04Experiences

Protecting the reefs

Baa under the biosphere network

Baa Atoll’s listing in June 2011 under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme gives the trip a layer that is not the World Heritage List. The reserve supports a large reef assemblage and is treated as a sensitive management zone, with local residents and resorts inside the same frame. A visit here is not an urban park with tickets; it is an atoll of islands and reefs with local rules that differ from North Malé nearer the international airport. Read signs and island guidance, and do not assume every channel is open for swimming at every tide. Small islands inside the lagoon show how fragile the sand is: thin vegetation and almost no height above the water. Three days in Baa with a day on the reefs are clearer than a quick pass after Ari.