Outline of the Project

Project name

Project for Community-based Sustainable Natural Resource Management

Country

TIMOR-Leste

Date R/D singed

Aug.23, 2010

Project Site

Dili, Laclo River Basin, Comoro River Basin

Term of Cooperation

2010/12～2015/10

Implementing Organization

National Directorate of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery

The background of the Programme

Between 1972 and 1999, the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste had reduced its forest cover at a rate of 1.1% per annum or 24% of total forests. At present, the forest cover of the country is expected to share only about 35% (or 0.5 million ha) of the total land of the country. It is reported that the deforestation have been caused mainly by i) wildfires, ii) intensive fuel wood collection, iii) shifting cultivation and iv) uncontrolled illegal logging. Deforestation has further caused soil erosion, landslides, flash floods and inflow of sedimentation into rivers, and eventually affected the people's life in river basins.

Considering the situation where many crucial watersheds in the country have progressively degraded due to constant deforestation, the Government stated in the Forestry Policy in 2007 that the Government should restore and conserve watersheds, especially 10 critically degraded watersheds in the country in a sustainable manner.

Nevertheless, it is still difficult for MAF/NDF to take necessary action for proper watersheds and forest management in the country due to the insufficient legislative set-ups related to forest and watershed management, limited number of stuffs and limited experience in watershed management to name a few.

Under the circumstances, a development study on community-based integrated watersheds management in Laclo and Comoro river vasin was launched in November 2005 with the technical and financial assistance of Japan International Cooperation Agency to develop a model of watershed management plan application to the country.

Although NDF and MAF have been working with the JICA Study Team in preparing an integrated watershed management plan and implementing some of the sub-programs in the course of the Study, they still need to enhance their capacities in order for them to manage the critical watershed in a sustainable manner.

Overall Goal

Community-based sustainable natural resource management (CB-NRM) is practiced in the target area.

Programme Purpose

An operational mechanism of CR-NRM at suco level is developed.

Outputs

1. Land use plans are agreed upon and implemented by local residents in accordance with relevant suco regulations.
2. Capacities of the staff of the implementing agency and relevant stakeholders are enhanced to support CB-NRM.
3. Effective processes with roles of stakeholders to support CB-NRM are indentified.

Activities

Inputs

Japanese Site:

• Dispatch of experts
  • a. Chief adviser
  • b. Administrative Coordinator
  • c. Experts in the relevant fields as:
    • * Participatory Natural Resource Management
    • * Agro-forestry/Sloping Agriculture
    • * soil and Water Conservation
    • * Forestry
• Training of counterpart personnel in Japan and/or the 3rd country
• Machinery and equipment
  • *Vehicle(s)
  • *Computer(s)
  • *Machinery, equipment and materials for CB-NRM and training actives
• Operational cost (when needs arise)

Timor-Lest Site

• Project Director
• Project Manager
• Counterpart Office at NDF-MAF
• Operational costs