The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
1
is a small country of roughly 15,000km², which the
Swedish reader can visualize as the combined size of the counties, Skåne and Blekinge. Timor-Leste is
located on the Eastern part of the island of Timor, between Indonesia and Australia, and populated by
about 1,200,000 people2
(DNE3
, 2014). After nearly 500 years of Portuguese colonization and 24 years
of bloody struggle under the Indonesian occupation, the nation finally re-gained independence in 2002
after the 1999 referendum (GoTL, 2014). I arrived in the Land of the Rising Sun (Timor Lorosae), as it
is also called, shortly after a turning point in the country’s history: the end of 13 years of peacekeeping
operations under the 1999-2002 United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET)
and the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT), which left on December 31st 2012.
After the independence, the newest nation in Asia was not only faced with the colossal task of
rebuilding the entire country –from infrastructure to institutions and governance– but also with finding
ways to promote peace-building and support the population on their way out of income poverty, among
other forms of vulnerabilities. Upon the departure of UNMIT, Timor-Leste had already achieved
tremendous changes, but to this day, still faces significant challenges to achieve the country’s vision of
becoming a middle income country by 2030, as outlined in the Government of Timor-Leste’s (GoTL)
Strategic Development Plan (SDP) 2011-2030 (GoTL, 2010).
As the country gradually became more stable, both the GoTL and international organisations have
been increasingly shifting parts of their portfolio from peace-building and state-building to economic
development and environmental sustainability (including disaster risk management). The growing focus
on the environment can be explained by the recognition of its intrinsic links with the lives of Timorese
people. It can be viewed as a source of livelihood, particularly through agriculture, and as a source of
vulnerabilities through natural disasters and the impacts of climate change.
The local government was quick to recognize the importance of the environment for the development
of the country. This can be illustrated by its accession to three major international environmental
agreements within five years of independence: the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (2003),
the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (2006) and the Convention on Biological Diversity
(2007). These were then followed by the Kyoto and Montreal Protocols as well as the Vienna
Convention (2009).