The seagrass meadows around the Maldives are under threat. But the government now plans to place this valuable ecosystem under protection. As well as serving as nurseries for sea life, they act as carbon sinks and protect the atolls from erosion.

Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, is an archipelagic state in the Indian subcontinent of Asia, situated in the Indian Ocean. It lies southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about 750 kilometres from the Asian continent’s mainland.