Living in harmony at Zighy Bay
At Six Senses resort in Oman, sustainability runs through our veins. Concretely, this means caring for the environment and looking after our local community while promoting the rich cultural heritage of Oman schools, hospitals and infrastructure. Since the beginning, we have involved hosts, villagers, the local municipality and also our guests in numerous activities including tree planting, enabling access to education for women and regular ocean and beach clean-ups. Our main focus when it comes to our operations are Plastic Free, Zero Waste, Energy Conservation and Organic Farming. In total, 80 percent of our organic and glass waste is recycled or upcycled on site, more than 80 percent of all single use plastic has been removed, and 18.3 percent of the resort’s energy and 37 percent of water was saved in 2023 compared to our baseline year. We produce our own bottled water via reverse osmosis and the salt water, which is filtered out during the process, is used in our saltwater pool, the largest in the Middle East! Where possible, the resort sources as locally as possible so you will often see our Chefs down at the Dibba fish market at dawn, providing a living to locals and unparalleled freshness to what's on your plate. Our Earth Lab is named after Earth to celebrate our home and source of all life, and Lab for experimentation, innovation and exploration. Join us in our activities and participate with us in reaching our sustainability goals. We also communicate work happening off site, for example marine conservation and community development during one of your visits. All you have to do is make an appointment and drop by. Six Senses Zighy Bay is surrounded by a variety of trees and plants that create an oasis among the desert mountains. To date, we have counted more than 5,000 trees (feel free to double check!) including date palms, fruit trees, native and ornamental trees, irrigated entirely with recycled grey water from the resort. The resort also houses an on-site organic garden and showcases some of the best organic farming practices on our Dibba farm. This means fresh farm-to-fork vegetables and fruits, organic cheese and organic eggs. We hope can taste the difference!
Environmental Responsibility
Our environmental projects include creating a marine protected area on the Musandam Peninsula and mainland Oman, while raising awareness on sustainable fishing practices amongst the local community.
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Sea Turtles & Marine Conservation
Zighy Bay is home to many marine species, including the endangered Green Turtle. In collaboration with Olive Ridley Project, we research the local population of sea turtles, their habitat use, and their residency in our bay. But to fully protect this species, we must eliminate one of their largest threats, trash and discarded or lost fishing gear floating at sea, known as ‘ghost nets’. In partnership with the Ministry of Environment, our team successfully removed 11 ghost nets and 1,000 kilograms of trash from the ocean in 2023. Guests and local community members are invited to learn about the marine life during snorkeling trips or turtle talks by our on-site marine biologist, or by joining one of our regular beach clean-ups. 13 green turtles and 83 rays were successfully released by our marine biologist while monitoring bycatch with our neighbor fishermen when pulling their nets back on shore.
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Animal Welfare
Goats are an integral part of the local Omani culture and found everywhere. Zighy Bay is no exception. 11 small farms account for an approximate 685 Zighy goats, roaming around freely in the bay and mountains. In 2022, the infamous foot and mouth disease largely impacted our neighbor's goats population. To aid the local farmers, Six Senses Zighy Bay donated vitamins and antibiotics, resulting in rapid improvements. Since then, a large-scale yearly vaccination was organized for all the Zighy Goats in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture. Their favorite food are Neem tree leaves. Feel free to give them a treat during your next visit!
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Coral Restoration Program
Six Sense Zighy Bay is fortunate to have access to many secluded reefs surrounding in the local area, including one right on our doorstep, our ‘house reef’. Unfortunately, in previous years, this reef has sustained some damage from a significant storm; however, it is showing some great signs of natural recovery! To help it along the way, we started a project in early 2023 to replenish the coral population.
During the first year, 57 hotel guests and hosts and 25 members of the local Environment Authority placed 522 coral fragments back on the house reef that had naturally broken off from their parent colonies at our nearby dive sites. Based on our monthly monitoring since September 2023, the corals have shown significant growth, a promising sign that they have adapted and are thriving in their new home. We have noted are also providing a new home to numerous fish.
The ultimate goal of this venture is to re-introduce species of coral previously present on the reef, with the hope that they reach maturity, spawn, and repopulate the entire reef to become a renewed self-sustaining ecosystem.
Social Responsibility
Our goal is to generate positive social changes within the local community. Our projects aim to equip the next generation of Omani citizens with the adequate knowledge and skills to face the challenges of climate change in the region, and emancipate women, helping them to develop their entrepreneurship spirit.
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Zighy Village
In 2019, the resort supported the local hospital in Dibba by building a new radiology unit. In addition to that, we provide basic medical necessities for villagers; we help fund costly equipment such as hearing aids and we also offer financial support for particular medical cases.
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Women's access to education
We support Zighy Village and local schools in the neighboring township of Dibba, both in monetary contributions, in kind, and in supervising longer-term education and social projects. Examples include hiring a full-time teacher to assist two local schools, infrastructure funding and strategic aid to support the education of students at the local Girl’s School, Sakina Bent Al Hussein, and at the local Dibba School. We also sponsor programs and activities that improve women's equality, we support their mission to upgrade their skills and therefore their future prospects, while giving them new sustainable tools to raise awareness within their families and communities.
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Locally sourced
When we can't grow it or raise it ourselves, wherever possible, the resort sources produce as locally as possible to limit our food miles. In fact, you’ll often see the resort's chefs down at Dibba fish market at dawn. Not only does sourcing locally provide a living to locals, but it’s also good for the environment and helps us bring unparalleled freshness to our guest’s plates.
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Supporting Zighy Villagers to Gain Income
Since its early beginnings, the resort has been very active in supporting the Zighy Village, from building new houses, to creating the road access or the Mosque in the village. In addition to financial support, the resort also has multiple initiatives aimed towards assisting the local villagers to gain a reliable and sustainable income themselves. These include the Zighy Training Program, a 2-year training program to providing skills and experience to local fishers to diversity their income with training in all hotel departments, and a Special Needs Project, assisting Zighy villagers with hearing impairments to communicate and gain jobs suited for their abilities.
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Women’s Economic Independence
We work closely with the Dibba Women Association – managed by local women for women – which runs a preschool for children aged 3 to 7 years old and in addition offers a place for social gathering for local women. Instead of limiting our involvement to only cash donations, a program was implemented to help the association become financially independent. Together, we created a new guest activity “Sense of Oman, through a Woman’s Eyes”. Guests can visit the association for an immersive experience in the Omani culture and try all kinds of different local handcrafting activities lead by the local women. 100 percent of the profits return to the Association to improve their facilities. Additional donations from our guests enabled them to create a new sustainable playground for the children. Get involved and visit the Association that is so meaningful to many women and children in Dibba.
