Shaahina Ali, the Executive Director of Parley Maldives, has been named a 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for her unwavering commitment to protecting the marine environment of the Maldives and leading a nationwide movement against plastic pollution.
The Maldives, often portrayed as a tropical paradise, has faced worsening waste and plastic pollution in recent years, threatening its marine ecosystem and economy. Ali, a diver and photojournalist, witnessed this destruction firsthand and in 2015 partnered with Parley for the Oceans to launch Parley Maldives.
Under her leadership, Parley has championed the “Avoid, Intercept, Redesign (AIR)” strategy, mobilizing island communities, schools, and businesses. To date, the initiative has organized more than 700 coastal cleanups, established plastic interception sites in dozens of communities, and worked with over 70 schools to embed environmental education.
Ali has also collaborated with government agencies to push policies addressing waste management and climate change, stressing that “everything is connected to the sea.” For her, the Maldives’ unique geography—99% water and just 1% land—is both a challenge and an opportunity to showcase resilience.
In honoring Ali, the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation recognized her as a quiet yet powerful force who turned crisis into action and inspired a new generation of Maldivians to protect their environment. Her vision, she says, is simple: “I clean up with hope—that my grandchildren will see whales in the ocean in their lifetime as I did growing up.”