Water and Land Conservation through Nature Based Solutions

We are solving the problem of water and food scarcity in Timor-Leste. This is caused by a confluence of climate change, deforestation, erosion, and a generation of Indigenous land knowledge that was lost in the war for independence.

Timor-Leste's water insecurity problem is characterized by:

 - Only 60 percent have access to an improved water supply (improved defined in comparison to the post independence period from 199-2002)

 - 32 percent have no access to an improved water source

 - The food insecurity that follows from a lack of water
(World Bank 2018)

Timor-Leste food insecurity is characterised by:

 - 60% of food being imported

 - 47% of children under five years of age are stunted

 - 8.6% of children under five suffer from acute malnutrition.

 - 23 percent of women of reproductive age (15 - 49 years) are anemic.

 - 22% of the total population face high levels of acute food insecurity

 (WFP 2023)

Our solution focus on all of the contributing factors to these problems, by ensuring the full ecological cycle is protected, as well as reintegrated Indigenous Knowledge for community based land management.

We are also aware of the opportunities that our solution can provide globally. Some countries face similar problems with similar geographies to Timor Leste, other face unique problems. However, our methodology is based on responding to the land as it is and finding ways to bring communities into the process of fixing it for their own needs. From this holistic perspective, this methodology also addresses climate change and almost all of the SDGs

WFP Timor-Leste Country Brief,World Food Program, 2023, <https://www.wfp.org/countries/...>

Timor-Leste - Water Sector Assessment Roadmap,World Bank, 2018 <https://documents.worldbank.or...>

Our solution starts from the recharging of aquifers using a natural solution in the watershed, and in turn rejuvenating natural springs downstream. Timor's landscape is characterized by steep mountains that rise sharply from the ocean. This means that more mainstream solutions that dam waterways aren't feasible, as well as risk to infrastructure from natural disasters. We assess the watershed to see what path rainfall takes when it hits the land and we design a set of small water retention ponds that slow the rainwater down and allows water to infiltrate back into the groundwater. Retention ponds are designed and built collaboratively with the community. Additional techniques using swales, terracing and water barriers are employed in higher risk areas. Tree-planting and reforestation projects are also enacted when the watershed is secured.

This process has been effective in over 400 sites across the country. The follow on effects after this are that springs are revitalized within as little as one or two wet seasons. Slowing the water reduces erosion of topsoil and allows the rainforest to regrow, this in turn supports the system and the groundwater for the next season, reinforcing a virtuous water cycle that the community can manage into the long term.

This solution serves the most at risk in Timor-Leste by supporting the communities furthest from resources, markets, and government services.

More specifically, when the water from a local spring dries up in the dry season, communities are either forced to spend extra scarce resources on shipping in water, or more often the burden is placed on women and children to travel long distances to retrieve water. This work approaches many of the SDGs as it protects children and their abilities to go to school, and materially supports women in their daily lives.

It also serves everyone in the community and everyone downstream, by creating a healthier environment, reducing the risk of natural disasters, and mitigating against the worst parts of climate change.

Our team is well positioned to deliver this solution as we have 22 years of experience in this work, and are made up of members of the community. Most of our workers were past participants of our activities and were trained in water and land conservation, Permaculture, and facilitation.

As fellow Indigenous members of the community we understand the cultural and ritual needs that go into land management. This is one factor as to why our projects have been so successful. This is in comparison to well intentioned outsiders who understandably struggle to grasp some of those cultural complexities. This also makes us well positioned to integrate modern technology that could be suitable in improving our work.

Ultimately, we place the onus on communities to engage for the betterment of themselves. We share knowledge in a culturally approachable way, with care and respect, that empowering people to take care of their own environment, so they become agents for change.

Our water conservation project has over 400 villages, and our permaculture school garden program is active in 250 villages. Our estimate is that our work is serving 15,000 people.

Reduction of natural disasters and improving water availability downstream serves many more people than above, but this is outside of our ability to quantify.

We are applying to solve as we are in need of support in several areas:

1. Scaling - We believe that Solve can support our work to scale. Our methods are community based and effective, however we are short on the

2. Monitoring, Evaluation and Accounting Systems - In order to improve our work and increase our credibility with investors it is important that we can develop necessary systems. Evaluating our work with a robust set of data and analysis would significantly improve our work and allow us to iterate for better results into the future. Moving towards a digital accounting system is a part of this process to ensure accountability. All of the above would improve our efficiency, ensuring that money is well targeted to the beneficiaries.

3. Developing technology (particularly non internet based) for the purpose of improving our programs is one area of need that Solve may have the resources to support.

4. Monetary support for non-project based opportunities. Often Aid and Development contracts are very strict about where funding can go. Without discussing the politics behind this, a source of funding that is more dynamic would allow our work to be more dynamic.

Our solution is innovative as it is linking nature-based solutions with Indigenous land management processes. Technology based solutions abound, however, many contexts are better suited to returning to a local ecology knowledge system as it can be both more accessible to the served community, more sustainable, and requires less resources.

Our technical approach uses natural cycles to support growth and expansion, but we also recognize the need to support communities development through this lens of cycles as well. A virtuous cycle takes time to establish, with many factors that contribute to the success of that cycle. By this we mean that to catalyze broader impacts we must ensure that our work is embedded with the principles that we are seeking to achieve. If we wish to improve the relationship the population has with the land, we must model that relationship in working with those communities. If we wish to care for those around us, our growth model must be based around caring for our neighbors.

This leads us to thinking about how this might change the market, in which it would likely lead to a questioning of the fundamentals of that market. In this context we see the idea of natural solutions and sustainability as core values, rather than the extraction that is often seen as being at the core of human development. The people we have worked with so far have been receptive this this approach as it aligns with their values, values which we believe are universal and scalable.

IG1: All people of Timor-Leste to have a sustainable water source.

IG2: All people of Timor-Leste to have food security

IG3: The environment is respected and protected

These goals are seemingly broad but we need to set the bar high as a response to the climate crisis. We have seen a significant change within as little as 2 years (ie 2 wet seasons) for many of our conservation sites. Forests are regrowing, water is sufficient all year round, communities with conservation sites no longer experience conflict of water resources, and peoples ability to support their own food and nutirional needs is enhanced. Timor-Leste has seen incredible changes in just 24 years since independence, so an aim of fixing this issues within 5 years is achievable. These are the fundamentals of the good life and the community is yearning for a transformational movement that can bring prosperity to them and their children.

All three of these goals are interlinked, so any success in achieving them will be shared across all of the goals. Our success stories have been transformational and we want to expand this to the whole country and beyond to be able to mitigate against the worst of the climate crisis and to leave no one to its mercy.

The main indicators that we are considering are the length of time into the dry season that water is readily available. The first steps in our project are in rejuvenating ground water in conservation areas. These areas are chosen from the watersheds in the mountain above natural springs and provide the spring with water when the rains have stopped.

Through Indigenous knowledge of the land, we have learnt that many springs are only providing water for a short period (1-2 months) into the 6 month dry season, compared to year round in previous generations. This force communities to use resources to have water shipped in from afar, and if there’s not money available it is often left to women and children to travel long distances to retrieve water from springs or wells that do still have access.

After recharging aquifers and rejuvenating springs, there is a flow on into all other aspects of life, allowing the community to utilize Permaculture techniques for sustainable and nutritious home gardening, and to support reforestation and increasing of biodiversity. Other indicators that we hope to develop are specific volumetric flows for each rejuvenated spring, and in learning the changes to hunger and nutrition.

We have selected all of the SDGs (except for Life Below Water) as this process is holistic and community driven, focusing on the environment as the key to living a prosperous and healthy life.

Our theory of change is based around a participatory model of community development, a holistic response to environmental issues, and reintegrating Indigenous knowledge. As 80% of Timorese people rely on subsistence farming, we know that ensuring an environment that is productive and resilient to climate change is the most important factor in addressing poverty in Timor-Leste. Our major works centre around sharing knowledge in cultural powerful activities. These activities promote a way of life that is caring, community driven, and sustainable. Similar to our response to the SDG indicators, we see this as a holistic approach that addresses the complexity of development, through technical and cultural proficiency.

We already know that our work has an impact on the problem, just at a smaller scale than what is needed and we hope that support from solve can advance our cause. This collaboration could also potentially provide pathways to sharing our knowledge and experience to other places in the world that are in need.

The core technology of our work came from recognizing the patterns of nature and learning from elders in our community.

The water buffalo has important religious and cultural meaning in Timor-Leste and the major technology idea we use to kick start a virtuous cycle of water comes from the watering holes that buffalo create to keep cool in the hot Timorese environment. In Tetum these are called 'debu'.

After independence many buffalo were sold off as the new government was providing tractors that could help till the field. Most of these tractors broke down without much support for their repair, but the number of buffalo has never recovered. The cultural knowledge of the water buffalo is well know but the link to the water cycle here wasn't. By living in these watering holes, the cattle keep the earth open to allow water to infiltrate into the groundwater system. We have enlisted communities to dig debu by hand in the watersheds above their natural springs and have seen the successes in as little as 2 years time. By mimicking this age old process, and by supporting the forests to regrow through better community management, we are seeing communities prepare themselves for the future.

Permatil is one of the leading organizations in Timor-Leste for diversity, equity and inclusion. Our motto 'Kuidadu ba Rai, Kuidadu ba Malu, Kuidadu Futuru' (Care for the Earth, Care for Each Other, Care for the Future) ensure that our work is centred around supporting and including everyon, as that is the basis of a community.

Our executive team is made up of 50% women and our project participants regular come close to 50% in a country that is highly patriarchal. Our projects in the field are focused on creating an open and inclusive environment that is culturally safe for all.

In 2023, we have commenced activities to specifically support women and queer leaders to thrive to ensure they have a greater say in the direction of our organisation, our country, and our planet

Permatil is an NGO that seeks funding from development organizations, in Timor and abroad, to ensure we can provide for communities.

Our various funding can be separated as follows:
 - Some of our funding is sourced through international agencies hoping to influence change in certain regions. They enlist us to run community development programs and support us with money and other resources.
 - Some funding comes through government ministries focused on agriculture, the environment, or youth. Depending on the ministry this can take different forms, from running workshops and trainings, to actively facilitating public service work.
- Other funding is through solidarity networks that are continuing to support localized 'Friendship Cities' and other peer-to-peer development.

We are also an in-kind donor to many small organizations that would like support. We are often asked by communities with very little monetary resources to support them in water conservation or sustainable agriculture. These communities return benefits outside of the monetary system

We are looking to develop a sustainable model that doesn't necessarily rely on the aid sector, but are limited by our current human resources and the immaturity of the Timorese national economic situation. In time, as more the economy diversifies and communities have more resources, we will be able to engage directly with communities who have resources to help fund their own needs directly.

Given Timor-Leste's stage of development we are currently focused on ensuring we have support from international NGOs, international climate funds, and Timorese government agencies. There are few other sources of revenue. We do however have great relationships with these networks and are seeing interest from larger funds in our work.

Support in working within this model of aid and development, through ensuring our ability to work within these formal structures and compliance's is paramount, ad an area we are looking for support in.

Our sustainability is tied to our works success. We have always worked within and for communities, including finding staff from our project participants. A part of our theory of change is to support communities to be able to respond to their own situations. This is possible here as most people live rurally and life on the land had always been sustainable without outside influences. We are seeking to support a relationship to the land and environment that allows people to determine their own futures.

Our current financial situation is tied to the aid sector, from organisations such as OXFAM, WaterAid, Misereor, AFD,  and with potential larger opportunities in the pipeline with IUCN KIWA, USAID