Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Technology has signed an agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to commence a major coastal protection project.
The Building Climate Safer Resilient Islands in the Maldives project is funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and aims to bring Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) to islands in Laamu Atoll and Addu City. The objective of the project is to improve coastal conservation and protection to maintain its natural resilience through the establishment of the ICZM, implementation of coastal conservation and protection measures against coastal disasters, development of disaster warning and information dissemination, and development of basic data collection and sharing system related to climate change.
The GCF approved a USD 25.1 million grant to undertake the project in partnership with JICA, which is co-financing an additional USD 35.4 million in grants, with the government of the Maldives co-financing USD 5.5 million in budgetary and in-kind contributions. In line with the government's strategic action plan, the project aims to reduce the vulnerability of the Maldives to climate change from an increase in coastal disaster risk and land loss due to the acceleration of coastal erosion through four main components.