Environment Minister Thoriq asks Maldivians to champion preservation of nature

In his address to mark the international day for biological diversity, Maldives’ Minister of Environment and Energy Thoriq Ibrahim has called on Maldivians to work to preserve their natural environment and its resources.

Minister Thoriq said that human civilizations have had a history of allowing their natural environment and wildlife to be destroyed. He reflected that a number of living creatures, flora, and fauna have been made extinct directly by the actions of human beings.

Further following this narrative, the cabinet official said that Maldivians must consider the state of their natural resources and keenly contemplate on ways of better preserving it.

Minister Thoriq also revealed that he understands how Maldives' environment is not only vital for societal development but plays a pivotal part in the economy, through tourism. He said ‘thirty-three percent’ of the tourists that visit Maldives do so to witness its ‘natural beauty’.

Thoriq lamented how Maldivians actively deter the benefits, through destruction of such settings and littering, of their natural environment and that a better attitude towards the matter, needs to be adopted.

While the minister’s appeal is exact, incumbent President Abdulla Yameen’s administration has faced heavy scrutiny and subsequent condemnation for ecocide, with a swathe of infrastructural development projects that aggressively disregards environmental impact assessments.

Local environment-perseveration advocacy group EcoCare has even sued the Environment Ministry and its Environment Protection Agency for destroying mangroves to build an airport on a local island.

In 2016, some of Thoriq’s ministerial colleagues were at a ‘tea party’ to celebrate a reef blasting. The massive state budget passed for 2018 also includes funding to reclaim a total of 20 lagoons.