Timor-Leste

Country Profile

Since Timor-Leste gained independence in 2002, the government has prioritized efforts to combat poverty and malnutrition while diversifying the national economy. Around 75% of the country’s 1.3 million people live in rural areas, where livelihoods depend on subsistence or semi-subsistence crop and livestock farming. Around 45% of the population live below the national poverty line.

Fish accounts for 31% of animal-source protein in the Timorese diet. As a large ocean territory with a huge untapped potential of marine resources, the government has prioritized developing a sustainable fisheries and aquaculture sector to improve food and nutrition security and diversify livelihoods.

WorldFish’s Support

WorldFish’s Timor-Leste country program works with the government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private enterprises, and local communities to improve nutritional outcomes by boosting aquaculture and small-scale fisheries production. The program is harnessing the potential of aquatic foods to transform Timor’s food systems to sustainably meet the nutritional needs of the country.

Our program engages key components of food systems with the aim of optimizing production, postproduction handling and processing, marketing, and consumer knowledge and choice. To enable these outcomes, the program implements a systems approach, integrating aquatic animal biosciences with a focus on governance, climate adaptation, and gender empowerment in fisheries and aquaculture systems.

Key Initiatives

Aquaculture Systems: Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT), developed by WorldFish, can play a transformative role in the resilience of animal-source food supply in rural Timor-Leste. The Partnership for Aquaculture Development in Timor-Leste (PADTL), Phase 1 (2014–2019) and Phase 2 (2020–2024), has consistently supported the increase in GIFT production. Thanks to project innovations, by 2023, production in Timorese ponds had increased from a baseline of 1 metric ton/ha/cycle to 15.3 metric tons/ha/cycle and the culture period had halved from one year to 6 months.
Coastal Capture Fisheries: Timor-Leste’s coastal capture fisheries are rudimentary in technology and generally just one component of diversified rural livelihoods. The development of an online digital catch monitoring platform, Peskas, has provided new insights into catch yield, composition, and sustainability. New approaches to integrating nutrition outcomes into coastal fisheries management show promise, such as the importance of women’s gleaning activities in building household nutrition security.

Fast Facts

Per capita fish consumption: 6 kg per person per year, aiming to increase to 15 kg by 2030
WorldFish has been working in Timor-Leste since 2010 with a team of 35 staff
5 state-of-the-art GIFT hatcheries producing 400 tons of GIFT tilapia
Catch and effort data recorded from 80,000 fishing trips through Peskas

Enabling Impact

A new pilot program, “Fish in School Meals” – part of PADTL Phase 2, was launched in July 2023 to increase fish consumption in rural areas. More than 1,200 students from 10 schools in the city of Ermera receive a nutritious fish dish using locally produced tilapia every week as part of the National School Feeding Program. This initiative aims to improve the nutritional status of children in the country.

Moving Forward

Communities in Timor-Leste already suffer negative impacts of climate change, including heavy rain, longer dry seasons, and major storms. These events worsen food security challenges. The IkanAdapt project, launched in 2022, promotes a better understanding of the role of ecosystems in managing fisheries and aquaculture, preserving biodiversity, and adapting to climate change. The project works with more than 300 women and men in 21 communities to develop livelihood-focused adaptation plans and support climate resilience.

Partners

Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Forestry, Government of Timor-Leste
Ministry of Health, Government of Timor-Leste
Timor-Leste National Directorate for Fisheries, Aquaculture and Marine Resources Management
Mercy Corps
Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources Security, University of Wollongong, Australia
Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Australia
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia
Blue Ventures
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations