Building sustainable landscapes and local livelihoods through community forestry in Timor-Leste
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Agriculture, forests, and livestock sectors contribute to the livelihoods of more than 70 percent of the rural population in Timor-Leste. Forests play a significant role to keep the hilly landscape intact, conserve biodiversity, and support income generation and enterprises development. Studies revealed that there is an increasing trend of deforestation, and degradation in Timor-Leste posing significant threats, including those on climate change, food security and survival of local communities. Forest Resource Assessment (FRA), 2020 shows that the forest areas declined from 0.96 mha in 1990 to 0.92 mha in 2020, and this trend has been accelerating very fast. At present, 67 percent of the forests and forestlands in Timor-Leste are under private (largely customary) and 33 percent under public ownership. Management of customary forests and agricultural land is commonly governed by customary institutions such as tara bandu and recognised by the Laws on General Regime of Forests (2017). The Law stipulates that community forestry is the main strategy for implementing the national forest policy. The Government has recognised the role of local people in conservation of watershed, reforestation, generating income and employment through forest-based enterprises. Furthermore, the Government is committed to devolve legal rights to local communities necessary for protection, management and utilisation of forest resources under community forestry.
Against this backdrop, as a part of the community forestry technical cooperation program (TCP) to Timor-Leste, FAO has been supporting community-based forestry,and forest tenure assessment in the country using recently developed global frameworks. In addition, community forestry will be further strengthened through enabling legal framework such as forestry law and community forestry strategy. This paper shares the results, and lessons learned so far obtained from the project and draws outlines on future implications for community forestry for building sustainable landscapes and livelihoods in Timor-Leste.
Key words: community forestry; Timor-Leste; forest policies; tenure; customary rule
ID: 3485599