Maldives goes green and embraces mid-market

The first democratically elected government in the Maldives has pledged to clean up the country's record on sustainable tourism.

Government representatives were in London on Monday to brief tour operators and journalists on their plans. Among those speaking was President Mohamed Nasheed, head of the new government.

One of the President's initial pledges is to promote mid-market and culture tourism.

Under the country's previous regime tourists were flown in to resorts and not allowed to see the poverty of citizens on neighbouring islands. Tourism Minister Dr Ahmed Ali Sawad hopes that they can share over 2,000 years of history with visitors.

He told Times Online that in the past money from resorts and tourism didn't filter down to the inhabitants of the islands.

He wants to share the wealth and plans to increase mid-market tourism to help generate funds. Three-star resorts will be built on uninhabited islands in a "sustainable manner".

More than 100,000 Britons visit the country each year and they hope to increase that figure by at least 50 per cent.

There was a mid-market boom in the 1980s but that has since shrunk, he said, and even though most of the resorts offer "first class five star service", there is "room to diversify".

The President was asked about the lack of public transport across the county's seven provinces. He said that they have no interest in running transport having "inherited a huge financial debt and the challenge of developing health, education and infrastructure".

Mr Nasheed has appealed to private investors to improve public transport links in return for land and guest house concessions.

Until now, visitors have not been allowed to get married on the islands, which have an Islamic law system, for religious reasons. Mr Nasheed also hopes to change that.

The second major aim of the goverment is to make the country carbon-neutral within ten years through the use of solar and wind power. Mr Nasheed held up luxury resort Soneva Fushi as an example of how they can achieve their aim. The resort has pledged to be carbon neutral by next year and "carbon zero" by 2011.

Soneva Fushi uses local materials for building, grows its own fresh produce in its grounds, provides air conditioning though a system that delivers cold water from the depths of the oceans, recycles everything and puts 2 per cent of villa rental revenue back into carbon schemes.

Another environmentally friendly measure introduced by the government has been to ban shark fishing in the country's waters.

Source: timesonline.co.uk

First wave of 'climate refugees' on the seas

FOR the people of the Maldives, the prediction from the Copenhagen International Climate Congress last month of a sea level rise of one to two metres by 2100 carried extra sting. Sitting just 1.5metres above the sea, the Maldives future existence is at stake.

Many similarly vulnerable Pacific island nations are now feeling the impacts first hand. They too know they are fighting a losing battle against the encroaching forces of a changing climate. They want Australia to take action to give them the best chance of survival.

The CSIRO has been warning for years about the vulnerability of the Asia-Pacific region to the impact of climate change, without substantial action from Australia. In its report, Climate Change in the Asia-Pacific Region, the CSIRO warned the region was particularly vulnerable to coastal communities being inundated by rising seas, the loss of wetlands and coral bleaching, shifts in climate resulting in disease and heat-related mortality, and the net effects of climate change on regional economies.

At the CSIRO's Greenhouse 2009 conference in Perth, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong announced Australia would spend $20 million to help its neighbours in the Pacific and East Timor better understand how climate change would affect them, as part of a broader $150 million commitment to meet high-priority climate adaptation needs in vulnerable countries in our region.

On the surface, this pledge from Australia is a step in the right direction. Yet, in the context of Australia's emissions target of just a 5per cent reduction by 2020, and our refusal to approve climate refugee status requests from small Pacific nations such as Tuvulu, Senator Wong's announcement raises more questions than it answers.

For starters, it remains unclear whether the $150 million will be used for actual "adaptation" or whether it will be confined to further science and monitoring. Based on current breakdowns, the money will be distributed between the Department of Climate Change, AusAid, the Global Environment Fund and the World Bank. That means only a small percentage will go to the Pacific islands to deal with actual adaptation strategies.

This is reminiscent of a recent Guardian investigation revealing that although $18 billion had been pledged globally to assist poor countries adapt to climate impacts, only $900 million had been forthcoming. So far, the pledges have not matched the outcomes, and it is the world's poorest who are getting hit hardest.

Wong's $20 million pledge is a tiny drop in the ocean of needs and impending disasters when we start to measure the human and financial magnitude of the problem.

Since 2005, the people of the Carteret Islands (120 kilometres north-east of Bougainville in the Pacific Ocean) have been in a process of forced migration due to rising seas. The 2500 inhabitants of the islands are in the process of resettlement in Bougainville, putting them among the world's first "environmental refugees".

In PNG, extreme weather conditions have increased in frequency and ferocity in recent years. A huge flood in the Oro Province in November 2007 killed 70people and destroyed 95 per cent of the road and bridge infrastructure. The cost of repairing this infrastructure is estimated to run into the billions of dollars.

The injustice of climate change is that its effects are falling most heavily on the poor - those who bear the least responsibility for causing the problem and have the least capacity to adapt. While a country with a heavy greenhouse footprint such as Australia has the luxury to debate climate change, some low-lying island nations are likely to disappear off the surface of the earth altogether.

As a country that has disproportionately contributed to creating the problem of global warming (on a per-capita basis), Australia has an obligation to lead by example in reducing its own emissions, and to help its poorer neighbours to cope with its impacts and implement alternative development pathways.

Often lacking the infrastructure to even tackle day-to-day issues of social deprivation, health and hunger, the developing world has few resources left to respond to environmental circumstances in a way that might mitigate long-term impacts. Countries with poor democratic structures, weak borders and high incidence of corruption are most vulnerable to the potential for climate change triggering large-scale humanitarian crises.

Given that our targets of 5 to 15per cent emission cuts by 2020 will, according to all available science, lead us on a course that will see increasing problems in the Asia-Pacific region as a direct result of climate change, a $20 million pledge is very modest indeed.

The bigger question is how Australia will contribute to the global effort to radically reduce carbon emissions in the short term, and play a role in ensuring a strong new global emissions reduction treaty is signed at Copenhagen later this year. To achieve this, we will need to set credible science-based targets; we need 25 to 40 per cent cuts by 2020.

In a paper presented at the recent climate talks in Poznan, the Alliance of Small Island States called on the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 40 per cent by 2020, and more than 95 per cent by 2050. These countries know their very existence is at stake.

Responding to the news from Copenhagen, Maldives President Mahamed Nasheed has pledged that his country will no longer be part of the "Faustian Pact" the world has with carbon by becoming the first country to go carbon neutral. "Today," he said, "the Maldives will opt out of that pact." But, where will Australia stand?

Source: business.theage.com.au

Will Maldives cease to exist, engulfed by seas rising from the effects of global warming?

Is the Maldives, a country of about 1,200 coral islets and 400,000 people in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Sri Lanka, living on borrowed time? Is it likely to be wiped off the face of the earth in another 40 years, engulfed by seas rising from the effects of global warming?

I’m sure there are people — politicians, businessmen, even scientists — who’d ridicule this notion and the very idea of global warming, but for the Maldives, one of the world’s smallest nations, the fear is almost mortal. The country feels it’s living in the very jaws of death and has pleaded with the world, on many occasions, to come to its rescue.

In 1992, speaking at the UN Earth Summit, the then Maldives’ president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom declared his fear of doom in these words: “I stand before you as a representative of an endangered people. We are told that, as a result of global warming and sea-level rise, my country, the Maldives, may sometime during the next century disappear from the face of the earth.”

In late 2007, at the UN climate change meeting in Bali, Gayoom sounded desperate. “Over half of our islands,” he said, “are eroding at an alarming rate. In some cases, island communities have had to be relocated to safer islands. Without immediate action, the long-term habitation of our tiny islands is in serious doubt.”

But behind these frantic pleas is a growing realisation that action by the global community just isn’t round the corner. The Maldives was the first country to sign the Kyoto protocol to fight global warming, but others haven’t quite shared its enthusiasm. So it has decided to take matters in its own hands and do whatever it can to the best of its ability.

Its immediate goal is to become a fully carbon-neutral country by 2020, switching from fossil fuel to 100 per cent renewable energy sources. It’s thinking of a mix of wind turbines and rooftop solar panels, plus power plants burning nothing but coconut husks. Its long-term goal is to save up enough to buy a new homeland elsewhere and relocate its entire population before the crunch comes.

While carbon neutrality isn’t difficult to achieve, how feasible is the idea of a new homeland? The Maldives’ new president, Mohamed Nasheed, says the savings are to come mainly from revenues earned from tourism. They could. Tourism is a major segment of the Maldives’ economy, accounting for over 30 per cent of its GDP, and the more than 600,000 tourists who visit every year are mostly high-spenders and long-stayers.

But where does one find an alternative homeland for an entire nation? It won’t be easy to find an island that’s high and safe and uninhabited or that’s not a nation already or part of a nation. And though the Maldives has held relocation talks with Sri Lanka, India, and Australia, would any country want to carve out a part of its territory and sell it to another?

Perhaps, the Maldives should start looking for a solution that’s more practical and pertinent. The basis for such a solution already exists in the form of an artificial island that’s being built just off the country’s main inhabited island of Male. It’s called Hulhumale, or New Male, and many consider it a smart answer to the Maldives’ problem of survival.

The Maldives is nowhere more than six feet above the sea level, and seas rising from a global snowmelt could easily swamp it. Memories are still fresh of the devastating 1987 floods that submerged most of Male and the December 2004 tsunami, when 53 of the country’s 199 inhabited islands suffered severe damage — 20 were totally destroyed, and 19 of its 87 luxury resorts were badly mauled.

After the 1987 floods, a frantic government responded by erecting a concrete sea wall against the waves, which now rings Male. However, since the concrete tetrapods can only soften the blow and not thwart the surges altogether, the government also began, in 1997, to build Hulhumale as an alternative refuge several feet higher than the existing height of the rest of the country.

Hulhumale, about four times the size of Male, is actually a shallow lagoon being filled with sand dredged from the ocean floor. Its straight, wide streets, modern apartments, and more than basic facilities have already attracted several thousand people to move there. More are willing to follow to escape from Male’s congestion.

For the Maldives living in fear of doom, this is a possible way out. There are other shallow lagoons in the island chain where more Hulhumales could be built, if needed, to protect its people and economy. It’s going to be costly, no doubt, but at least it makes more sense than looking to buy a new homeland, and the UN, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank might be called upon to help.

Source: business-standard.com

Maldives “Carbon Neutral” policy prompts carbon balanced yachting

The new Maldives “Carbon Neutral” policy has prompted a leading 74m superyacht to balance its carbon footprint through Yacht Carbon Offset. The President of the Maldives has announced his government’s intention to make the Republic of Maldives the world’s first carbon neutral country, within a decade.

Responding swiftly to express support for the President’s initiative, a leading 74m superyacht has turned to Carbon Offsetting. The yacht’s Owners have, through Yacht Carbon Offset, balanced the greenhouse gas emissions from the vessel’s engines for the duration of her stay.

Yacht Carbon Offset’s Managing Director Mark Robinson commented: “For Owners, Charterers or Captains cruising in the Islands, Carbon Offsetting is the clearest possible way to show recognition of this new policy objective. The action may be equally well received in other cruising destinations that welcome best environmental practices by visiting yachts”

Source: superyachttimes.com

Maldives targets mass market with affordable hotels

The Maldives could become the latest mass market holiday destination, reports Charles Starmer-Smith.

The government of the Indian Ocean archipelago this week revealed plans to build dozens of mid-range hotels and guesthouses in an attempt to arrest the downturn in tourism.

Mohamed Nasheed, the newly elected president of the Maldives, said he would allow construction of two- and three-star hotels and cheap guesthouses on islands – including some of the uninhabited ones – to make the country a more affordable holiday destination. He maintained that any construction would be sustainable and new properties would be approved only if the developers were willing to invest in infrastructure and public transport links on the islands.

Last year the Maldives attracted about 200,000 British holidaymakers, but the number of visitors has slowed markedly. In February, British visitor numbers fell by 24 per cent compared with the same month last year and many travel operators and hoteliers have already reduced their prices.

Meedhupparu, a four-star resort, last month made half of its employees redundant after revealing that in February it was less than a third full. British tour operators are now offering week-long packages in the Maldives for as little as £649. Even some of the most luxurious resorts have halved their rates. Elegant Resorts this week was offering seven nights’ half board at the five-star One&Only resort of Reethi Rah for £1,795 per person – a discount of £3,240 per couple.

It is hoped the developments will attract an extra 100,000 Britons, including backpackers and gap-year travellers.

“The average British person should be able to come to enjoy the Maldives and see the sun, the sea and the sand,” said Mr Nasheed.

He said the Maldives originally catered to a wider range of tourists, but over the past decade the main focus has been on high-end holidays, making the islands a byword for luxury beach breaks. As part of the drive to introduce lower room rates, Mr Nasheed said small guesthouse operators will pay cheaper rents than the larger hotel chains.

It has also been proposed that the country, which is Muslim, should in future be allowed to host weddings between foreigners and that there should be an increase in charter flights to the islands.

In a separate move, the government has promised to make the Maldives the world’s first carbon-neutral country by switching to the use of renewable energy within a decade.

The Maldives is one of the world’s lowest-lying countries – its 26 atolls, containing nearly 1,200 islands (of which 250 are inhabited), lie just 5ft above sea level. Scientists believe most of the islands could be submerged by the end of the century. In response, Mr Nasheed has announced plans to purchase land elsewhere for his countrymen to live on – with India, Sri Lanka and Australia among the countries he has approached.

Source: telegraph.co.uk