Connecting to local communities
The marine team at Six Senses Laamu wants to inspire visiting guests, fellow hosts and local communities by promoting education and awareness of the marine environment. Every day (except Fridays), our marine biologists give a presentation in the Ice Cream Parlor on various conservation topics. Pop in before dinner and find out some exciting facts about manta rays, whales and dolphins, sharks, coral reefs and on sustainability practices.
You may have the opportunity to get involved in ongoing research projects such as restoring seagrass beds, protecting our beautiful manta rays or replanting corals in one of coral nurseries. From May through September it’s turtle hatching season, and you can witness this magical event, which usually occurs during the night.
Six Senses carries out conservation work with communities through education and outreach programs in partnership with the Maldives Underwater Initiative (MUI). Our in-house team includes a Sustainability Manager, Education and Community Outreach Manager and Permaculturalist. They work alongside researchers from three international NGOs: The Olive Ridley Project, Blue Marine Foundation and The Manta Trust.
To build strong relationships with the 11 local islands and to ensure an open dialogue, we invite representatives from the councils, schools, and local police department to the resort regularly to discuss sustainable development. The sessions are called Eku-Eky meetings, which means “together” in the local language of Dhivehi. On the back of this program, we organize events such as an annual sea turtle conservation festival with the Laamu Atoll Police Department, and we support community development projects with our Sustainability Fund.
As part of this fund, fifty percent of water sales in all restaurant outlets goes to providing clean, reliable drinking water to local communities in need. So far we’ve donated a reverse osmosis water plant to the regional hospital, thirty household water filters to a local island and larger water filters to all 25 schools and preschools in the atoll. These provide clean, reliable drinking water to 3,724 students, eliminating 1,360,000 single-use plastic water bottles from schools every year.
Six Senses Laamu employs many Maldivians, with the majority from the islands of Laamu Atoll, and sources many local products such as cadjan coconut leaf roofing woven by local women, local Maldivian coconut oil for the spa, fresh fish caught daily by local fishermen and the zero-waste tuna factory located in Laamu Atoll. We also firmly believe that travel is about people as much as places. That's why you'll get to meet locals performing a traditional drum and dance performance called bodu beru and boat over to nearby islands for a peek into the authentic Maldivian lifestyle.
For more information, please call +960 680 0800 or email reservations-laamu@sixsenses.com.
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