NO. 117 November 2019 ADB BRIEFS KEY POINTS National Geospatial Database for • The Republic of Maldives is one of the most biodiverse Maldives to Mainstream Climate countries in the world, yet it is among the most vulnerable Change Adaptation in Development to climate change. The country needs to ensure the Planning sustainable management of natural resources in spite of the impacts and consequences of climate Liping Zheng change. Advisor • The government’s Asian Development Bank environmental management and resource conservation National Consultant Team: efforts that began in the early 1990s have been constrained Ahmed Jameel Hussain Naeem by a lack of relevant data and Integrated Coastal Zone Coastal Ecosystems and Biodiversity information. Management Specialist Specialist • This brief presents the Faruhath Jameel Mahmood Riyaz development of a geospatial Geographic Information Systems database and maps to help Climate Change Risk Assessment Maldives (i) assess disaster Specialist and Team Leader Specialist risks and impacts; (ii) reduce these by strengthening the design of programs and policies; and (iii) mainstream BACKGROUND climate change adaptation in development planning. Maldives is a developing state composed of 26 natural atolls with about 1,192 small coral islands spread over roughly 90,000 square kilometers in the Indian Ocean. The country • A geospatial database is divided into 20 administrative regions, each with a local administrative authority on coastal and marine governed by the central government. With some of the world’s most beautiful beaches, ecosystems that includes Maldives has relied on high-end tourism to expand its economy over recent decades climate risk assessment and gained middle-income status with the highest per capita income in South Asia.1 information makes it feasible to screen for climate risks in Maldives is characterized by extremely low elevations and, as one of the most development projects and geographically dispersed countries in the world, it is among the most vulnerable to programs at national and climate change. Recognized as the seventh-largest in the world, the country’s coral subnational levels. reefs and associated ecosystems are major natural resources and key foundations for food security and means of livelihood. They are highly dynamic, as directional shifts within the shoreline are dependent on seasonal conditions. But they are also extremely vulnerable to human activities and infrastructure development projects. 1 ADB. 2019. Asian Development Bank Member Fact Sheet: Maldives. Manila. ISBN 978-92-9261-862-9 (print) ISBN 978-92-9261-863-6 (electronic) ISSN 2071-7202 (print) ISSN 2218-2675 (electronic) Publication Stock No. BRF190518 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22617/BRF190518 ADB BRIEFS NO. 117 The increase in population and the rise of tourism have resulted The Government of Maldives, however, has expressed its in an increase in demand for housing and accommodations. In commitment to develop environmental policies and regulations for 2004, 11.7% of the inhabited islands exceeded their carrying sustainable marine and coastal resources management. capacities—73% had buildings less than 100 feet away from the shoreline and 2% had buildings right at the shoreline.2 Governing policies, plans, and programs. To promote climate change resilience, Maldives has incorporated relevant measures in The biophysical and socioeconomic impacts of development key policies: can be exacerbated by climate change. In Maldives, socioeconomic impacts of development include land loss • The Maldives Climate Change Policy Framework guides and beach erosion, infrastructure damage, and destruction of development activities based on seven principles: climate coral reefs, aside from food and water insecurity, health risks, leadership, intergenerational equitability, mainstreaming and other economic issues. All this calls for the sustainable climate change action, relevant international commitments, management, conservation, and use of the country’s limited multinational partnerships, technology transfer, and climate natural resources. resiliency. Upon the request of the Government of Maldives, the South Asia • The National Adaptation Programme of Action 2007 Department (SARD) of the Asian Development Bank offered to comprehensively describes the country’s key climate support the project “Establishing a National Geospatial Database vulnerabilities. It presents the policy framework for climate for Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation into Development change adaptation to sustain and ensure the resilience of Activities and Policies” through the technical assistance natural and social systems in Maldives. It further emphasizes (TA) Action on Climate Change in South Asia (2013–2018). priority actions for wetland conservation, waste management, Implemented by the Ministry of Environment (MOE) of Maldives, coastal erosion, and sea inundation. the project focused on coastal and marine biodiversity and • The Strategic National Action Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction infrastructure.3 The main activities involved (i) designing a and Climate Change Adaptation 2010-2020 acknowledges geospatial database on coastal and marine ecosystems to enable the threats posed by beach erosion, sea level rise, and saltwater climate risk screening of development projects and (ii) pilot-testing intrusion. It aims to build resilient communities through SARD’s climate risk screening methodology on selected empowerment and disaster risk reduction and management. development projects. • The National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2016-2025 This policy brief summarizes the consultants’ reports from the aims to protect and manage representative ecosystems and ADB-supported country initiative. resources in Maldives, recognizing the need to relieve, if not resolve, competing demands and pressures against them. This includes a target of minimizing, if not eliminating, pressures on INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS, coral reefs and other vulnerable ecosystems posed by climate change and local anthropogenic activities by 2025. POLICIES, AND REGULATIONS ON COASTAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT Legislative framework. The government also enacted a number of laws and regulations governing environmental protection and The project identified two issues critical to natural resource and management in Maldives (Table 1). environmental management in Maldives: • The lack of systematized and readily available data on natural DESIGNING THE COASTAL AND MARINE resources and limited related institutional and human resource GEOSPATIAL DATABASE capacity • The absence of proper natural resource management programs Marine and coastal environments play a vital role in regulating the or plans, especially for coastal resources global climate via carbon and water cycles. Rising temperatures and sea levels, ocean acidification, increases in storm severity, Without a law on coastal protection and management, the and other climate change scenarios and extreme weather events compounding situation involves a fragmented institutional represent significant pressures on coastal and marine ecosystems. framework in which different institutions at the local and national A comprehensive geospatial database of these ecosystems’ features levels have overlapping roles and responsibilities. and services, therefore, needs to be established in Maldives. 2 Government of Maldives, Ministry of Environment and Construction. 2004. State of the Environment Report 2004. Malé. 3 The Ministry of Environment was formerly the Ministry of Environment and Energy. 2 National Geospatial Database for Maldives Table 1: Environmental Protection Laws and Regulations A geospatial database is a common data storage and management in Maldives framework within a geographical information system (GIS). In Maldives, it can help Environmental Year Purpose/Objective • demonstrate and communicate the importance of ecosystems Protection Law Enacted and their interrelationships; Environmental 1993 Established a framework to protect Protection and and preserve the country’s natural • support the effective monitoring of ecosystem changes; Preservation (EPP) environment and resources; has • guide national development plans, policies, programs, and Act provisions on environmental advice project appraisals; and policy formulation, biodiversity conservation, and environmental • set priorities in plans within a sector or across different sectors; impact assessment • support green national and corporate accounting; Regulations on 2000 Restricts sand extraction in Sand lagoons and prohibits it in beaches; • set a framework to establish market-based instruments, such as and Aggregate implemented by the Ministry of taxes, charges, fees, fines, penalties, subsidies, incentives, and Mining Fisheries, Marine Resources, and tradable permit schemes; and Agriculture • determine liability and compensation in environmental Regulations on 2011 Prohibits and limits activities that litigation. Valuing Damages contravene the EPP Act to avoid to the Environment any overlap or duplication and Establishing a geospatial database on coastal and marine ecosys- apply a framework for determining tems that includes relevant climate risk assessment information environmental damages; provides makes it feasible to screen for climate risks in development pro- damage categories, units for jects and programs at the national and subnational level. measuring impact, and the valuation of specific damages, depending on size and scale The geospatial coastal