Artificial reef building offers hope as super El Niño looms

By Zaheena Rasheed

In the turquoise lagoon of Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru, Moosa Shan dove down and cleared sand from a large block of cement. There, he placed several balls of marine cement and attached broken fragments of live coral. The balls would harden within hours and provide a critical stable base for coral growth.

Experimental Climate Monitoring and Prediction for Maldives – July 2014

 Download Full Report

Highlights

Lower than average rainfall conditions were observed in entire Maldives in the month of June. The cumulative deficit of rainfall over the last 12 months has increased to an amount around 700 mm in Northern and Central islands. Southern islands continues to show a much smaller rainfall deficit over the last year. The temperatures are predicted to be warmer than expected in the next three months and the rainfall below normal in the Southern islands.  

Image: Rainfall Anomaly in May 2014. Green areas show above average rainfall and brown areas show below average rainfall. Higher magnitudes are shown in darker shades. This image shows dry conditions observed in the Northern islands and wet conditions in the southern islands.

Asia Analysis: Battling climate impacts in low-lying Maldives

Going carbon neutral and protecting marine environment are key to fighting climate change in the tiny island nation, says Nalaka Gunawardene.

‘Raise your voice, not the sea level’ is the theme for this year’s World Environment Day, which falls on 5 June. The theme resonates with the United Nations designating 2014 as the International Year of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) [1], to express solidarity with the world's 51 small island states, many of which are on the frontline of climate changeimpacts. [2]