Of the four atoll countries in the world, the Maldives has the lowest average elevation. Therefore, it is likely to be the first country to lose its land when the sea level rises due to climate change. As a countermeasure to sea level rise, the government of the Maldives is constructing an artificial island called Hulhumale by raising an atoll adjacent to the capital city of Male. Other atoll countries may employ the same method to adapt to the anticipated sea level rise. There is a concern that people who are forced to relocate to the artificial island will be affected in various ways. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify measures to reduce the potential impacts of migration to artificial islands. This study aimed to identify factors that will work effectively to satisfy migrants from outside the Male region to Hulhumale. At this stage, sea level rise is not a motivating factor for migration to Hulhumale. For the time being, enhancing high-income employment and high-level education in Hulhumale, which are the main motivations for migration, will help sustain voluntary migration. Over the past two decades, rapid economic growth has changed the desire of Maldivians. Hulhumale is attracting people with its new urban environment and employment opportunities. A small-scale questionnaire survey on the satisfaction level of post-migration life was conducted among the residents of Hulhumale and the results showed that those who changed their jobs before and after migration were less satisfied with their migration than those who did not. In Hulhumale, smart cities are being developed and new types of employment are being created. In order to facilitate the smooth migration of residents from remote islands, policies that focus on occupational changes before and after migration are needed, such as public job placement programs that enable migrants to find the same jobs that they had before migration, and job training programs that prepare them for career changes and enable them to adapt smoothly to new jobs. At present, mental health issues among migrants are not a major problem. Strengthening people-to-people networks through the use of information technology (IT) will contribute to smooth migration and resettlement.
Simple Summary The globalization of trade and travel, in combination with climate change, have resulted in the geographical expansion of mosquito-borne diseases. Moreover, over-reliance on chemical pesticides to control mosquitoes has resulted in resistance, which threatens the management of disease risk. We show, for the first time, that mosquito traps baited with human odors, in combination with controlling mosquito larvae in breeding sites, resulted in the near elimination of mosquito populations on two small islands, and the elimination of Aedes mosquitoes for 6+ months on a third island, in the Maldives. The levels of control achieved are comparable to current genetic control methods that are far more costly and impractical for implementation on small islands. The approach presented here poses the first alternative in decades to manage mosquito-borne disease risk on small (tropical) islands in an affordable and environmentally friendly manner. Globally, environmental impacts and insecticide resistance are forcing pest control organizations to adopt eco-friendly and insecticide-free alternatives to reduce the risk of mosquito-borne diseases, which affect millions of people, such as dengue, chikungunya or Zika virus. We used, for the first time, a combination of human odor-baited mosquito traps (at 6.0 traps/ha), oviposition traps (7.2 traps/ha) and larval source management (LSM) to practically eliminate populations of the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus (peak suppression 93.0% (95% CI 91.7-94.4)) and the Southern house mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus (peak suppression 98.3% (95% CI 97.0-99.5)) from a Maldivian island (size: 41.4 ha) within a year and thereafter observed a similar collapse of populations on a second island (size 49.0 ha; trap densities 4.1/ha and 8.2/ha for both trap types, respectively). On a third island (1.6 ha in size), we increased the human odor-baited trap density to 6.3/ha and then to 18.8/ha (combined with LSM but without oviposition traps), after which the Aedes mosquito population was eliminated within 2 months. Such suppression levels eliminate the risk of arboviral disease transmission for local communities and safeguard tourism, a vital economic resource for small island developing states. Terminating intense insecticide use (through fogging) benefits human and environmental health and restores insect biodiversity, coral reefs and marine life in these small and fragile island ecosystems. Moreover, trapping poses a convincing alternative to chemical control and reaches impact levels comparable to contemporary genetic control strategies. This can benefit numerous communities and provide livelihood options in small tropical islands around the world where mosquitoes pose both a nuisance and disease threat.
