The objective of the Environmental Management Project is to provide the Republic of Maldives with the capacity to effectively manage environmental risks and threats to fragile coral reefs as well as marine habitats resulting from tourism development, increased solid waste disposal, fisheries and global climate change. There are four components to the project. The first component is the regional solid waste management program. Solid waste is the most visible environmental threat to the tourism and fishery industries. In a recent survey, solid waste was identified as the most important environmental issue by 24 percent of respondents. The management of solid waste is especially challenging in the Maldives, even more so than other small island states. With a population spread across numerous islands, there is little scope for harnessing economies of scale. Thus, the costs of service delivery are high. The second component is the capacity building for environmental management. The project is designed to at least partly fill the staffing gaps and capacity needs as they relate to the Project itself. It is apparent that it would be nearly impossible to build a large, permanent cadre of environmental specialists with a reach extending over the entire archipelago and across all sectors. The third component is the technical assistance for strengthened environmental management and monitoring and a pilot regional strategic environmental assessment. The primary objective of this component is to expand the knowledge base regarding critical natural resources on which the Maldives ecosystem and economy depend. Recognizing that there are insufficient resources in the project envelope to fill all the information gaps, this component selectively targets issues and information gaps where assistance is most urgently needed and promotes activities designed to stimulate discussions and poli