The Maldivian reefs are facing threats of climate change and stresses from anthropogenic development projects. Natural events such as elevated sea surface temperatures have caused Maldivian reefs to suffer great mortalities in the recent past. Since a massive bleaching event was recorded in 1998, the frequency of these extreme events has increased. It is extremely important that adequate conservation and management interventions be taken soon in order to preserve the coral reefs for the future generations.

In addition to the extreme natural events posing threats to our coral reef systems, Maldivian reefs are also under constant threats from coastal development projects, which impedes the reef’s recovery rate. This restoration programme focuses mainly on passive restoration options to allow the natural recovery of reefs from extreme weather events, and piloting selected active restoration programmes to assess their scalability in a national context, and potentially incorporating such active restoration works to rehabilitate selected reefs that show little natural recovery.

The proposed programme specifically aims to achieve the assessment of Maldivian reef systems to identify hope-spots, and developing strategies for their protection, assessment of the effectiveness of protected hope-spots in rehabilitating adjacent reefs, and piloting selected active rehabilitation methods to assess their scalability for nationwide rehabilitation programmes.