Starting in Vabbinfaru, Maldives

When the Banyan Tree Maldives Marine Lab (above) officially opened its doors in early 2004, it became the first resort-based facility in the Maldives.

Serving both Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru and Angsana Ihuru, the Marine Lab was designed to provide basic facilities and equipment for important fieldwork conducted by visiting expert scientists, as well as to share the necessity of marine conservation and sustainable livelihoods with local communities.

Since inception, the Lab has grown to carry the banner for Banyan Tree’s sustainability efforts in the region, from hosting visiting experts, to sharing the message of marine conservation with local schools and communities, to promoting and test piloting sustainable livelihood options for communities.

Expansion in Maldives… and beyond

Due to the success in contributing to both the scientific body of knowledge, as well as the community’s understanding of the importance of environmental conservation, this model was recreated in 2006 with the opening of the Banyan Tree Maldives Marine Lab, Velavaru (right) to support Angsana Velavaru and then again to the Indonesian island of Bintan in 2007 (below).

Supported by trained biologists, Banyan Tree labs were established to support environmental research, conservation, restoration, and awareness.

Our Conservation strategy frames conservation efforts for key habitats or priority species within the key global environmental issues of climate change, changing land use, overexploitation, and invasive species.

This adaptive framework can be implemented in any environment to identify and address key conservation issues, and engage with stakeholders. This approach will be implemented elsewhere in the future.