Status: Blue Ventures still works in Timor-Leste, but the volunteer diving expeditions it once ran on Atauro were suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic and replaced by a community-led approach. We could not confirm that any expedition places are open to visitors (checked October 2026). Contact Blue Ventures before you plan around it.
Blue Ventures is an international marine conservation organisation. Its Timor-Leste programme began on Atauro Island and now works with communities on the island and the mainland, with a team in Dili that works with government and civil society partners.
What it does
- Supports community-managed marine areas and local reef monitoring
- Helped set up Timor-Leste’s first homestay association on Atauro, which earns income from visiting ecotourists
- Before 2020 it ran volunteer expeditions on Atauro in which participants learned to dive and collected reef survey data. These are no longer advertised.
Blue Ventures is not a dive shop or tour operator. To dive on Atauro, use a dive operator; to support community tourism there, consider a local homestay.
Contact
- Website: Blue Ventures: Timor-Leste