Anantara, Maldives

Anantara Dhigu is located in the South Malé Atoll, in the central Maldives. We built the new reef in the resort’s lagoon, right next to an existing coral nursery. By adding stable, three-dimensional habitat around the nursery, the project supports Anantara’s wider marine conservation work.

The Maldives is made up of 1,192 islands across 26 coral atolls, stretching around 871 kilometres from north to south. Yet all its islands combined cover less than 300 km² of land. With far more ocean than land, people depend heavily on the sea and its resources. This makes healthy coral reefs essential not only for marine life, but also for Maldivian society and the economy. They protect coastlines and sustain fisheries, tourism and local livelihoods.

The new site is called “Theyra Maa”, meaning “13 Flowers” in Dhivehi. The name comes from the 13 flower-shaped reef structures we built from 700 modules. Together, they create approximately 150 m² of new habitat for corals and marine life. That’s almost the size of a volleyball court! The flower-shaped structures add complexity to a degraded part of the seabed, provide coral larvae surfaces to settle and grow on, and create shelter for fish and other marine life.

This project brings together rrreefs, Edelweiss, help alliance and Anantara Hotels & Resorts in a multi-stakeholder partnership connecting science-based reef regeneration with more responsible tourism. It is also our first direct collaboration with a resort.

This project means a lot to us because it brings rrreefs back to the country where in December 2019, we installed our first field experiment in Maghoodhoo, Faafu Atoll: 98 3D-printed clay tiles with 12 different surface structures. More than six years later, we returned to the Maldives to build our largest reef systems to date.