Maldives is a country of islands. The nation consists of 1,192 coral islands, which are spread out and clustered into 26 atolls in the Indian Ocean. However, land area represented by the 1,192 islands is only a mere 2% of Maldives' total area. These islands are all low-lying, with an average elevation of 1.6 meters above sea level. The highest point of the whole nation is only 3 meters above sea level, with 80% of its land area below 1 meter in elevation. In terms of human settlement, only 199 out of the 1,192 islands are inhabited. 70% of the 199 islands have a population of 1,000 or fewer.
The Maldivian economy is extremely dependent on its two main industries: Tourism and Fisheries. In terms of tourism, 93% of GNP (data from 2000) or 32.3% of GDP (2003 data) came from this industry. Tourism provided local Maldivians with jobs and opportunities. A whopping 57% of the Maldivian workforce is employed within the tourism industry. Jobs in the industry include working at resorts, hotels, restaurants, as well as supporting services such as transport. In terms of agriculture, Maldives rely heavily on fisheries due to its geographic location and lack of arable land. Only aroiund 10% of the land area in Maldives is suitable for agricultural farming. This creates a huge potential hazard. Short-term events that negatively impact the fishing and tourism industries (i.e. tsunami and terrorism respectively) will hit the Maldivian economy hard.
Climate change and sea temperature rise have caused several major issues which gradually worsen. The latter is responsible for the significant problem of coral bleaching in the nation. Maldives currently owns aroudn 5% of the world's total coral area. In addition, the Maldivian coral reefs play instrumental roles to the Maldivian economy. Coral reefs provide a suitable and preferable natural habitat for fisheries. It is also one of the main attractions for tourists in the country. More than a quarter of the tourists into Maldives participate in scuba-diving and more than three quarters of the tourists participate in snorkeling. Coral bleaching, thus, damages both the fisheries and tourism industries. Also, freshwater resources are running scarce on the islands due to fewer and irregular precipitation in recent years and contamination of fresh water by sea water. The jeopardy of fresh water resources worsen the local standard of living. One last problem that Maldives faces is shoreline erosion. This problem becomes more serious as sea level rises and climate change proceeds. This is caused by the changing wind and current patterns.
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