Government will comply with EPA advisory on coral bleaching: Minister

The government of Maldives will comply with the advisory issued by Environment Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the mass coral bleaching event taking place in the country, assured Environment Minister Thoriq Ibrahim today.

Speaking with local media outlet 'Mihaaru', Minister Thoriq said that EPA's advisory is necessary to be implemented with immediate effect.

"We are of the belief that we will be very successful if [we] comply with EPA's measures in the beginning. Right now [we're] at alert level 1. What happens at alert level 2 is corals bleach and die. So what we can do [now] is reduce the stress on the reefs," Minister Thoriq explained.

He went on to detail that this stress can only be alleviated by complying with EPA's measures, and that the tourism industry and the country's economy as a whole will stand to benefit from it.

"The government's policy is for everyone to benefit from the economy's profitability. So, the government will not facilitate anything that stands in the way of that. When reefs are saved, its benefits are connected to Maldives' economy. [To] tourism," he added.

The minister also said that climate change mitigation is something President Dr Mohamed Muizzu and the government as a whole prioritises.

The policy is for "immediate reaction" to be compulsory if anything that impacts the environment comes up in the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) reports, while the Environment Act is also designed to work towards safeguarding the environment from phenomena such as coral bleaching, he said.

In the advisory issued by EPA on Friday, the agency called for a temporary pause on all ongoing dredging and reclamation projects due to excessive coral bleaching in the country.

The main measures imposed are:

Suspension of all coastal development activities directly or indirectly impacting coral reef ecosystems as stated under EIA permits and Dredging and Reclamation permits. - Suspension or avoidance all major coastal development activities conducted with heavy machinery, including but not limited to dredging, reclamation, beach nourishment, sand pumping, installation of pipelines and cables on the reef. - Adjusting the work schedules for all current coastal zone development projects and new Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) applications to carry out the above stated activities only after June 2024.

These measures would be in effect until 10th June, 2024, said EPA.

According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch (CRW) - an organisation which remotely monitors conditions that can cause bleaching, disease, and death of corals - reported that Maldives is currently at an Alert Level 1, meaning that the country's reefs are at risk of reef-wide coral bleaching. Level 2 would indicate that there is a risk of mortality of heat-sensitive corals.

Maldives first identified a coral bleaching phenomenon in the country's reefs in 1998 and it has since been reported on and off from time to time. However, the biggest coral bleaching event took place as recent as 2016.