The Maldives: a country which will be completely submerged by 2080

There is an increasing agreement that many decisions already need to take into account climate change. Obviously, many decisions have only short-term consequences or are only weakly climate sensitive. But many decisions come with a long-term commitment and can be very climate sensitive. Examples of such decisions include urbanisation plans, risk management strategies, infrastructure development for water management or transportation, and building design and norms. These kinds of decisions and investments are also vulnerable to changes in climate conditions and sea level rise (Hallegatte, 2009).

Nowadays, sustainable tourism development has become more and more popular. Related to the original article, every decision made can have long or short term consequences even if people are not in favour of it, but people have to make decisions before the situation get worse. Climate change all over the world will likely create both winners and losers in the tourism industry. For instance, climate change will have a seriously impact on the summer and winter tourism market in terms of sunbath, beach products and winter sports. Furthermore, small islands as well as low-lying areas are being affected by the climate change such as the Maldives.

It is reported by the scientists that the Maldives could be completely submerged by 2080 because of its low sea level. The Maldives are located in the Indian Ocean, consisting of 26 coral atolls and their land area of less than 300 km² and most of the islands are only 1.5 meters above sea level. A rise in sea level in the Maldives would cause extensive coastal erosion, at worst, a sizeable proportion of the landmass could be submerged within the next 30 years. The combination of land loss and reef damage likely under warmer conditions could have severe negative impacts on the Maldives’tourism industry(Agnew and Viner,2001).

The government of the Maldives has already realized the severe situation and has made some serious efforts to solve this problem. The government is now trying to develop ten artificial islands by reclaiming natural lagoons of inhabited islands of the Maldives to increase development opportunities under the National Population Consolidation Strategy and Programme. And also trying to buy some islands from the other countries. The government of the Maldives should find a sustainable way of dealing with the climate change rather than buying other lands from other countries.

Nowadays most peolpe see sustainable tourism as concentrating only on the environment. But sustainable tourism is committed to making a low impact on the environment and local culture, while helping to generate income and employment for the local people. The aim of sustainable tourism is to ensure that development is a positive experience for local people; tourism companies and tourists themselves.

Developing a community-based tourism is one of the best options for the government of the Maldives to develop a sustainable tourism industry. More attention should be paid to the economic and social carrying capacity of the Maldives, to balance the tourism industry and other industries as well as the benefits that can accrue to the local community and tourists. 

 Reference:

1. Strategies to adapt to an uncertain climate change

Stephane Hallegatte

Global Environmental Change 19 (2009)

1. Tourism management dynamics

Dimitrios Buhalis & Carlos Costa

1. SHOUGEE M, 2007. Maldives Third Tourism Masterplan 2007-2011. (source:http://www.tourism.gov.mv/downloads/ttmp.pdf. 26 September 2009)
2. Central Intelligence Agency https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mv.htmltop