About us
Who we are
Sana Mare is an international environmental organisation that works to protect the oceans. Our focus is on combating the discharge of civilisation’s waste into the ocean. Poverty is the biggest environmental toxin. In developing countries in Africa and Asia, we therefore combine our efforts to protect the ocean with the reduction of poverty.
We are organised as an association. The association was founded in 2020 by oceanographer and climate scientist Lucas Schmitz. We do not strive for profit, but to maximise environmental protection. If you identify with the goals of our association, you are very welcome as a member.
“Raising ocean-protectionists of tomorrow”
What makes Sana Mare unique
Help for nature and people
There are many associations and groups that regularly collect rubbish. These are mostly campaigns by wealthy citizens in industrialised nations who collect rubbish in their cities. We, on the other hand, facilitate clean-up campaigns where they are most needed and take place the least – in poor countries in co-operation with people living in poverty. The participants receive fair compensation for their efforts. In this way, we combine environmental protection with the fight against poverty.
Organisation structure
There are already companies that collect waste in developing countries. These are mostly profit-oriented companies that pursue a business model with a profit motive by collecting and processing civilisation waste. We are a non-profit organisation. We do not strive for profit but to maximise environmental protection. The members decide the fate of the organisation.
Our Motivation
Once we had an ocean full of life, with a great biodiversity. But when industrialization started in the early 20th century, mankind began to take all the resources, pollute the ocean and destroy habitats without thinking about the consequences. In a few decades we destroyed what took millions of years to develop.
By now we have taken over 90% of the large fishes, stubbed 70% of all mangroves, heated up the ocean by 1°C, dissolved millions of tons of carbon dioxide and discarded millions of tons of plastic in the ocean.
This and many other human-made changes destroy the marine ecosystem. They will eventually kill the ocean.
All life on earth is depending on a healthy ocean, because it produces half of the oxygen we breathe, regulates the climate on our planet and offers food and nutrients for billions of animals and people.
We must stop overfishing, pollution, ocean acidification and all the other changes on which the ocean is suffering.
If the ocean dies, the earth will die. There will be nothing left except a dead planet.
Our individual choices can inspire global values, that will eventually lead to a global change. That’s why we start with cleaning and education.
Our objectives
Sana Mare’s goal is to reduce the amount of civilisation’s waste entering the ocean. We cannot reverse decades of destruction and pollution. We cannot save the oceans with our actions alone. Such a goal or even promise would be utopian and unrealisable. But we can start to promote a more sustainable use of the ocean. We can do our best to prevent further damage to the ecosystem. That’s why we want to make it possible for everyone to get involved in environmental protection in a simple and safe way. Our goal is to organise at least 365 clean-ups per year in the future. We also want to raise awareness of environmental pollution. We want to reduce poverty in developing countries to enable ecological social change. We also want to promote ecological change in the economy.
In order to achieve our goals, we are dependent on sponsors. Every donation to support our organisation brings us a step closer to achieving our goals.
Friends and Partners
