Urbanizing Coastal Areas Facing Environmental Challenges: the Case of Timor-Leste

Unlike in Thailand and Indonesia, where tourism activity developed between 1950 and 1970 and is characterised by a significant number of major tourist resorts, in Timor-Leste, the number of international tourists is still limited. The country's official independence only dates back to 2002, and it has no tourist hubs other than Dili, the national capital. Despite these differences, we felt it would be interesting to include the country in the regional study for comparative purposes. This case study analyses the orientations and governance methods used to conciliate tourism development and environmental preservation in the context of an emerging economy. Could Timor-Leste, a "young" country, have become a laboratory for sustainable development? Despite notable initiatives, the observations and conclusions of this study show significant weaknesses in these areas, in addition to revealing a lack of environmental risk culture, linked to deficiencies in the education sector. Many of these findings are nevertheless common to other South-East Asian coastal resorts or cities, often to a much greater extent given the scale of their population densities and tourist flows (Cabasset, Couteau, Picard, 2017; Peyronnie, Goldblum, Sisoulath, 2017; Sheng and Thuzar, 2012). In all three countries, however, the way local governance Understood as both the relationship between central and local governments, planning agencies, and other institutions, the delimitation of the perimeter of responsibilities, as well as the inclusion or not of key stakeholders. is expressed in a given space has emerged as a key factor, as the urbanism methods and the relation to the environment may differ greatly from one place to another.

With a total area of nearly 15,000 km² and a population of approximately 1.3 million, Timor-Leste shares the island of Timor with West Timor, which is part of Indonesia. Formerly a Portuguese colony (from the 16th century to 1975) and subsequently an Indonesian colony (1975-1999), the country gained its official independence on 20 May 2002. Since then, it has faced multiple challenges in national development. Despite significant progress in the social sphere with the introduction of free and universal basic education, free access to public health facilities, as well as a pension and social security system, 30.3% of the total population (in 2011) lives below the international poverty line (41.8% if the national poverty line is considered). Ever since independence, tourism has been identified as one of the priority areas for development. However, the country's late arrival on the international tourism scene, particularly in comparison with most other South-East Asian countries, combined with the poor efforts devoted to this sector, explains a certain "delay" in tourist flows and infrastructure. The national capital, Dili (276,000 inhabitants in the municipality according to the 2015 census, 230,000 to 250,000 inhabitants in the urban area), by far the main centre – urban, political, economic, commercial, academic, tourist, etc.–, plays a major role in national development. By contrast, the rest of the country is predominantly rural, with the vast majority of the population living off agriculture – often subsistence and livestock farming – and small coastal fishery.

Atauro Island is renowned for its local fishing activity, including underwater fishing. Mountainous, very lightly urbanised, with beautiful beaches and numerous diving sites, and accessible by boat from Dili in 1 to 3 hours, the island is a favourite destination for Dili residents and tourists. The hotel sector consists mainly of “local” architecture, with ecolodges (accommodation that puts ecology at the centre of their activity) and guesthouses, allowing a maximum capacity of about 40 people, plus a few campsites. The coastline has been the target of land speculation for several years. The tourism development plan commissioned by the ZEESM authorities in 2015-2017 considered the development of beach tourism in two main locations – which currently lack tourism infrastructure - in the north and north-west of the island, while local or community tourism was to be developed in other locations that already had experience in this field. However, little has changed since then, except for the extension of the coastal road from Beloi to Bikeli and beyond (for which construction is underway), and the island remains severely lacking in services (electricity, water and sanitation, transport, internet, etc.).

Although no less aesthetically pleasing (the arrival by boat or plane is quite spectacular), Oecussi attracts far fewer tourists due to its isolation, its distance from Dili, and poor tourist facilities. With the poverty rate in the region being well above the national average, the ZEESM aims to make it an attractive area, both in terms of population and investment, betting on its proximity to West Timor and Indonesia. Regional governance has proven to be effective, as shown by the infrastructure completed (or planned and underway) since 2015, particularly in the sub-district and especially in the "city" of Pante Makassar.

With very little industry and road traffic outside of Dili, Timor-Leste enjoys a natural environment, both on land and at sea, that is often described as "unspoilt". Nevertheless, the country, which has a 783 km long coastline including coral reefs and mangroves, faces many environmental challenges. These are related to climate change and hydro-meteorological events, but also to anthropogenic pressure, especially in Dili.

Although the country is, at present, not affected by tsunamis and volcanism, of which ancient traces are visible, it is still subject to seismic risk. Nevertheless, due to its geographical position in the intertropical region, its tropical dry climate and its monsoon season, the main hazards it faces are by far hydrometeorological in nature, with alternating droughts (and associated fires) and sudden, violent rainfall causing pluvial and fluvial flooding and landslides. These episodes are exacerbated by the recurrence of the El Niño / ENSO phenomenon, which also affects neighbouring countries and more widely the intertropical regions. In addition to these general climatic conditions, there is a very marked contrast between the mountainous areas, particularly in the centre of the country, where they can reach 3,000 metres and are marked by abundant rainfall, and the warmer and much drier coastal areas, particularly on the northern side (Durand, 2002). The three areas studied share the same climatic conditions: a long dry season (more than six or seven months) and no more than five months of rainfall, with, moreover, great variability from one year to the next. Their vulnerability is reinforced by the geophysical conditions – the narrow coastal plains, the proximity of mountainous terrains, and the important presence of rivers in Dili (to which must be added 36 drainage channels, cf. Santos Almeida et al., 2015) and in Pante Makassar - but also by the increasing urbanisation around Dili, the deforestation of the slopes and watersheds and the diminution of mangroves.

The heavy rains brought by La Niña in July 2010 (a particularly dry month) led to the isolation of many villages. The long El Niño drought (2015-2017) affected around 200,000 people in the country. More recently, torrential rains on 13 March 2020 severely affected the coastal areas of Dili within two hours, partially or totally destroying the homes of 1,700 families, or 10,000 people. The torrential rains that fell between 29 March and 4 April 2021 on Timor-Leste (and East Indonesia), as well as the rain, river and marine flooding and landslides, resulted in some 40 deaths, a dozen people missing, at least 12,000 internally displaced people, and more than 4,500 destroyed or badly damaged houses. Some areas of the coastal plain of Dili and the banks of the main rivers (notably the Comoro), where the most vulnerable households are concentrated, were the most affected.

While the density of government and NGO services in Dili means that residents can be rescued relatively quickly, Timor-Leste's national warning and relief system is still far from functioning effectively in emergencies, particularly because of limited technological, human and coordination capacities, resulting in excessively long response times by the authorities (Sagar, Cook et al., 2018: 43). To address this weakness, a new law promoting the decentralisation of civil protection is currently being drafted. At the same time, the use of new technologies via digital applications and telephone messages (already used for the past ten years in the health sector in particular) is increasing. The fact remains that a culture of environmental risk (Bélizal, 2019; Pagney Bénito-Espinal, 2019) is often still lacking, a trait that should be emphasised in a context where the fight against the Indonesian occupation (1975-1999) has given the populations more of a political and social risk culture.

Timor-Leste's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are negligible in the global and regional context. But, like others in the same case, the country is highly vulnerable to various climate change effects such as coastal erosion and marine submersion (Bamber, Oppenheimer and al., 2019; Duvat, 2015; Oppenheimer and al., 2019), in addition to increased climate variability. These risk factors are known to be increasing. This is a point that the East Timorese regularly emphasise at major global meetings on climate change, such as the COP21 in Paris (2015), and that constitutes one of the areas of research that links the territory to the Pacific Island States. Nevertheless, the effects of climate change are visible on the ground and are being noted by local fishermen and farmers. The study conducted in Dili in 2015 by two East Timorese academics at two coastal sites, Hera and Coconut Beach (the embassy district in downtown Dili), highlighted various hazards related to sea-level rise, in particular submersion and coastline retreat (Barbosa and Gusmão, 2015).

However, like many other regions in the world, the coastal fringes of Dili, Atauro and Pante Makassar concentrate human, economic and leisure activities. The objective of facilitating leisure activities and in particular non-motorised travel (walking and cycling) has led to the construction of promenades along Dili and Pante Makassar bays; these, however, encroach on the beach and are built using concrete. The coastal roads, often built in the late Portuguese colonial period (1960s-1970s), are now overhanging at high tide in several places due to coastal erosion and are regularly subject to marine flooding episodes. Surprisingly, roads or infrastructure have also been built or rebuilt recently in close proximity to the coastline. As a result, the government regularly has to intervene to restore them, just as it has had to build protective dikes to break the power of the waves, especially in Dili. Similar findings have been made in the main coastal tourist resorts of Indonesia and Thailand.

The lack of any sanitation network (sewers and treatment units) in the country is also problematic. To compensate for this, the central government and the municipality of Dili are in charge of collecting and transporting wastewater by tanker from septic tanks to the treatment plant in Tibar, located 10-15 km from the centre of Dili. The system is a second-best measure: only significant businesses - such as major hotels, apartment blocks or housing estates - equipped with septic tanks require the (paid) government service for pumping and transporting wastewater. A small proportion (estimated at 10% to 15%) of the total volume of wastewater is thought to be collected and treated. The government is working with Japanese cooperation (via the Japan International Cooperation Agency, JICA) on a sewerage project running from east to west through Dili, parallel to the coast. In view of the observations and interviews conducted on the same topic in southern Bali, it seems essential to consider the various technical options, to identify the priority objective (connection to the network or return on investment) and to discuss it with the various parties, including the users. Indeed, in Bali, although the sewerage network set up about ten years ago in the main tourist resorts is of prime importance, the network has overall failed: as connection is optional and users have to pay for it, cost is cited as the main reason for its rejection by most households, hotels and other tourist businesses.

Solid waste collection and treatment is another urban management bottleneck. This sector was identified as the country's third-largest source of GHGs in Timor-Leste's Initial Communication on Climate Change in 2014. In Dili, as elsewhere in the country, on-site burning of household waste is still the general rule. However, unlike most places in the country, Dili has a municipal waste collection system, operated by the private sector. According to official statistics, about 70% of the waste is collected and transported by truck to the landfill in Tibar, which, like the sewage treatment plant, is located less than 2 km from the sea. Moreover, the system only covers the four most populated sub-districts, so there is still room for improvement, including in the city centre and on the beaches. Since 2016, various government resolutions and decree-laws on solid waste management (national and Dili) and marine litter have been important steps in raising awareness of the problem and implementing improvements. Also, since the beginning of 2019, restaurants and several supermarkets have stopped distributing food trays and plastic bags, favouring biodegradable products made of cardboard or cassava (produced in Bali).

Atauro has no sewage, wastewater or solid waste collection and treatment systems. Motivated by the preservation of the environmental quality of the island, which is located in the Coral Triangle The establishment of the Coral Triangle in 2009 was a multilateral initiative to protect the exceptional richness of marine biodiversity in a region of the Pacific Ocean. This includes the Philippines, East Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Sabah in northern island Malaysia. and is known for its rich marine biodiversity, positive initiatives in these sectors have nevertheless emerged. These are driven by the private sector, mainly tourist accommodations and inhabitants, and supported by local NGOs and their foreign partners: examples include beach cleaning, the creation of marine protected areas, coral monitoring, local solutions for wastewater and solid waste treatment, compost, recycling, etc. In the long term, however, more organised solutions seem essential.

In Pante Makassar, the situation has long been the same as in the rest of the country outside Dili. However, since 2015-2016 the Region has been contracting a private company to clean public spaces and beaches in the city centre; it has also planned the construction of wastewater and solid waste treatment units (still not built in 2018). In addition, all roads built or rehabilitated have been equipped with wide pavements over rainwater drainage pipes.

With the support of its international partners, Timor-Leste has been active in the areas central to our research: some 30 laws and regulations have been promulgated over the past 20 years at the national level, in addition to other legal provisions specifically concerning Dili, Atauro or Oecussi. In the field of protected areas, the national network has grown to a total of 46 in 2016, with more areas being created in Atauro. However, in these sectors as in others, the main problem lies in the communication, application and control - with adequate human, material and financial resources - of laws and regulations.

The absence or low number of spatial plannings seems to us to be characteristic of the difficulties encountered locally. At the national level, the only document that serves as a planning tool, which has been followed by successive governments since its publication, is the Timor-Leste Strategic Development Plan 2011-2030. It was presented and discussed in all sub-districts of the country in 2010. Reflecting the multiple priorities of the time, it gives the main geographical and sectoral orientations in terms of institutional, economic and human development. However, it does not constitute a "Plan". Above all, for operational purposes, all municipalities are expected to have a territory planning. But the two trials carried out by the Portuguese agency Gertil in Dili in 2006, and then by the Japanese agency JICA in the Tibar-Dili-Hera area in 2016, have not been updated. In fact, despite the existence of a municipal administration (whose jurisdictions, officially acquired in 2016, are admittedly recent), Dili, like other capitals in the world, suffers from the overlap of responsibilities between the national and municipal levels. Faced with this, the Oecussi Region has clearly distinguished itself by the accomplishment, in a few years’ time, of a Land and Development Plan and of significant infrastructures: it is also the only Region to have been endowed with a development budget of 500 million US $ (to date). These financial means, as much as its status as a Special Region, worked in favour of the elaboration of a regional governance.

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Christine CABASSET
Doctor in geography and territory planning, deputy-director at the Institute for Research on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC; CNRS/MEAE, Bangkok), associated with the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CASE; EHESS/CNRS/INALCO)

Traduction by the author, reviewed and corrected by Vanessa Guignery (Professor at ENS de Lyon) and Marion Coste (editor of the Clé des langues website)

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