answer every question and were permitted to withdraw from the study at any time. The questionnaire was prepared in English and delivered online via the survey platform Qualtrics, between 03 Nov 2020 and 01 Sept 2021. Draft versions of the questionnaire were subjected to pre-tests and reviewed by scientists and members of SeyCCAT. The final questionnaire included a total of 34 questions and was structured into six sections: (1) Participant demography; (2) Ecological context; (3) Scientific context; (4) Society and Education; (5) Economic context; (6) Policy and Management.The survey was developed using conditional logic which automatically adjusted the questions displayed depending on the respondents’ profile. Hence, the number of questions displayed could range between 21 and 34. Sixty percent of the questions were closed and included pre-coded response options (e.g., multiple choice, ranking). Open questions were mainly used to capture additional information or request explanations for some of the pre-coded choices.Documents available in the repository include: (1) Readme; (2) Stakeholder_questionnaire (pdf); (3) Stakeholder_results (excel). Excludes any personal identifiers of the respondents (i.e., profession, role, and email) Results from this dataset have been submitted in a report to the Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT).