Timor-Leste’s Co-Managemement Model for Marine Protected Areas

Located at the Lesser Sunda Ecoregion of Southeast Asia, Timor-Leste is endowed with extensive coastal and marine resources such as mangrove forests, coral reefs, sea grass, fisheries, and minerals play a vital role as a support system for regional biodiversity and the livelihood of many coastal communities in the country. The coastal communities, such as those from Com, Lautem Municipality rely mainly on fisheries for livelihood and food security. Although the small-scale fisheries they practice in principle are relatively sustainable, the increasing pressure on near-shore fisheries can pose harmful impact on coral reef ecosystem.

The condition of Timor-Leste coastal resource echoes Hardin’s tragedy of common. Hardin’s dramatic tragedy is based on the premise that in open access resource settings such as coastal and marine areas where the costs of extraction is shared between users, there is a tendency of each user group to maximize their benefits from the resource exploitation. Unless regulated, the open access resource will continue to be exploited until it is completely depleted. The proposed solutions to the tragedy were formulated in the private property regime or strict state control. However, extensive research on alternative management strategy supported by accumulated evidence of the success brought the common pool resource (CPR) regime to the fore. They highlighted CPR’s potential in governing terrestrial and marine resource. The application of CPR regime in Timor-Leste marine resource was integrated in the 2009-2013 Coral Triangle Support Partnership (CTSP) project for Marine Protected Area (MPA) funded by USAID (United States Agency for International Development).

Marine Protected Areas in Timor-Leste

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines MPA as “a defined region designated and managed for the long-term conservation of marine resources, ecosystems services, or cultural heritage.” As essential tools for mitigating human impacts upon marine ecosystems and the services they provide, MPA is increasingly promoted on a global scale. MPA and fisheries are linked through the common avenue of spatial-temporal fishing management approach such as “No Take Zones”.

Efforts to establish MPAs in Timor-Leste started in 2008 in Com as part of managing the country’s first national park, Nino Konis Santana, which encompasses both marine and terrestrial components. The CTSP project started with the establishment of zoning areas in Com that is part of NKS park’s 586 km2 of marine area (1.3% of the national EEZ). A 2012 Marine Rapid Assessment Program (MRAP) in Com conducted by Conservation International (CI) describes the seagrass bed and sighting of large numbers of shark species, new fish records and a range of invertebrates. Furthermore, it is common to spot diverse megafauna assemblages along the coast of Com during the annual migration season between April and November.

CI’s work in Com has paved the way for more management of MPA zonings in many sites that meet the ecological criteria and where there is approval from local authorities and communities. To date, Timor-Leste has officially declared two MPAs in Batugade (Bobonaro) and Atauro (Díli) with a total area of 163 Ha. Two new MPAs are currently being developed in the south coast between Betano (Manufahi) and Natarbora (Manatuto) with a total area of 50,000. In addition, there exists eight Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) in Lautem (Com, Tutuala, and Jaco) and Atauro Municipality with a total area of 2,747 Ha. An LMMA differs from MPA in that the former is only locally declared while the latter has supported by diploma ministerial officially declared by Government. Due to this minor difference, the blog is usig the term interchangeably.

Co-management model for MPAs

Establishing MPA also requires the design of institutions that govern relationships and distribution of functions between actors in the system. Based on the series of events that unfolded during the implementation of the CTSP in Timor-Leste, there were strong indications of the need to adopt a non-hierarchical and non-privatized management system. Ultimately, it resulted in the formulation of co-management system between the Government of Timor-Leste (GoTL) and communities/resource users. The first MPA co-management system was officially declared in 2013 in Com, Tutuala, and Jaco.

Co-management models have the tendency to incentivizes resource users to husband their resources, to make investments in resource quality and to manage them sustainably and efficiently. The local leadership aspect of MPA co-management system has its root on the national program of decentralization. The enactment of the relevant Decree Laws on decentralization and competency of local leaders paved the way to community-based development approaches such co-management of natural resources. Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) approach is embedded in co-management’s broader governance context.

MPA co-management involves a wide-range of actors from local and national institutions. At the local level, there are actors who collaborate with their partners (local and international organizations) to mobilize local resources and implement MPAs activities in each site such as identifying resources, mapping and zoning exercise, setting rules, rules enforcement and monitoring, and sanctioning. The CI’s co-management guidelines for MPAs identifies suco council members, municipality fisheries officers, fishers, traditional leaders and resource stewards, including youth and women, as the main actors who were involved in MPA works in NKS park.

Perhaps one of the strongest features of MPAs co-management is the consolidation of formal system with the customary management systems. As a customary system that prohibits access to and extraction of common-pool resource, the contemporary use of tara bandu has been useful in natural resource management policies. The ability of MPA co-management to capture and internalize this cultural element nurtures a strong sense of ownership and reinforces co-management institution’s legitimacy. In the CTSP program, Community members, under the guidance of suco council and local conservation group, designed their own tarabandu rules and regulations and sanctions. The same process was replicated during the process of establishing the MPAs in Atauro and Batugade. Moreover, it is the community members themselves who voluntarily enforce and monitor the tara bandu in their MPA.