“Maldives coral reefs:
past, present and a sustainable Blue future”
On Sunday 25 July 2024, #SaveMaldives Campaign in collaboration with the Global Coral Reef Alliance (GCRA) organised an event where the President of the GCRA Dr Thomas Goreau delivered a presentation about coral reef restoration in the Maldives. Dr Goreau’s lecture was entitled Maldives coral reefs: past, present and a sustainable Blue future. The event was held at Unima Grand hotel in Male’ City, and was attended by a variety of stakeholders including from civil society organisations, State institutions as well as marine researchers working in the resort sector in the Maldives.
Dr Goreau dedicated the lecture in honour of the late Mr Maizan Hassan Maniku, who was instrumental in pioneering marine research in the Maldives. Mr Maniku is hailed as “a man of many talents”, having led the initiative to form in 1984 what is today the Maldives Marine Research Institute (MMRI). Dr Goreau’s talk was particularly timely for being delivered at the end of the Fifth Maldives Marine Science Symposium held at the Maldives National University (MNU) in Male’ City from 24-25 July 2024.
In his lecture, Dr Goreau presented his experience of coral reef restoration efforts at Ihuru resort island in 1997 with Dr Wolf Hilbertz, with whom he pioneered the Biorock coral reef restoration method. Using a variety of project photographs, Dr Goreau shared with the audience his experiences of implementing the Barnacle and Necklace projects in Ihuru. The projects were successfully installed and achieved the objective of erosion prevention on the island at the time, although it was later stopped for various reasons. A notable highlight is that one of the lead initiators of the Ihuru project, Mr Azeez Abdul Hakeem attended the event, as did another project participant, Mr Shameem Ali. Dr Goreau observed that this is the first time he has had the opportunity to present his story about these initial coral reef restoration initiatives at Ihuru in the Maldives, over 25 years later! Similar projects elsewhere, particularly Bali in Indonesia is noteworthy.
Dr Goreau is currently working on his second project in the Maldives at Velaa island resort. He paid tribute to Mr Maizan Hassan Maniku for his leadership and foresight in supporting the work of Dr Hilbertz and himself, stating that Mr Maniku’s efforts were instrumental in furthering marine science in the country.
Mr Maniku’s family, including his daughter Zaya and several siblings attended the event and presented Dr Goreau with a publication dedicated to the memory of Mr Hassan Maniku. The Maizan family also donated the book to event attendees.
It is our hope that meaningful coral reef restoration and conservation efforts in the Maldives can be rapidly accelerated, as climate change exacerbated by unsustainable development practices pose perilous threats to the survival of our reef ecosystems and biodiversity.
We thank the GCRA and Dr Goreau, and especially all the participants of the event for their interest and attendance at the event.
#SaveMaldives Campaign
