Heightened fears for lowering lands

The Maldives' idyllic, pristine beaches and tropical reefs attract more than half a million tourists to the small Indian Ocean nation every year.

But an unavoidable catastrophe awaits the Muslim nation and its natural beauty: the threat of global climate change and rising sea levels.

An increase in sea levels of 58cm (22.8in), as projected by the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), could see most of the country's 1,192 islands submerged by next century and leaving many of its 369,000 citizens without a homeland.

But locals say the effects of global warming have begun to show already, with the phenomenon likely to damage significantly the nation's key industries - fisheries and tourism - not far into the future.

The atolls of the Maldives are protected by networks of coral reefs which act as a defence against natural phenomena including flooding, tidal surges and erosion.

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