The Science of Conservation and the Power of Passing It On: Four Seasons Resorts Maldives Honoured with HICAP Sustainable Hotel Award

Four Seasons Resorts Maldives has won the 2026 Sustainable Hotel Award for Biodiversity Action & Education from Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP). The award recognises 25 years of conservation, research and training at Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Huraa (since May 1998) and Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru (since November 2006).

Winners are selected by an expert judging panel for innovative sustainability practices that can be replicated across Asia Pacific. The Biodiversity Action & Education category emphasises measurable conservation and practical learning. Four Seasons Resorts Maldives was recognised for connecting sustained conservation and scientific advances with hands-on learning for guests, local schoolchildren and young Maldivians.

The resorts’ Reefscapers partnership, launched at Kuda Huraa in 2001, encompasses more than 9,000 coral frames across one of the Indian Ocean’s largest artificial reef restoration projects. Decades of monitoring have supported peer-reviewed, AI-assisted research into coral survival, informing restoration methods as environmental pressures increase. Corals on mature frames now reproduce naturally, while spawning and larval-settlement research advances methods to repopulate damaged reefs and increase diversity.

That research also supports practical conservation education. Since 2023, Landaa has hosted the Baa Atoll Marine Biology Internship Programme, a three-stage, three-year initiative introducing students across the atoll to marine science.

Furthermore, the resorts’ government-accredited Apprenticeship Programme has produced 1,058 Maldivian graduates since 2001 and currently offers 14 career pathways, including Marine Conservation. A new, fully funded four-year Marine and Environmental Science apprenticeship with Maldives National University combines academic study with fieldwork at both Kuda Huraa and Landaa Giraavaru. The pathway progresses towards a bachelor’s degree.

“This award belongs to the people who keep doing the work,” says Armando Kraenzlin, Regional Vice President and General Manager. “Our marine biologists, conservation partners, gardeners and trainers turn years of experience into knowledge others can use. Guests and young Maldivians contribute too, learning alongside our teams and helping carry that work forward.”

Science that informs action

Marine Savers, the resorts’ conservation programme, operates from Marine Discovery Centres at Kuda Huraa and Landaa Giraavaru, working with long-term partners including Reefscapers and The Manta Trust.

Reefscapers achieved a Maldives first by collecting coral reproductive cells in the wild, then fertilising them and settling larvae under controlled conditions. During severe bleaching in 2024, teams relocated 28,000 corals to deeper, cooler waters.

The Turtle Rehabilitation Centres at Kuda Huraa and Landaa Giraavaru have cared for over 500 sea turtles. To date, of the many injured by ghost fishing nets carried into Maldivian waters by wider Indian Ocean currents, more than 280 have been released.

Both resorts also support manta research, with studies by Landaa’s onsite Manta Trust scientists identifying the world’s largest-known reef manta population. Their research contributed to Baa Atoll’s designation as the Maldives’ first UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 2011.

Learning through participation

Guest coral sponsorship funds restoration, with guests transplanting fragments alongside marine biologists and following their development on MarineSavers.com.

Marine Discovery Centres connect guests and local schoolchildren with this conservation work. At Kuda Huraa, the Junior Marine Savers introduces younger children to ocean conservation through hands-on marine discovery activities. Landaa’s one-to-one Trainee Marine Biologist Programme gives teenagers practical experience across six specialist modules, while garden tours connect cultivation with food, wellness and composting.

All of the resorts' research, field reports and findings are shared with the Maldives wider resort community, students, researchers and a global audience via MarineSavers.com. The Reefscapers programme’s selection as a World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance case study further extends its relevance to the hospitality industry.

For more information and ways to participate in award-winning biodiversity conservation and education at Four Seasons Resorts Maldives, visit MarineSavers.com or contact the Resorts at reservations.mal@fourseasons.com or call +960 66 00 888.