Landing on the mangroves. The impact of an airport on coconut rope makers’ lives in the Maldives

Journal title RIVISTA GEOGRAFICA ITALIANA
Author/s Beatrice Ruggeri, Alice Salimbeni, Stefano Malatesta, Marcella Schmidt di Friedberg
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2025/4
Language Italian Pages 21 P. 67-87 File size 0 KB
DOI 10.3280/rgioa4-2025oa21684
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In this article, we analyze the construction of an airport on the island of Kulhudhuffushi, in the north of the Maldives, and the consequent destruction of one of the largest mangrove forests in the country as an emblematic example of the uneven and gendered effects of infrastructure policy. The replacement of the mangrove swamp with the airport has compromised the lives of the island’s women coir rope makers, who relied on the wetland for their work. This has led to economic loss and the destabilization of women’s infrastructure. Through a feminist approach and a focus on the everyday experience, we highlight how, in this case, the infrastructural development had irreversibly transformed island ecologies and socio-economic dynamics, strengthening pre-existing vulnerabilities.

Keywords: infrastructures, women, land reclamation, mangroves, feminist geography, Maldives.

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Beatrice Ruggeri, Alice Salimbeni, Stefano Malatesta, Marcella Schmidt di Friedberg, Atterrare in un mangrovieto. L’impatto di un aeroporto sulla vita delle fabbricanti di corde di cocco alle Maldive in "RIVISTA GEOGRAFICA ITALIANA" 4/2025, pp 67-87, DOI: 10.3280/rgioa4-2025oa21684