In August 2021 the official tourism portal highlighted international media coverage of reef protection on Ataúro Island. Communities there are reviving tara bandu, a traditional Timorese system of customary rules on the use of land and sea, to protect the coral reefs around the island while developing community-based tourism.
The coverage was led by a BBC Travel article by Richard Collett, published on 18 May 2021. The headline claim of “the world’s most biodiverse reef” refers to a 2016 Conservation International survey that recorded the highest average number of reef fish species per site of any location it had surveyed.
If you snorkel or dive at Ataúro, follow local rules on protected zones and ask your guide or operator which areas are closed.