Our mission
Ekipa Tasi Mos Atauro’s mission is:
To remove marine debris from the waters and beaches that surround Atauro. To record the marine debris onto the Australian Marine Debris Initiatives database (AMDI). To assist the community, business and government in reducing their
use of single-use plastics. To build a community recycling plant to process some of the marine
debris. To enhance the locally managed marine areas (14 in total). In 2016 clean up sites were set up on the AMDI database for volunteers to record their marine debris findings, with most of the clean up action happening at Beloi Village on the east coast of Atauro. Bernadette Davis trained local business operators and locally based NGO
Blue Ventures in the use of the AMDI system. These regular clean ups have now grown to include local and international schools, researchers, tourists and other villages on Atauro.
During 2017 Ekipa Tasi Mos concentrated on up-skilling the community on beach clean ups and recording that information onto the AMDI database.
In 2018: After a generous donation of land and resources from Barry’s Place Eco Lodge, a premise to house the recycling station was built. We commissioned Anna Kearey to design a logo for Ekipa Tasi Mos – Atauro and set about ‘branding’ our organisation using ideals from community based social marketing expert Doug McKenzie-Mohr.
Youth Ambassadors Micky and Mardy Hinton doing a beach clean up. In the photo on the left the plastic was collected just outside Barry's place Eco Lodge on the beach, which from the end of the Barry's Place property is 250 metres in length. The data from this beach clean up was recorded and registered onto the Australian Marine Debris Initiative Database.