A new initiative has been launched to encourage the Ascension community to look after our local beaches and protect important nesting habitat for green turtles.

Five beach cleaning stations have been installed across the island, supported by a number of employing organisations:

• Long Beach Nature Reserve beach hut
• Pan Am Nature Reserve beach hut
• North East Nature Reserve beach hut
• Turtle Shell Beach (TSB) beach hut
• English Bay

This initiative invites people to take meaningful action against litter and plastic pollution, making use of the stations and litter pickers provided to care for our natural environment. Bins are available in all of these locations for any litter collected and cigarette bins are in all beach huts to encourage safe disposal of cigarette products.

The stations were sourced from ‘The 2 Minute Foundation’, a charity inspiring people to clean up beaches and other natural places using a #2MinuteLitterPick campaign. The charity has deployed 1400 stations across the UK and Ireland with each station made responsibly from recycled materials.

The 2-minute beach clean stations were funded through the Ascension Island Marine Protected Area Community Trust (AIMPACT) fund. The AIMPACT fund is facilitated by the Blue Marine Foundation, backing projects that support conservation, innovation and community benefit.

AIG Conservation and Fisheries Directorate

4 November 2025