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These Maldives resorts are leading the charge on sustainability

These Maldives resorts are leading the charge on sustainability

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(CNN) — As the lowest-lying nation in the world — with much of it sitting just a few feet above sea level — the nearly 1,200 Indian Ocean islands scattered across the Maldives’ sun-soaked atolls are famed not just for their magazine-cover-ready beaches and bungalows, but for their increasing vulnerability to rising sea levels.

According to reports from NASA, as much as 80% of these islands could be uninhabitable by 2050.
And that’s not the only pressing environmental threat. The island nation’s remote setting and limited refuse facilities — combined with a large influx of tourists (numbering more than 1.7 million annually, pre-pandemic) — has led to improper waste disposal, with the Maldives tourism board going so far as to encourage visitors to carry out their own nonbiodegradable waste.
The delicate coral reef ecosystem, too — a huge lure for divers and snorkelers — has been experiencing damage en masse: A scientific survey in 2016 found that climate change-induced coral bleaching had damaged more than 60% of the country’s reefs.

“A large draw for tourism is the healthy ocean environment that visitors come to see. Clearly this type of environment must be preserved in order to continue attracting high-spending tourism,” says James Ellsmoor, CEO of Island Innovation, an agency that helps stakeholders in small island destinations — including in the Maldives — achieve sustainable development goals.

Indeed, this nature-based tourism is something of a paradox here. While much of the nation’s 540,000 citizens rely on related revenue for their livelihood, the tourism industry is frequently blamed for exacerbating the environmental crisis. Maldives resorts claim high energy and resource demands, and turn out excess waste production — and perhaps most grievously, are dependent upon emissions-heavy, long-haul flights to bring the tourists in.

As a result, many of the country’s 150-plus, luxe-leaning resorts aren’t just choosing to “go green” for good PR optics — experts say that in the Maldives, operating as sustainably as possible is essential to a business’s long-term survival.

Plus, some resort initiatives, like those toward clean energy infrastructure, are also good for their bottom line.

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