The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort Hosts First Local Resort & Community Coral Restoration Event

Thursday 27th of April 2023

As part of this year’s Earth Day celebrations, The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort partnered with Reefscapers Maldives to organize the first-ever local resort and community Coral Restoration Event in the country. The resort collaborated with the island council of Dh. Kudahuvadhoo and Dh. Atoll School Eco Friends Club for this initiative, with the aim of raising awareness among youth and the local community on the emerging threats to coral reefs and their significance in protecting the fragile ecosystem in the Maldives.

Under this event, The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort hosted an awareness session for 17 students from Dh. Atoll School. The session was led by the resident Marine Biologist of the property, Ms Hazel Araujo. Following the session, the students participated in creating two coral frames comprising 130 coral fragments which were later deployed in the house reef of Dh. Kudahuvadhoo.

"I truly believe the youth in the Maldives has great potential to help restore the coral reefs in Dh. Kudahuvadhoo, they are creative, smart and committed to participate in environmental issues and it is our job then to give them the opportunity to do it. It was an honour to meet these young ocean leaders and I'm excited to continue this project and see local collaboration take action for the coral reefs," commented Hazel Araujo, resident marine Biologist at The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort.

Additionally, a beach cleanup activity was also featured as part of the event, where participants helped collect and dispose of plastic waste, mitigating the negative implications of plastic pollution on the marine environment. As an active advocate for sustainability, The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort has undertaken numerous coral propagation and conservation efforts in the Maldives. So far, the resort has deployed 40 coral frames with more than 3000 coral fragments to its own house reef.

“This is one of the many initiatives that has been planned by The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort in our sustainable journey. We recently launched Fen, our signature in-house bottled water, our coral restoration partnership with Reefscapers and a 2-tonne composting plant. We are excited and looking forward to extending similar partnerships with other islands and hopefully start a larger movement,” remarked Harish Nair, Resort Manager, The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort.