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P20 Agricultura: História, Paisagem e Desenvolvimento em Timor-Leste

Atas Proceedings

ISBN 978-989-8550-19-4

4474 | ESADR 2013

P20 · Agricultura: História, Paisagem e Desenvolvimento em Timor-Leste

CoordenadoresPedro Damião de Sousa Henriques (UE / CEFAGE) [email protected] Vanda Narciso (IAPMEI) [email protected] Maria Leonor da Silva Carvalho (UE / ICAAM) [email protected] Maria Raquel Ventura Lucas (UE / CEFAGE) [email protected]

Timor-Leste, um dos países mais recentes do mundo, apresenta um sector agrícola com uma forte expressão no território - cerca de 75% da população vive em zonas rurais e pratica uma agricultura de subsistência, sendo que para 94% dos sucos a agricultura é a principal fon-te de rendimento. A agricultura, predominantemente de carácter familiar, exerce múltiplas funções económicas, sociais, culturais e ambientais.

Entendemos agricultura em sentido lato, compreendendo não só a agricultura de subsistên-cia e comercial, mas também a pecuária, a floresta e os sistemas agro-florestais.

Este painel procura explorar, de diferentes perspectivas, as várias funções que a agricultura tem, teve, ou pode vir a ter, no desenvolvimento das áreas rurais e no bem-estar das popu-lações.

Procuramos comunicações que considerem qualquer destas dimensões/funções da agricul-tura, privilegiando estudos de casos empiricamente fundamentadas.

Atas Proceedings | 4475

SUPPLY CHAIN FOR CARROTS, CABBAGE AND SNOW PEAS IN AILEU, MAUBISSE AND HATUBUILICO, TIMOR LESTE

Vicente de Paulo Correia - Universidade Nacional Timor Loro Sa’e, Dili,

Timor Leste; email: [email protected] Associate Professor Maria Fay Rola-Rubzen, PhD – Curtin University, Perth,

Western Australia; Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Key words: supply chain, marketing, production, income

Nowadays, consumers and retailers are looking for products that can be supplied for

most of the year, with good quality and at a competitive price. To fulfil this demand,

producers need to be more market-oriented rather than product-oriented. In addition, to

increasing production, improving quality and ensuring product safety, it is important to

link farmers to markets by engaging them in the supply chain. However, smallholder

farmers lack the ability to take advantage of or identify new markets. In Timor Leste,

there is also poor linkage between farmers and buyers. This paper outlines the results of

a study on analysing supply chains for carrots, cabbage and snow peas in Timor Leste.

The study was conducted in Aileu, Maubisse and Hatubuilico, the major production

centres for these crops in Timor Leste. The paper mapped and analysed the supply

chains for these vegetables. Mixed method approach was used to collect the data. The

study found that farmers that engaged in the traditional supply chain earned less than

those who are involved in improved chains. In traditional chains, there are large number

of actors and alternative marketing channels but farmers lack power in terms of

bargaining, lack cash and lack timely information on inputs and outputs. Introduced

value chains on the other hand are shorter and more effective in integrating the needs of

farmers, stakeholders and their customers. The new chains provided a better channel for

transmission of consumer needs to producers and also information on demand and

supply conditions in the Dili and district markets, thus are better able to meet customer

needs.

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VII Congresso da APDEA, V Congresso da SPER, I Encontro Lusófono em Economia, Sociologia, Ambiente e Desenvolvimento Rural

1. Introduction

The role of agri-food chains and networks has become increasingly important in

providing market access for farmers in developing countries. In the last ten years most

firms in developing countries have been integrating into geographically dispersed

supply networks or commodity chains (Ruben et al., 2006). Producers, traders and

processors in these countries are linking together with consumers and retailers in

developed countries through the chains networks (Gereffi & Korzeniewitz, 1994). In

addition, food and agribusiness chains are affected by consumers’ demands related to

the quality and safety of food and the sustainability of the production and the way

producers handle the products (Ruben et al., 2006). In the past, many of the

government and private sector programs have focused on increasing production but

have not given sufficient attention to markets and the role of effective supply chains

(Vermeulen et al., 2008). As a result, many producers in developing countries cannot

compete in new emerging markets.

To increase production, quality and product safety in Timor Leste, it is important to link

farmers to markets by engaging them in the supply chain. However, smallholder

farmers lack the ability to take advantage of or identify new markets. The objective of

this study is to analyses the supply chains for carrots, cabbage and snow peas in Aileu,

Maubisse and Hatubuilico – Timor Leste.

2. Research approach

This study was conducted in the sub-districts of Aileu, Maubisse, Hatubuilico, Dili and

Baucau, Timor Leste. The population includes producers of carrots, cabbages and snow

peas; consumers; buyers (supermarkets, restaurant, hotels, and institutional buyers); and

other downstream buyers such as traders and retailers. For producers and consumers,

data was collected through surveys of a random sampling of a total of 800 producers

and 150 consumers. The interviews, using complete enumeration, was conducted with

the managers of supermarkets; managers of restaurants/hotels; and traders. Meanwhile,

rapid rural appraisals were carried out which included a site visit and semi-structured


Agricultura: História, Paisagem e Desenvolvimento em Timor-Leste P20

interviews with community leaders, government agencies, and local and international

NGOs to ascertain institutional structures, the resource base and organizations in the

area. Data gathering methods employed include face-to-face interviews, rapid rural

appraisals, desk top research of current related literature and a survey of supply chain

players. Data were analyses using qualitative and quantitative techniques. In addition,

value chain mapping was conducted to develop a description of the horticulture value

chain and identify potential high value markets.

3. Results and discussion 3.1 Background of respondents

The total number of respondents in this study is 1045 comprising 800 farm households,

150 consumers, 70 institutional buyers and 25 traders. Farm households constitute

ofabout 57 per cent males and 43 per cent females. The average age of farmers is 42.6

years and the average farming experience is about 20 years. In terms of education,

more than 50 per cent of farmers were not schooled at all and are illiterate, 19 per cent

completed primary school and about 22 per cent finished their secondary schooling.

The illiteracy rate found in this study is consistent with the national illiteracy rate of

about 50 per cent (UNDP, 2006).

3.2 Farm production

The total land area used for agriculture in the study sites was about 691.5 ha, or 47.6 per

cent of the total land area; and from this only 352.5 ha or about 51 per cent is used for

growing carrots, cabbages and snow peas. The farm size of respondents ranges from

0.05 to 25 ha and the average land area owned by respondents is 1.8 ha. In addition, the

vegetable and food crops grown by respondents for most of the year in these areas were

carrots, cabbage, snow peas, mustard, lettuce, beans, garlic, shallot, taro, maize, cassava

and sweet potato. The total area planted with cabbage by respondents was 155 ha while

154 ha were harvested, showing that more than 90 per cent of the crops planted are

harvested. The details of area planted and harvested by respondents for carrots, cabbage

and snow peas in 2008 is shown in Table 1.

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Despite carrots, cabbage and snow peas growing well in these areas, the productivity is

very low. This is due to the lack of crop management, low skill of farmers, low input

use and extensive use of local seeds. For example, the average yield for carrots was 1.24

t/ ha, cabbage1.14 t/ ha and snow peas 0.54 t/ ha (see Table 2). Due to the suitability of

agronomic and climatic conditions and farmers’ experience in growing vegetables in

these areas, the yield of these crops can be increased given the right management,

resources, inputs and training.

Table 1: Area planted and harvested, production, and productivity of carrots, cabbage and snow peas in 2008

Carrots N=313

Cabbage N=565

Snow peas N=478

Area planted (ha) 71.83 155.93 125.28 Area harvested (ha) 71.61 154.06 123.04 Total production (kg) 88 991 177 862 67 358 Yield (kg/ha) 1239 1140 538 Consumed (kg) 6108 11 421 4465 Total sold (kg) 82 883 166 441 62 893 Average price ($/kg) 0.35 0.30 0.45 Total value of produce sold ($)

29 009 19 932.3 28 302

3.3 Marketing

The income for the majority of respondents is generated from vegetables. This reflects

the large quantity of products sold to the market in the area. For example, from the total

production of about 177 t of cabbage during the time of the survey, around 93 per cent

were sold to the market. This generated a total value of about US$20 000. Cabbage

alone could provide a substantial improvement in income of farm households in the

region where most of the farms are isolated, the size of the farms are small and there are

difficulties in sustaining family income from other crops.

In terms of the localities for selling vegetables, 89.4 per cent of respondents preferred

the local market for selling their produce, followed by district markets. As the cost of

transport is expensive, and access to roads and transport to other major markets is poor,

this resulted to the respondents relying on local markets for selling their produce. These



markets are characterized by asymmetric relations between large numbers of small

farmers and a few traders. In addition, 99.6 per cent of respondents claimed that other

downstream buyers (e.g., traders) are the main buyers for their products. Farmers have

no option to sell their products to other buyers because the only buyer that purchases

their product is the traders which are very limited in number. Farmers who face

difficulties in reaching markets often become dependent on traders coming to their

village to buy agricultural produce and to sell inputs. This situation is further

exacerbated because buyers are also the primary source of information on prices and

other relevant market information. High dependency on traders and local markets affect

the price offered because traders have greater power over farmers, especially in

deciding the price for the product.

Generally, value adding can be an important activity as this can have an impact on the

increase of price of the product and also competitiveness in the market place. The result

of the study showed that more than 50 per cent of respondents are not value adding their

produce before they sell to the market. Their reason is that there are no price

differences between value added products and primary products. However, some

respondents remarked that they do value add to their product so that they can compete

in the market, as consumers are always looking for clean and fresh products. Value

adding activities conducted by respondents include cleaning, washing and sorting. For

grading, more than 70 per cent of respondents grade their product before they sell to the

market. The grading activities are conducted only on the basis of size of the product.

For packaging, farmers normally used sacks, crates and plastic bags to transport their

produce to the market.

4. Supply chain for carrots, cabbage and snow peas 4.1 Traditional chain

Vegetable trading has been done for many years in Aileu, Maubisse and Hatubuilico

through a trust system between farmers and traders at the village, sub district and

district level. Approximately 90 per cent of farmers in these areas still use the

traditional chain. The reasons farmers continue to engage in this chain are because most

of them lack skill and knowledge about marketing, lack information on input and output

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prices and have low capital. In this chain, farmers mainly depend on traders as the main

buyers of their produce. The traditional supply chain involved more participants in the

chain, including downstream buyers (e.g., traders and retailers), street vendors and

supermarkets. Figure 1 below shows the traditional chain for carrots, cabbage and snow

peas in the study area. In this chain, farmers have only three options to deliver their

product to the market: they can sell directly to the consumers (district consumers), sell

directly to the district market retailers, or they can sell to the traders. No farmers deliver

their produce directly to the Dili market because the cost of transport is expensive and

access to transport and roads are poor.

(1) (2)

(3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Product flow Information flow Financial flow

Figure 1: Traditional supply chain for vegetables in Aileua, Maubisse and Hatubuilico

Channel 1 is the shortest channel which involves only producers and consumers. The

reason producers sell their product directly to the district consumers is because,

geographically, the buyers are very close to their village and producers may have to

walk for about 2-3 hours to reach district markets. Producers feel that by engaging

directly with retailers they can obtain a better price and also access better information

about the market. The quantity of the produce sold in this channel is very small. In

channel 2, producers sell their product directly to district market retailers who then sell

to district consumers. In channel 3, the product is delivered to the traders then sold to

Traders

District market retailers

Dili market retailers

Kiosk retailers

Street vendor

Dili consumers

Supermarket

District consumers

Hotels/ Restaurant

s

Customers

P r o d u c e r s



district market retailers which is then sold to the district consumers. In channel 4,

traders buy the produce and distribute to the Dili market retailers who then sell the

vegetables onto Dili consumers. Channel 5 is the longest channel which involves

producers, traders, Dili market retailers, supermarkets, hotels/restaurants and customers.

The main channels in this chain are Channels 2, 3 and 4 as shown by the lines in Figure

1.

In terms of information flow, producers do not know exactly what happens in the

market particularly, the price their produce fetched. In some cases they do not even

receive information on whether their product is in high demand or low demand, factors

that will affect their potential profit. For example, if the product is in high demand in

the Dili market, the market price will increase. However, information on demand for

the product does not reach producers. Information on quality requirements and prices,

are determined by retailers and supermarkets, especially in Dili. Not unexpectedly,

producers receive biased information on quality and prices as traders do not pass on

these information to them. In terms of the financial flow, this only comes from traders

who normally operate in these areas for buying vegetables. For example, to secure the

product, a trader may provide cash or inputs (seeds) in advance to producers to support

the production and, in turn, the product must be sold to them.

In the traditional chain, producers generally do not perform value adding activities. The

only value adding activity that occurs before the product is delivered to the traders or to

district market retailers is cleaning and packing. There are no grading and sorting of the

vegetables. Traders conduct basic grading, sorting and packing and further distribute

the product to Dili market retailers. They then sell in bulk to the retailers. A large

proportion of the product bought by the traders is sold in Dili as this is the main market

where traders and retailers operate in buying and selling produce. As shown in Figure 2

below, about 80 per cent of the produce from producers is sold through traders and the

rest is distributed through district market retailers. This indicates that traders play an

important role in the distribution of the product from farmers to consumers. The

produce that is delivered by traders to Dili market retailers’ accounts for about 75 per

cent of the total produce marketed, while the other 25 per cent is sold to district market

retailers. The Dili retailers sell approximately 80 per cent of the produce to Dili

4482 | ESADR 2013


consumers and the remaining sales are to supermarkets and kiosk/ street vendors.

Finally, the majority of the produce from supermarkets is sold to hotels and restaurants,

while some 15 per cent are sold to domestic consumers.

20% 80% 25% 75%

80% 10% 10%

85% 15%

Figure 2: Percentage distribution of vegetables to customers

Even though farmers can sell their produce to the traders and also sell directly to

consumers in the district market, the net price received is the same. For example,

carrots are sold at an average price of 0.35 cents/kg, cabbage 0.30 cents/ kg and snow

peas 0.45 cents/kg. Farmers did not incur marketing costs as traders bought the product

directly from farmers.

In terms of marketing margins, each market intermediary plays a specific function or

value addition in contemplation of compensation that is related to the quality of the

service delivered. Table 3 below shows that the highest percentage of net margins for

carrots and snow peas for the traditional supply chain was earned by supermarkets while

the highest margin for cabbage was received by retailers. In addition, the smallest

percentage of net profit margin is earned by traders.

Producers

Traders


Kiosk/street vendor

Dili consumers

Hotels/ Restaurants

Consumers

District market retailers

Supermarket



Table 3: Net margin for various participants in the traditional supply chain1

Description Carrots Net margin Percentage ($/kg) net margin (%)

Cabbage Net margin Percentage ($/kg) net margin (%)

Snow peas Net margin Percentage ($/kg) net margin (%)

Trader 0.07 15.6 0.12 26.7 0.17 22.2 Retailer 0.12 20.0 0.20 33.3 0.30 30.0 Supermarket 0.40 30.8 0.30 27.3 1.65 55.0

The table above shows that in the traditional supply chain, traders received the highest

profit margin from cabbage then from snow peas which accounted for 26.7 and 22.2 per

cent, respectively. For retailers, these two crops still offered a good profit margin

accounting for 33.3 and 30 per cent, respectively. The least margin earned by traders

and retailers was from carrots. On the contrary, supermarkets got their highest margin

from snow peas then from carrots, accounting for 55 and 30.8 per cent. For all of the

chain participants, supermarkets received the best profit margin while traders earned the

lowest margin. In addition, amongst these crops snow peas provided the highest profit

margin (55%), followed by cabbage (33.3%). Carrots on the other hand offered the

least profit margin of 15.6 per cent. The figures on the table above are based on the

average of the sample and comprise all costs incurred in the chain.

The main problems and constraints faced by respondents in this chain are the high cost

of transport and the low selling price. Rural roads in Aileu, Maubisse and Hatubuilico

are generally in bad condition. Bad roads and bridges, especially in rural areas, have

impacted adversely on the transport network and access to vegetable growing areas.

This has further resulted in an increase of the cost of transport. Another problem is that

the price offered for the product is quite low (e.g., less than 50 cents/kg). This resulted

from the low quality of produce and high dependency on traders and local markets. Low

prices are also related to farmers’ poor bargaining power with other players involved in

the chain. Other problems faced by farmers are the difficulties in accessing other

markets.

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4.2 Value chains for vegetables

Apart from the traditional supply chain, there are two value chains that have recently

developed in Timor Leste which emanated from initiatives of an NGO and international

aid agencies. To increase vegetable production and facilitate farmers’ access to markets,

an NGO and private business have been working with farmers in the study areas. One

of the interventions of their programs is improving cooperation with farmers in

increasing farmers’ production and distribution of the produce to the market in an

effective and efficient way. The resulting value chains for vegetables for these

initiatives are discussed below.

4.2.1 The Zero Star supply chain

Zero Star Uni Pessoal was founded by Komar Mendonca as a small business supplying

wholesale vegetable products to the main wet markets in Dili. The supply chain

introduced by Zero Star is shown in Figure 3). Zero Star purchases the product directly

from farmers and then transports them to the warehouse in Dili. Following this, the

products are processed (e.g., cleaned, washed, graded, sorted, packed & labelled) and

stored in a cool room prior to delivery to customers. By storing the produce they are

able to choose the buyers and allocate the product to those buyers who offer the highest

returns, making their part of the chain more efficient. The main buyers are

supermarkets, hotels and restaurants, Dili market retailers and home deliveries. As Zero

Star owns their own cool trucks and a cool room, this enables the produce to be

collected on a regular basis from farmers on a time schedule which is based on

optimising harvest quality and supplying to the main buyers in good condition.



65% 25% 5% 5%


Figure 3: Zero Star supply chain

When harvesting the crops, farmers normally perform basic sorting and grading,

cleaning and packing of the products. They then distribute the product to the central

collection point (side road) that has been chosen. Following this, Zero Star staff then

collects the produce and transports them to Dili. During this stage, farmers are not paid

but the product collected is registered at an agreed price. The product is delivered to the

customer on a weekly basis. Vegetables classified as first grade are delivered to

supermarkets, hotels and restaurants, and private home deliveries; while the second and

third grade vegetables are usually distributed and sold to the retailers operating in the

Dili wet market. Most of the produce supplied by Zero Star go to hotels and restaurants

and this accounts for about 65 per cent of total vegetables handled by Zero Star. This is

followed by products that go to supermarkets at approximately 25 per cent and both

home deliveries and Dili retailer market at around 5 per cent each. After the products

are sold, Zero Star pays the farmers. This occurs once a week. The system of payment

applied by Zero Star contributed to farmers’ confidence in the business which has

resulted in a continuous supply delivery system.

In terms of information, there is a clear flow of information through the chain. For

example, customers inform Zero Star of their preferred demand, who in turn

communicate these to the farmers. This is important because farmers need to know

Producers

Zero Star (Cleaning, washing, grading, packing,

labelling, storing, transporting)

Hotels & restaurant

s

Supermarkets Home deliveries


Consumers Customers

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what is demanded by the market in terms of quantity and quality, timing and the prices

offered. This is particularly important because information on market prices in Dili are

not correctly relayed to farmers. Because of this, even though Zero Star has enough

information in regards to quality requirements for the product, some farmers distrust

this relationship as they feel there are no rewards and payments for good quality

products. In addition, financial assistance is also provided to farmers by Zero Star. In

many cases, Zero Star provides cash advances to farmers who need to buy the basic

necessities required to support farm production. When the crop is harvested, cash

advanced are deducted directly from the sale of the produce. The net margins for each

chain are shown in Table 4 below.

Table 4: Net margin for various participants in the Zero Star Uni Pessoal value chain




Zero Star 0.30 40.0 0.30 46.2 0.45 45.0

Supermarket 0.40 30.8 0.35 31.8 1.75 58.3

The table above shows that cabbage provided the highest profit margin to Zero Star at

46.2 per cent while carrots offered the least margin of 40 per cent. In addition, snow

peas still contributed the highest margin to supermarkets at 58.3 per cent followed by

cabbage at 31.8 per cent. In the Zero Star chain, supermarkets received a better margin

compared to Zero Star for snow peas. For example, supermarkets earned 58.3 per cent

of profit margin from snow peas while Zero Star only received 45 per cent for the same

crop. On the contrary, in the case of carrots and cabbage, Zero Star received the best

profit margin of 40 and 46.2 per cent, respectively; which is higher than the margin

earned by supermarkets. For supermarkets, the lowest net profit margin is from carrots

and cabbage (30.8% and 31.8%, respectively).

The main challenge faced by the Zero Star chain is that the skills of most of the farmers

in these areas are very low. Another challenge is the remoteness of the localities where

farmers produce the products. This affected the quality of the product as farmers need

to walk long distances to the collection point (road side). A further challenge is the

delay in obtaining production inputs which affects the production and marketing plans



and hinders farmers’ and Zero Star’s ability to respond to market demand. So far, there

is no party involved in propagating new vegetable seed varieties and producing inputs,

such as fertiliser and pesticides in Timor Leste. Other challenges include limited access

to seeds and technologies for year round production, high volume of importation of

horticulture products (i.e., competition) and poor infrastructure.

4.2.2 World Vision supply chain

The second value chain in the study sites emanated from World Vision’s project on

Income Generation and Rural Communities in Timor Leste. World Vision is an

international NGO working in the districts of Aileu and Bobonaro. The World Vision

supply chain is composed of three main players, namely farmers, the Centro Produto

Local (CPL)-World Vision and their customers. Farmers usually bring their product to

the CPL, although, in some cases, World Vision staff collect the produce from the farms

and deliver them to the CPL. All the products that go through CPL are registered and

documented in terms of quantity, type of produce and the agreed price. After the

produce has been documented, CPL then washes, cleans, sorts and packs the vegetables.

Following these activities, the produce is then transported and delivered to the Dili

market using World Vision’s own transport as shown in Figure 4.

50% 50%


Figure 4: World Vision value chain

Producers

World Vision (CPL) (Washing, cleaning, sorting, packing,

transporting)

Retail market /shops

Supermarket

Consumer

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The main buyers of World Vision are the retail shops and some supermarkets, and the

products offered are mainly vegetables (e.g., carrots, cabbage, tomato, beans, snow peas

& mustard). The percentage of products distributed to supermarkets is about 50 per

cent while retail markets/ shops take around 50 per cent. Farmers who distribute their

produce through CPL do not receive any cash payment on delivery. The produce, as

mentioned previously, is registered and recorded. Farmers receive payment only after

the produce is sold and this normally takes about a week. The cost of transportation is

then deducted after the produce is sold.

In terms of information flow, consumers inform the CPL what products are needed, in

what quantity, when they are needed and at what price. From CPL, this information is

passed on to the farmers. Because World Vision is not a private business, all the

information, including prices gathered from consumers, are transmitted and explained

clearly to the participating farmers. World Vision also provides inputs such as seeds to

farmers and helps farmers access micro-finance institutions in that area. The net

margins of each chain participants are shown in Table 5 below.

Table 5: Net margin for various chain participants in the World Vision value chain




World Vision 0.15 25.0 0.15 30.0 0.25 31.3

Supermarket 0.50 38.5 0.50 45.5 1.95 65.0

The table above shows that supermarkets earned the highest net margin from snow peas

at 65 per cent followed by cabbage and then snow peas at 45.5 and 38.5 per cent,

respectively. For World Vision, snow peas also offered the best profit margin at 32.3

per cent followed by cabbage at 30 per cent.

Comparing the net margins received by participants in the chain, snow peas still

provided the best profit margin both for the Zero Star and World Vision supply chains

which accounted for 65 and 58.3 per cent, respectively. In addition, for the Zero Star

chain, carrots and cabbage offered higher profit margins than supermarkets. This

accounted for 40 and 46.2 per cent; while in the World Vision chain, these two crops



provided the lowest profit margin at 25 and 30 per cent, respectively. Hence, it can be

concluded that in the World Vision chain, it appears that supermarkets earn more net

margins compared to World Vision across all vegetable types while in the Zero Star

chain, supermarkets get the highest margin from snow peas and receive the lowest profit

margin from carrots and cabbage.

The main challenge faced by this supply chain is that the project run by World Vision

depends on the funding from donors. Therefore, they could not guarantee the

continuation of the project in the future. Another challenge is the lack of modern seed

varieties. As most of the seeds grown by farmers are imported, which, in terms of price

is quite expensive and not available locally, farmers need to spend extra money on

transport to get seeds from Dili. A further challenge is the lack of motivation to manage

the farm. In addition, there are too many family events such as funerals and weddings

which dominate most of farmers’ time and money that are supposedly used for farm

activities. For example, if some of the relatives die, all the related families need to

participate in the ceremony which sometimes takes weeks. Other challenges are lack of

input suppliers, lack of standard measurement and the poor skill level of farmers.

5. Discussion

Improving effectiveness of a supply chain depends on enhancing the efficiency of all

aspects, from production to processing, handling, distribution and marketing. Cox et al.

(2007) argued that if the supply chain is to operate, there must be a clear benefit for the

players engaged in the chain. For example, farmers are looking for a price that is high

as well as an assured market; whereas buyers are going to seek low prices and a supply

that is continuous. Therefore, if farmers are to be competitive in the market, their

supply chain needs to be more efficient and effective (Batt & Cadilhon, 2007; Johnson

& Hoffman; Orden et al., 2004).

The two value chains that emanated from external initiatives (private sector

development and NGO) attempted to link farmers to markets and are two examples of

linking farmers to markets (LF2M) in Timor Leste. Through these LF2M initiatives, the

supply channel of the product has improved. The value chains introduced has changed

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the traditional marketing channel, which tends to be long and yield lower net margins to

farmers. The introduced chains are shorter and more effective and integrate the need of

farmers, Zero star/ World Vision and their customers. This is consistent with the study

done by Rao et al., which showed that creation of market linkages significantly

contribute to the shortening of the chain with farmers developing direct links with the

market (Rao et al., 2004). In addition, all players involved benefited from the chain.

Farmers can deliver their produce and receive cash payments weekly; Zero Star/World

Vision can get their supply of vegetables on a sustainable basis and with better quality;

and consumers can enjoy the availability of the product needed at affordable prices.

The new value chains have also assisted small farmers in the region to adopt suitable

farm inputs, use improved crop husbandry practices, handle produce properly after

harvesting, enhance quality and maintain the recommended standards and packaging.

Zero Star and World Vision linked farmers to high value markets such as supermarkets,

hotels and restaurants and farmers now also have guaranteed markets for their products

throughout the year. This is important as the stakeholders not only offer market for

farmers produce but also provided training and assistance and offered stable markets for

farmers (Low et al., 2006). In this chain, basic information and supply coordination

practices are also shared between players which has led to a more efficient distribution

system. As pointed out by Minot & Hill (2007) and Collinson et al., (2003)

enhancement of the flow of market information contributes to the high integration

between the market and the reduction in costs in the chain which benefits farmers. The

new chains provided a better channel for transmission of consumer needs to producers

and also information on demand and supply conditions in the Dili and district markets.

Value chains are more responsive to consumer needs based on the integration and

coordination of the efforts of parties involved in the production and delivery processes

(Vorst et al., 2007; Johnson & Hoffman 2004; Ziggers et al., 1998). For instance, in

order to maintain product quality and provide a more consistent supply, Zero

Star/World Vision is engaging in long-term relationships with farmers. This is needed

because through closer relationship and better understanding of the chain and customer

values, farmers will likely expand their activities along the chain (Woods; Wheatley et

al., 2004), particularly if they are able to identify new approaches to develop products

and services that will enable their customers to perform their activities more efficiently



and economically. Value chains are more effective compared to the traditional chain,

the reason being that the new chains take into consideration consumer preferences and

the demand for the product (Ziggers et al., 1998). As pointed out by Van der Vorst et

al., (2007), for the chain to be successful it needs to be efficient, flexible and

responsive.

Despite the benefits offered by the new chains, however, the number of respondents

engaged with Zero Star/World Vision is small, accounting for only about eight per cent

of the total sample. The majority of the respondents are still relying on traditional chains

in delivering their produce to the market. The reason is that most of the respondents

lack skills and knowledge on how to market their produce, lack capital, have limited

information on markets, lack access to roads and face expensive transport cost.

The traditional chain on the other hand is characterized by a large number of actors and

a number of alternative marketing channels. Farmers lack power in terms of bargaining,

lack cash and lack timely information. As a result, traders are able to extract value at

the expense of farmers. Farmers generally depend on traders for cash and, in some

cases, they provide inputs such as seeds. In turn, farmers must sell their product to

traders at the agreed price and this is usually very low. Farmers have no choice because

of the problems and constraints they face such as low skills, lack of information as well

as their weak bargaining position. As most farmers in the region lack capital to support

their farm activities, they are highly dependent on traders to support them. Higher

dependence on traders results in higher vulnerability and, as traders are the exchange

partners that are more powerful, they can create and manage the trade that is more

favourable for them (Heide & John, 1988). On one hand, farmers feel that traders are

helping them by providing cash to assist in the production of their crops but, on the

other hand, this support can make them more dependent on the traders. Because of this,

traders have the power to decide the value of the product (Batt & Cadilhon, 2007)

which leads to less revenue being received by the farmers. Whenever channel members

dominate the resources required by another member, this will emerge through various

power relations (Andaleeb, 1996). This potentially enables the party to have control

over the resources to exercise their power. The lack of knowledge of market prices and

weak bargaining power, combined with lack of cash and lack of storage facilities in

4492 | ESADR 2013


rural areas have further weakened the bargaining power of farmers (Thapa et al., 1995;

Lantican, 1997; Shresta & Shresta, 2000; Khushk, 2001).

In the traditional chain, farmers rarely have access to information on inputs and outputs

and lack access to the market. Because of the difficulties in accessing information,

farmers do not know what the exact quality requirements are, when the produce is

needed and what quantity is being demanded by the market. As a result, the majority of

the farmers in the region continue to produce the same product at the same season, as

the production is not based on what is demanded by the customers. A further

consequence is that vegetables are sold at a low price. Traditional supply chains

generally are not equipped to respond to a large range of customer demands (Johnson &

Hoffman, 2004). For this reason, traders have no direct access to supermarkets,

hotels/restaurants and similar bulk buyers.

In terms of the net prices received by farmers, there is no differences in the net prices

offered both in the traditional and the value chain introduced for carrots, cabbage and

snow peas. For example, in the traditional chain, carrots were sold at 0.35 cents/kg

while in value chain the price received by farmers was the same. The net price offered

in particular for the value chain does not reflect the quality of the products and the

resources used in the value adding activities. This discourages some of the farmers to

be involved in the value chain as there is no differentiation in the price offered by the

various chains.

Based on the net margin analysis it can be concluded that across the traditional supply

chains and the value chains, supermarkets consistently earned the highest percentage net

profit margin, particularly for snow peas. However, the percentage net profit margin

earned by supermarkets from value chains is higher than that from the traditional chain.

For example, in the World Vision and Zero Star chains, supermarkets receive 65 and

58.3 per cent of net profit margin, respectively, while in the traditional chain their net

profit margin was lower at 55 per cent. Traders and retailers that are still operating in

the traditional supply chain earned the lowest net profit margin because they provide

little value adding and the products delivered do not respond to what is being demanded

by the market. For World Vision, in particular, achieving a satisfactory margin is

important because this will then enable them to continue to support their LF2M



program. The profit gained from this activity will be used by World Vision for paying

CPL staff, transport costs and for the purchase of inputs required by farmers.

The prices received by farmers varied according to the type of the product. Carrots are

sold with an average price of 0.35 cents per kg, cabbage at 0.30 cents and snow peas at

0.45 cents per kg. There is no price differentiation for good quality products provided

by farmers. The price of all the products supplied to the buyers is the same both in the

traditional chains and the value chains. For example, both graded and non-graded snow

peas fetched the same price; that is 0.45 cents per kg. The price offered to farmers, in

particular, those involved in the value chains should be better than those for farmers

who operated in the traditional supply chains because in the value chains farmers

performed value adding activities for the product and therefore need to be rewarded in

terms of better price for the product. However, this does not seem to occur in the study

area. This result is in contrast with previous studies (e.g., Miyata et al., 2009;

Samaratunga; Tukan et al., 2006; Silva; Danson et al., 2005) which found that farmers

who participated in LF2M programs received higher price for their produce. In these

studies farmers efforts in providing good quality products are rewarded with a price

premium received for their produce.

6. Conclusion and implications

The supply chains for carrots, cabbage and snow peas that exist in Aileu, Maubisse and

Hatubuilico are comprised of traditional chains and value chains, the latter introduced

by Zero Star and World Vision. The traditional supply chains are longer and

complicated; while the value chains are shorter and take into account customer

preferences and therefore, are more effective in meeting costumers’ needs. In the

traditional chain, farmers usually manage their farm businesses individually and

therefore their bargaining position with traders is weak. Players engaged in this chain,

in particular, traders and retailers, earn the lowest net profit margin.

In the value chains, there is an effort to improve performance of the supply chain

through the application of pre-harvest and post-harvest technologies, such as the use of

crates, plastic sacks, standard weights and boxes. Through cooperation with Zero Star

4494 | ESADR 2013


and World Vision, a mutually beneficial relationship developed between farmers and

Zero Star and World Vision in terms of an assured market for farmers and good quality

products delivered to the market. Farmers who engage in this chain are becoming more

aware of the quality of carrots, cabbages and snow peas that are desired by customers.

Through the chain, Zero Star and World Vision encouraged participant farmers to pay

attention to the quality of their products.

Implementing an effective chain which delivers high quality produce to the market

however did not guarantee an increase in income for farmers. This can be seen in the

percentage of net profit margin received by participant farmers which is the same with

non-participant farmers. The benefits of linking farmers to markets were from the

increase in production and the improved quality of the produce assuring them entry to

institutional markets. In the new value chain, farmers were empowered to work in

groups so that they can have a stronger bargaining power in the transaction process and

be able to supply to supermarkets. Farmers participating in this chain were able to

increase production and improve the quality of the product, though this did not affect

the prices received for their produce.

The finding of this study has some policy implications in enhancing supply chain

systems for horticultural produce in Timor Leste and in developing countries, in

general. For instance, the government needs to create an enabling environment that

facilitates marketing agents (e.g., traders and intermediaries) to engage in the marketing

of horticultural produce and get a fair share of the benefit from their effort and

investments. In this case, there is a need for government to develop roads which link

potential rural horticultural areas with market centres. Improving rural roads will not

only reduce the cost of transport but also encourage potential buyers to engage in the

marketing of agricultural produce. This will also promote competition among buyers

thereby improving farmers’ chances of getting fair prices for their produce. Also

important is an environment that is conducive to facilitating the implementation of the

LF2M programs. This can be done through the provision of better information systems,

improving the flow of information on input and output prices from various market

centres to farmers.



References

Andaleeb, S.S. (1995). Dependence relations and the moderating role of trust: implications for behavioural intentions in marketing channels. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 12(2), 157-72.

Batt, P.J. and Cadilhon, J.J. (2007). Proceedings of international symposium on fresh produce supply chain management. RAP Publication 21, FAO Regional Office for Asia and Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand.

Collinson, C.; Wanda, K.; Muganga, A. and Ferris, S. (2003). A market opportunities survey for value-added utilization of cassava-based products in Uganda: constraints and opportunities for growth and development. ASARECA/IITA, Monograph 4, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Cox, A.; Chicksand, D. and Yang, T. (2007). The proactive alignment of sourcing with marketing and branding strategies: a food service case. Supply Chain Management, 12(5), 321-333.

Danson, A.; Gallat, S. and Rottger, A. (2005). Overcoming barriers to markets for high-value produce – the case of Blue Sky Company Ltd., Ghana. Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy.

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Johnson, G.I. and Hofman, P.J. (2004). Agri-products supply-chain management in developing countries. ACIAR Proceedings No. 119e, ACIAR, Canberra, Australia.

Khushk, A.M. (2001). “Marketing of vegetables and fruits in Pakistan: problems and constraints”, In APO (Eds.). Marketing of vegetables and fruits in Asia and the Pacific. Asia Productivity Organization, Tokyo, Japan.

Lantican, J.M. (1997). Market Prospect for Upland Crops in the Philippines. CGPRT Centre, Indonesia.

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Orden, D.; Torero, M. and Gulati, A. (2004). Agricultural markets and the rural poor. Paper Presented on the Workshop of the Poverty Reduction Network, March 5, 2004, IFPRI, Washington D.C.

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Tukan, J.: Roshetko, J.: Budidarsono, S. and Manurung, G. (2006). Banana market chain improvement – enhancing farmers’ market linkages in West Java, Indonesia. ICRAF, Bogor, Indonesia.

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Van der Vorst, G.A.J.; Silva, C.A. and Trienekens, J.H. (2007). Agro-industrial supply chain management: concepts and applications. Agricultural Management, Marketing and Finance, Working Paper No. 17, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy.

Vermeulen, S.; Woodhil, J.; Proctor, F. and Delnoye, R. (2008). Chain wide learning for inclusive agri-food market development. IIED and the Capacity Development and Institutional Change Programme – Wageningen University and Research Centre, The Netherlands.

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1

Human rights based approach to ecosystem services in rural Timor-Leste

Pedro Damião de Sousa Henriques CEFAGE and Department of Economics

University of Évora - Portugal [email protected]

Vanda Narciso

Independent researcher Portugal

[email protected]

Manuel Couret Branco NICPRI and Department of Economics

University of Évora - Portugal [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Land and water are the main supporters of almost every ecosystem on earth,

either natural or semi-natural, including the traditional land use systems developed by

human beings. The multidimensional services supplied by the different land uses are

essential resources for the great majority of the population in developing countries.

Besides the economic value associated with those services, land services have also

historical, cultural and sacred values that should not be ignored as they have shaped

over time the social organization of communities.

Recognizing the multidimensional character of the services provided by nature

in general, and land in particular is precisely the essence of a human rights approach

to development. According to the United Nations Organization (UN), a human-rights

based approach to development is a conceptual framework for the process of human

development that is normatively based on international human rights standards and

operationally directed to promoting and protecting them. In its essence, a human rights-

based approach integrates the norms, standards and principles of the international

human rights system into the plans, policies and processes of development.

In this article, specific emphasis will be placed on the relationship between well-

being and land use, through physical, economic, social and cultural connections. Our

primary concern is to show that human development, in rural areas cannot be measured

4498 | ESADR 2013


2

by the simple production and consumption of commodities sourced in what is

conventionally called the primary sector but of a more complex relationship involving

mobilization as much as preservation of resources, and material consumption as much

as spiritual fulfillment. While carrying out this purpose we will pay special attention to

conflicting land uses that may impair population’s well being.

First, we will present East Timor and the concept of ecosystem services. Indeed,

human well-being is dependent upon multiple and often interrelated ecosystem services

contributing each of them to more than one component of well-being. Furthermore,

there is interconnectedness of the well-being components and ecosystem services are

dynamic and context-dependent.

Second, we will discuss the human rights approach to development with special

emphasis on cultural freedom, which can be defined as the freedom of people to choose

their identities and to lead the lives they value, without being excluded from other

choices important to them.

Third, we will examine land use patterns in East Timor and its relation to the

well being of rural East Timor. In this part we will show how services provided by

nature are at least both economic and cultural, and that despite the fact that there may

be conflicting uses, a human rights approach must take both services into consideration

and value them equally.

INTRODUCTION

Services delivered by ecosystems are essential resources for the livelihood of the

great majority of the people in developing as much as in developed countries, land and

water being the main supporters of almost every of these ecosystems, either natural or

mediated by human beings. Besides the economic value associated with these services,

they have also historical, cultural and spiritual values that should not be ignored as they

have participated in shaping the social organization of communities throughout the

ages. In this perspective, land use should not be viewed or examined in isolation but in

its natural, social, economic and cultural context.

Recognizing this multidimensional character of the services provided by nature

in general, and land in particular, is precisely the essence of a human rights-based

approach to development. According to the United Nations Organization (UN), a human



3

rights-based approach to development is a conceptual framework for the process of

human development that is normatively based on international human rights standards

and operationally directed to promoting and protecting them. In its essence, a human

rights-based approach integrates the norms, standards and principles of the international

human rights system into the plans, policies and processes of development. In other

words, in such an approach human rights are simultaneously the means and the ends of

human development.

This article will particularly emphasize the relationship between human well-

being and forests and non-productive land use in Timor-Leste, through physical,

economic, social and cultural connections. Our primary concern, here, is to demonstrate

that human development cannot be measured by the simple production and consumption

of commodities sourced in what has been conventionally called the primary sector, but

by a much more complex formula involving mobilization as much as preservation of

resources, and material consumption as much as spiritual fulfillment. While carrying out

this purpose we will give special attention to the conflicting uses of ecosystem services

that may impair population‘s well-being.

Ecosystem services are benefits provided by ecosystems that contribute to

making human life both possible and worth living. These include human use of products

from forests, wetlands and so on, and the services ecosystems provide human societies

such as cultural services, nutrients and water cycling, soil formation and retention,

resistance against invasive species, pollination of plants and regulation of climate.

These overall goods and services can be aggregated according to different classification

methods. The Millennium Ecosystems Assessment (MEA), for example, aggregates

them in four categories: provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting (MEA 2003),

while De Groot, based on the same principles, uses five categories: regulation, habitat,

production, information and carrier (De Groot 2006). Both these classifications

illustrate the inextricable and multidimensional connection between natural systems and

human well-being but, in this paper, we will only use the MEA framework.

Well-being is an inclusive concept; in its broadest sense human well-being refers

to everything important to peoples‘ lives, ranging from basic elements required for

human survival (food, water, shelter) to the highest-level of achievement of personal

goals and spiritual fulfilment. According to the MEA, the essential components of

human well-being are security, basic material endowment for a good life, health and

good social relations. These four elements contribute to an essentialized definition of

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4

well-being that has been well translated by concepts such as ―freedom of choice and

action‖ or ―development as freedom‖ (MEA 2003; Sen 2000).

The variety of material constituents of well-being have long been considered as

economic resources in development theory and practice. Despite the fact that there is no

undisputable evidence relating the amount of material resources available and

development potential, conventional wisdom suggests that the more resources the

better. Immaterial constituents such as culture, however, have not been always treated

likewise. Actually, in traditional approaches to development and well being, cultural

and economic resources have usually been taken as antagonistic, culture often being

considered an obstacle to economic development.

Max Weber‘s (1958) in the beginning of the twentieth century and later Bert

Hoselitz (1952), Margaret Mead (1953), Edward Banfield (1958), Everett Hagen

(1962), Seymour Martin Lipset (1959) and other modernization theorists such as Walt

Whitman Rostow (1960) and Gunnar Myrdal (1968), placed cultural change at the

center of economic development. More recently, Lawrence Harrison and Samuel

Huntington (2000), Douglass North (2004 [1990]), David Landes (1999), or Francis

Fukuyama (1995; 2000) gave a new momentum to this approach. Values shared by

people, for instance, could be wrong (Fukuyama 2000); culture would be a constraint on

rationality (Lal 1999; North 2004), and thus the main generator of differences between

economic performances (Landes, 1999). Samuel Huntington, in his turn, argues that the

reason why South Korea joined the developed world and Ghana did not, despite these

countries having displayed comparable levels of development in the early 1960s, can be

explained by the differences in the values shared by the respective national communities

(Huntington, 2000: xiii).

HUMAN RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT AND CULTURE

A human rights-based approach, on the contrary, intrinsically refuses the idea

that there are cultures better fit than others to promote human well being and that,

therefore, development could only be achieved through cultural renunciation. In practice

a human rights-based approach to development is structured around five fundamental

principles: 1) rights as means and ends of development; 2) universality and



5

indivisibility; 3) accountability and the rule of law; 4) participation and empowerment,

and; 5) equality and non-discrimination.

The principle according to which human rights are means and ends of

development implies not only that development policies respect human rights principles

when being implemented, but also that their goals consist in achieving international

humans rights standards. These standards can be found chiefly in the Universal

Declaration on Human Rights and in what have been called the seven core treaties, of

which the most relevant for our purpose are the International Covenant on Economic,

Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The scope of these rights range from the fulfilment of material aspirations, such as the

right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their family, to

the enjoyment of immaterial amenities such as freedom of speech or of religion.

Among the set of rights registered in the various proclamations cultural rights

are probably those that have received the least attention. To a certain extent this poor

attention is understandable on account of the intrinsic difficulty in defining them.

Indeed, in contrast with other rights, indicators of cultural freedom are scarce. UNESCO

in 2001 approved a document entitled Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity in

which it is stated that cultural diversity is an ethical imperative inseparable from respect

for the dignity of the individual, as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for

nature. In the following year the United Nations Committee on Human Rights approved

the first-ever resolution on cultural rights entitled ‗Promotion of the enjoyment of the

cultural rights of everyone and respect for different cultural identities‘, henceforth

widening human rights language to cultural identity.

The very definition of culture, on the other hand, suffers from an upsetting lack

of consensus. In order to avoid misunderstandings, culture shall be taken in the

following pages as the shared knowledge, values, beliefs and attitudes transmitted from

generation to generation, which are at the foundation of order and sense, and which

allow the members of a community to behave in a convenient and acceptable manner, or

at least an understandable one (De Kadt 1999).

Respect for the principles of universality and indivisibility, in its turn, imply that

no one can be arbitrarily deprived of the enjoyment of human rights and that the value

of each human right is intrinsically equal. Beyond the legitimate statutory exceptions,

basic liberties do not admit exclusion, in other words if rights are not guaranteed for all,

then they belong to none. Indivisibility of rights means that they cannot be ranked in a

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6

hierarchical order. If one can admit that, in practice, it is hard to avoid prioritizing them,

that is to say achieving some rights before others when resources are scarce, one must

agree that one part of the overall goal cannot be achieved in detriment of another

(Branco 2009).

If services provided by ecosystems are taken as rights each one of them is as

important as the other to human well being, this being the outcome of a combination of

material, political, cultural and spiritual values, none being dismissible in favour of the

others. Improving well-being demands, therefore, producing a growing quantity of

goods and services as much as nurturing identity and freedom. Let us consider for the

purpose of this argument that there is a conflict between two different objectives in the

use of a resource, economic and spiritual for example. If the former prevents the latter,

then one should not consider the benefits of its use only as adding positively to people‘s

well being. Indeed, in this case one must take into account both the utility of the use of

the resource for economic purposes and the disutility of the loss of the resource for

other uses or for the use of other people.

The third principle of a human rights-based approach to development is

accountability and the rule of law. If one endorses human rights then one should also

accept that each individual has some sort of credit with society concerning the provision

of those goods and services that are needed to secure human rights. If there are not

enough water or health services for everybody and therefore the individual‘s right to

those goods and services is not being secured, for example, to whom should he or she

turn? Indeed, the right of an individual corresponds perforce to the duty of another or of

the community at large and if the rights of an individual are not secured, this means that

other individuals or institutions have failed in carrying out their duties (Branco and

Henriques 2010). In human rights language the exchange held between an individual

and a provider is converted into a relationship between a rights-holder and a duty-

bearer, accountability becoming, therefore, a critical issue.

The fourth principle, participation and empowerment, means not only that every

person and all peoples are entitled to active, free, and meaningful participation in the

process of designing and implementing development policies (DEZA 2007), but also

that the outcome of these policies should strengthen the participation and the

empowerment of these same persons and peoples in other levels of social life. In other

words development policies should also be expected to reinforce substantive

democracy. By substantive democracy we mean a democracy which, besides elections,



7

demands wide civil liberties, including freedom of association and expression; citizens

to be deeply involved in the decisions on matters that affect them; and institutions to be

strongly committed with responsibility and accountability in the running of public

affairs; a democracy that not only aims at the interest of the governed but also at their

meaningful participation in the process of decision-making. (Branco, 2012)

The last principle in our list concerns equality and non-discrimination. Human

rights, if they are to be fully taken as rights, must be equally allocated among all those

entitled to enjoy them within the community. Basic liberties, for instance, do not admit

any allocation other than an egalitarian one (see Rawls 1972). This does not imply that

goods and services necessary to secure human rights must be equally distributed among

the people, but that everyone must have equal access to them. Otherwise, more than just

deprivation we could be facing a violation of human rights. Equality and non-

discrimination mean first, that no one can be deprived of their human rights on the basis

of ethnic, religious or political affiliation, or also gender and economic status, and,

second, that everyone should evenly benefit from the minimum amount of that material

provision considered fundamental to secure a given human right.

In the case of the human right to water and sanitation, recognized at the General

Assembly of the United Nations through resolution 64/292 (UN, 2010), for example,

what is at stake is not that people should all benefit of the same amount of water but that

everyone should have equal access to that minimum amount of water that is considered

necessary to secure the human right to water. People should, then, have equal access to

50 to 100 liters of water per person per day to meet basic personal needs (OHCHR,

2011), not exactly to the amount needed to fill up a private pool or wash the family car

in the driveway.

FOREST AND NON-PRODUCTIVE LAND USE AND THE WELL-BEING OF

RURAL TIMOR-LESTE

The majority of the population lives in rural areas (73.5 per cent), spread over

2,300 villages, and draws its livelihood from subsistence agriculture, which means that

they enjoy a low standard of living. As almost everywhere in the world, the urban

population in Timor-Leste is growing much faster than the rural population (World

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8

Bank, 2008). From a cultural point of view Timorese are divided into 34 ethno-

linguistic groups although the official languages are Tétum and Portuguese.

Land use patterns in Timor-Leste are strongly determined by the territory‘s

topography, geological origin, climate and human intervention. The topography of the

country is dramatic, ranging from Mount Tatamailau at 2960 meters, Mount Cablac at

2340 meters and Mount Mata Bian at 2370 meters to lowlands at sea level (Soeiro de

Brito 1971). These three mountains stand within 20 Km of the coastline. Globally 35%

of the land is located above 500 meters, 44% between 100 and 500 meters, and 21%

below 100 meters. On average, almost half of the land in Timor-Leste presents a slope

of 40% or more (Mota 2002).

The island of Timor originated from limestone and metamorphosed marine

clays, which resulted in fragile and unfertile soils. Climate is tropical with a monsoon

between October/November and March. The south coast also benefit from a small

monsoon between May and June. Above 500 meters altitude, the amount of rainfall is

twice the annual average observed in lower altitudes, 500 to 1500 mm in the north coast

and 1500 to 2000 mm in the south coast (Silva 1956). Land occupation in Timor can be

ecologically divided in the following categories: mountainous areas; highland plains;

moist lowland areas (along the southern coast); arid lowland areas (along the northern

coasts); marine and coastal areas; and, urban areas (RDTL 2005a).

Table 1 - Land use areas by category

Area Hectares %

Forest land

Lowland 761,486 51.0

Highland, coastal & other 92,768 6.2

Agricultural land

Estate crops 74,578 5.0

Food & other 336,400 22.5

Non-productive land 203,152 13.6

Cities, towns villages 19,934 1.3

Lakes 5,080 0.3

Total 1,493,398 100.0

Source: RDTL 2005a



9

According to Table 1, the system examined in this paper is composed mainly of

forests in lowland (51%), forests in highland, coastal and other areas (6.2%), non-

productive land (13,6%) and lakes (0.3%) in a total of 1,062,486 hectares, covering

more than two thirds of the territory of Timor-Leste (71,1%). Ruy Cinatti (1950)

classified the forest communities of Timor-Leste as: mangrove, littoral, primary forest

and secondary forest and savannah. The area of primary forest is estimated at close to

1.4 % of the country‘s total surface (Reis 2000). Agricultural land covers close to 27.5%

and urban areas only 1.3%. However, MAFP estimates suggests that land suitable for

agriculture reaches close to 600,000 hectares, including 203,152 hectares of abandoned

land (RDTL 2005a; RDTL 2005c).

Human manipulation of Timor-Leste‘s natural ecosystem started some 40,000

years ago, continued with the arrival of the Portuguese at Lifau in the beginning of the

sixteenth century and was dramatic accelerated during the 24 years of Indonesian

occupation of the territory. Intensive exploitation of sandalwood, almost until extinction

considering its natural regeneration rate, was the main change Portuguese colonization

brought to Timor-Leste‘s land use patterns in the nineteenth century. The near

extinction of sandalwood coincided with the introduction of coffee production, a coffee

economic cycle thus succeeding a sandalwood economic cycle.

The Indonesian occupation of the territory from 1975 until 2002 is responsible

for a dramatic deforestation, mostly of the remaining sandalwood and of other

commercial timber species. Gusmão (2003) reports that reforestation programs were

suspended during the Indonesian occupation for security reasons because Timorese

guerrilla was based in the forests; for the same purposes crop production was

encouraged by opening clearings in the forest without securing soil conservation.

Population and economic growth, and the consequent market pressure are, in turn,

expected to boost the use of land for cash crops, industries and services. These changes

will involve a significant manipulation of ecosystems and often a permanent conversion

of the original ecosystem.

In the past, Timor-Leste was well endowed with natural forests and was already

known by the Portuguese navigators that would eventually reach its shores as the land

of sandalwood. When the Portuguese arrived to Timor-Leste a prosperous commerce of

sandalwood with several countries in South East Asia, like China, was already in place.

There is evidence that sandalwood has been harvested in Timor-Leste for as long as a

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thousand years. In the early days, demographic pressure on the territory was low and

shifting cultivation in forests was a traditional and sustainable land management system.

Later, during the colonial period, forests declined, both in its extent and in its condition,

due to clearing for agricultural purposes and to uncontrolled timber harvesting. Recent

evidence suggests that further degradation and over harvesting of forests has occurred in

the last decades of the twentieth century, and that much of the land that was formerly

classified as forest was actually grassland, savannah or secondary forest. In the period

between 1972 and 1999, roughly coinciding with Indonesian occupation, estimates

point to the loss of 114,000 hectares of dense forest and 78,000 hectares of sparse forest

(NDFWR 2004).

Timor-Leste‘s main natural forests can be classified in three major types:

savannah formations dominated by white eucalyptus (Eucalyptus alba) and tamarind

trees (Tamarindus indicus), located mainly in the northern part of the country; open or

moderately dense forest dominated by black eucalyptus (Eucalyptus urophylla)

associated with several other species such as ferns, located in the mountainous areas;

and tropical monsoon forest carrying a mixture of species, some with timber production

potential, of which the most relevant are sandalwood (Santalum album), ai kiar

(Canarium reidentalia), red cedar (Toona sureni), redwood (Ptedocarpus indicus) and

teak (Tectonia grandis), located in the eastern and southern parts of the country (RDTL

2005a; NDFWR 2004).

The ecosystems considered in this paper are also home for several species of

palm trees, eight species of bamboo, four species of rattan and are house to reptiles

(crocodiles, snakes and lizards), mammals (deers, wild pigs, cuscus and monkeys) and

birds species (lorikeets, land and sea eagles and pigeons). Some of these species are

endangered like a lorikeet (Philemon Inornatus), a colourful parrot once very common

in the Timorese forests. At least seventeen of the country‘s wild species are commonly

hunted such as deer (Rusa timorensis), wild pig (Pork sp), wild buffalo (Bos Savanicus),

cuscus (Phalenger orientalis), and laco (Paradoxurus hermaphrodites or mussanga).

Hunting is practiced throughout the year and uses traditional methods such as spear,

dog, bow and arrow and trap (NDFWR 2004; Gusmão 2003).

Timor-Leste being an island, coastal areas are understandably critical in both

economic and social terms. However, these ecosystems are also very fragile. They

include coral reefs, seaweed and sea grass beds, beaches and seashores. Seashores are

composed of beach forests of mangrove and also of river and lake estuaries, and are



11

home for aquatic plants, invertebrates, fish, bats, water birds, amphibians and reptiles.

Many species of fish of high economic value, including tuna, skipjack, mackerel and

snapper live in the seas surrounding the country. The north coast sea is also host to large

seasonal populations of whales and dolphins migrating to the Pacific Ocean. Available

information suggests that, compared to other countries in the region, these areas are

largely unspoiled. Eastern littoral areas, for instance, lie within the Coral Triangle,

where the greatest biodiversity of coral and reef fish in the world can be found (BirdLife

International 2010).

The goods and services provided by Timor-Leste‘s land use patterns will be

examined according to the four categories defined by the MEA: supporting,

provisioning, regulating and cultural (MEA 2003). Supporting services means those

services necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services, such as soil

formation or nutrient cycling; provisioning services concern products that can be

obtained from ecosystems such as food, freshwater or fuel wood; regulating services are

the benefits obtained from regulating ecosystem processes and regard climate or disease

regulation for instance and, finally; cultural services are non material benefits obtained

from ecosystems, ranging from religious to educational and recreational services (MEA

2003). These services satisfy direct and indirect human needs, thus contributing for

people‘s well-being in all the dimensions expressed in the MEA: security, basic material

for good life, health, good social relations and freedom of choice and action (MEA

2003).

Provisioning Services

The most important contribution of forests and non-productive land for the basic

material for a good life, i.e. its provisioning function, comes from the exploitation of the

various species of timber: sandalwood, redwood, red cedar, teak and white and black

eucalyptus. In turn, the most important non timber products are: fuel wood, rattan,

bamboo, palm tree building materials, medicinal plants, honey, bee wax, palm flour,

palm wine, wild fruits and plants (betel nuts, mushrooms, tamarinds, roots, tubers,

sprouts, leaves and flowers), and animals for meat (deers, monkeys, birds, marsupials),

materials for handicrafts and jewellery, fodder for animals and fertilizers to agriculture.

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In the past, the most valuable specie was undoubtedly sandalwood, used to

extract oil famous for its fragrance. Portuguese navigators when arriving to East Timor

abundantly referred the fragrance exhaled by the sandalwood forests that covered the

hills of the northern coast of the territory. The island of Timor is the centre of origin of

sandalwood tree and an important source of genetic resources and biodiversity valued

internationally. However, sandalwood was almost totally harvested in an unsustainable

way and, consequently, today, there are only sparse manifestations of sandal in the

districts of Covalima, Lautem, Oecussi and Bobonaro and in the house gardens of Dili,

which means that, with the exception of illegal harvesting, earnings are scarce or non-

existent. In some areas of Bobanaro sandalwood is a sacred tree, which to a certain

extent has helped its preservation.

The other timber species, redwood, red cedar and teak are important sources of

materials for local manufacturing industries and for exporting. Among these species

teak covers the largest surface, with some 3500-4500 hectares. Teak is not native of

Timor-Leste and was introduced with success about 100 years ago. Nevertheless, given

the small areas covered, consistent income from this production will only be generated

in the future, some 20 to 40 years from now, if new plantations are made. Furthermore

domestic prices are considerably below international prices on account of a lack of

transparency in timber markets. As a result, fine timber with high exporting value is

used for domestic purposes when other sorts of timber would be more adequate.

Forest is also a supplier of building materials. The main resources are the above-

mentioned timber species and bamboos for beams, black and white eucalypt for poles,

and palm tree materials and bamboos for walls, fences and roofs. The beds of streams

and rivers supply the construction industry with gravel and sand materials through

small-scale firms. Rattan and bamboo are also used in the manufacture of furniture.

Besides the above-mentioned uses, forests are also the main supplier of energy

for domestic use in Timor-Leste. Fuel wood harvested from its forests accounts for 93%

of energy consumed in the country (NDFWR 2004). Consumption of fuel wood is

estimated at some 800,000 tonnes per year, which gives an average daily per capita

consumption of 2.2 kilograms (RDTLa 2005). The main fuel wood suppliers are white

and black eucalyptus. The harvested wood is used for self-consumption and also as a

source of income for many families living close to the main roads.

Plants and honey have been used since ever by the people of Timor-Leste to

prevent and treat diseases. A study entitled ―Virtues of some plants on the island of



13

Timor‖, carried out in the eighteen century by Frei Alberto de São Tomás (1969), a

Dominican missionary, shows the importance of plants for traditional medicine in

Timor-Leste. Available data on distance and journey time to get to health facilities,

something like 30 kilometres and 60 minutes in rural areas, show that, frequently, the

most viable alternative for people is traditional medicine (DNE 2008). During our field

missions we were able to confirm how important traditional medicine is, and how

extensive are both knowledge and practice by rural communities.

In coastal areas provisioning services concern mainly fish and aquatic plants

and, more recently, recreational activities such as diving. Most of the fish in the seas of

Timor-Leste is captured with the use of canoes and traditional fishing techniques, which

should presumably guarantee the sustainability of this activity. Traditional fishing is

important for most coastal communities because it constitutes simultaneously an

important source of protein and of income.

Besides direct services delivered by the ecosystems in Timor-Leste one must

also take into consideration indirect services. The most important of these services

provided by forests, in the short run, is water supply for domestic use and agricultural

irrigation. Both services contribute significantly to that part of human well being that

we have called basic material for good life. Forest vegetation is also an important source

of food for domestic animals and of organic matter necessary for mulching and

fertilization.

Regulating and Supporting Services

Despite the fact that one can theoretically distinguish regulating services from

supporting services, in practice it is frequently uneasy to make the difference.

Regulating and supporting services provided by forest and non-productive land use will,

therefore, be dealt with together. Timor-Leste‘s forests are the centre of origin of two

important species, sandalwood and Eucalyptus urophylla that constitute a source of

germplasm of major international significance. Eucalyptus urophylla, one of the few

eucalypts not indigenous to Australia, has been used to obtain hybrids that are the basis

for paper pulp industry all over the world. In the past, seed collecting expeditions came

to Timor-Leste, but today there is poor information on native stands, namely their

location, conservation status and long-term security (Old et al. 2003).

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Forests in Timor-Leste also provide protection of watersheds and flood

regulation; soil formation, stabilization of soil cover and erosion control; water

purification and supply of water for domestic consumption and agricultural irrigation;

nutrient cycling; primary production; shelter and nursery for wild fauna and flora; waste

treatment and control of waste degradation. This last service is particularly significant

outside the city limits of Díli where, unlike the rest of the country, there is a formal

system of waste collecting and disposal. Everywhere else waste treatment is left in the

hands of nature, some ending up in rivers and washed to the sea.

The continuity of these services may be endangered, though, if the annual loss of

soil, estimated at 26 tons per hectare and per year (the world average is about 10 tons),

and the annual rate of deforestation, estimated at roughly 1,1% per year (four times the

world average), are not reduced. These losses may have unpredictable consequences in

ecological, economic and social terms in a near future (Mota 2002). Loss in production

capacity of agricultural land, for instance, has already been observed in seven of the

country‘s districts with an estimated annual loss of 279 hectares of rice land due to river

intrusion, corresponding to an approximate annual loss of paddy production of USD

80,500 (NDFWR 2004).

Cultural Services

Cultural services provided by resource use are essentially based on the sacred

land use, and therefore we will devote most of this subheading to this particular pattern

of land use. Sacred land provides key elements that are the founding pillars of Timor-

Leste‘s cosmology and of traditional societal features such as land tenure, rules of

natural resource management, marriage and settlement patterns. Sacred land does not

provide cultural services only, though, but undoubtedly its contribution to the well

being of people in rural Timor-Leste relates predominantly to its cultural dimension.

Simplistically, sacred land consists, here, in the lulik occupation of land. The

concept of lulik, which means holy or sacred, designates a force that can be

simultaneously, and paradoxically, dangerous and favourable. As Cinatti (1965)

describes it, lulik is ―A energia que atrai e repele, que mata e ressuscita...‖ - ―The

energy that attracts and repels, that kills and resurrects...‖. Lulik grounds are

characterised by their sacred status, associated taboos and rules of behaviour and



15

management. For most Timorese, land is core to all spirituality, this connection being

central in issues of great significance to people‘s everyday life. Timor-Leste‘ cosmology

itself is inextricably bound to the perception of land as a sacred entity. Spirits of nature,

such as Rai Nains (spirits owners of the land) and the Bée Nains (water lords) are

central because they are supposed to help people in protecting and accessing water and

food. In order to guarantee the goodwill of these spirits, communities perform,

therefore, several rituals and ceremonies in their honour.

Sacred areas concern many uses of the territory, such as sacred houses, land,

forests, groves, trees and water and the altars associated with them; they are also home

for totemic animals (i.e. crocodile- crocodylidae and Toque-platydactilus gottutus) and

plants, namely trees (i.e. ficus, either spp. or benjamina L. and Tamarindus indica).

Ground considered lulik can vary from a few trees to a mountain range, and their

boundaries may not be fixed. It is common throughout Timor-Leste, from the sacred

groves of Lautém district to the sacred mountain known as Datoi, in the western

boundary of Bobonaro, from Bemalae lagoon (Bobonaro) to the Betel nut forest of

Oecussi. Despite the fact that they are everywhere there are no estimates on the extent

of lulik lands.

Sacred land is above all a powerful instrument of social regulation and cohesion.

Incidentally, the main reason Timorese give for going back to their native land and the

main advantage they attach to be living and working in their own land, is precisely the

spiritual power of the land (Bovensiepen 2009: 326-328; and authors field notes). In its

turn, the ―sacred house‖, uma lulik, is the most important element of the Timorese social

structure since it is the heart of all life. One or more groups of descendants, composed

of all the members of a lineage referring to a common ancestor, are linked to a ―sacred

house‖, which determines family alliances and settlement patterns.

As Trindade said ―The importance of the uma lulik for the people of East Timor

cannot be overstated. The sacred house embodies the ethos of communal unity and the

binding relationships between the people, the land and their ancestry…‖ (in Castro

2007:38). Austronesian houses, including Timorese sacred houses, are well known in

anthropological literature as being much more than mere shelters. They represent

important social spaces and local cosmologies (Traube 1986); they link extended

families and are therefore the prerequisite for guaranteeing the ―flow of life‖ (Fox

1980). Uma Lulik is both a sacred house (a true place) and a metaphorical ‗sacred

house‘ in the sense of a broader spiritual and relational home an individual owns

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worldly‖ (Castro 2007:19). Sacred houses are, thus, a key element in the cultural

services provided by ecosystems most especially with reference to ―identity / sense of

place / feelings of ―being at home‖ and ―spiritual enrichment‖.

Sacred houses are critical to social organisation; they represent social hierarchies

and define marriage systems and exchange rituals that reproduce Timorese society,

including patterns of political leadership and power. McWilliam (2005) stresses the

cultural significance of these houses as repositories of knowledge representing the

moral order of society and its role as ―houses of origin and alliance‖ and illustrates this

idea with the case of underground resistance structures. Underground structures during

the resistance to the Indonesian occupation were organized according to house-based

affiliations of trust and duties between descendants and allies. Besides social cohesion,

house affiliation is crucial to ensure both access to resources and personal safety.

The sacred dimension of land is also critical for establishing rules of natural

resource management. In this respect tara bandu plays a key role. According to

Demetrio do Amaral de Carvalho from Haburas Foundation, and winner of the

Goldman Prize in 2004, ―Tara Bandu is an East Timor tradition, a customary law that

we recognize as traditional ecological wisdom. It involves a kind of agreement within a

community to protect a special area for a period of time―; usually it prohibits the use of

certain areas taken as sacred, but is not exclusively applicable to sacred sites (Carvalho

2004). The prohibitions usually concern harvesting crops, cutting trees, collecting forest

products and hunting or fishing. Tara bandu is a custom that regulates the relationship

between humans and the environment. Ritual prohibitions, or tara bandu, are

widespread throughout Timor; however, the ways in which it is applied and the term

employed to describe it vary across the territory. Sacred sites, therefore, contribute

significantly to the regulating and supporting dimension of well being, preserving areas

around water sources or forests ecologically useful to maintain water flows and avoid

erosion. More importantly, they contribute to maintaining biological diversity

Traditional practices linked to sacred land play an important role in developing

social capital and enhancing social well-being, e.g. the loss of important ceremonial

practices contributes to weakening social relations in the community. On the other hand

affiliation with an uma lulik constitutes a safety network, providing access to natural

resources, for example. Sacred houses and other sacred places, like sacrificial shrines

(sacrificial altar sites) and sacred water sources are basic to East Timorese social

organization and social cohesion. To be able to express their faith and their values,



17

namely by performing traditional ceremonies in public demonstrations, increases

people‘s feeling of security and reduces their vulnerability. These performances can also

act as tools to empower people. Thus, protecting sacred places in Timor-Leste is critical

to strengthen its culture, and thereby its cultural identity and status as a sovereign

nation.

HUMAN RIGHTS BASED APPROACH IMPLICATIONS IN PRACTICE

How does a human rights-based approach to development translate into practice

in the case of the role of forest and non-productive land use in the well-being of rural

Timor-Leste? Traditional development approaches to land use usually start from the

identification of what was called here provisioning services to move on to propose more

efficient and productive uses, i.e. generating more income. A human rights-based

approach acknowledges the need for such an exercise, but also recognizes that well-

being is a multidimensional concept and, thereby, that other services must be considered

and material wants pair with immaterial aspirations. The heart of the matter concerns

the principles upon which a development policy for rural areas of Timor-Leste, that

considers on an equal footing provisioning, supporting, regulating and cultural services,

should be designed.

Supplying these different services implies a double condition of sustainability.

First, on account of the indivisibility of rights, the provision of each of the services has

to be sustainable with the ability to provide the others not only in the future but also in

the present. A productive (i.e. commercial) and non-productive (i.e. non commercial)

use of land, for example, must be made compatible in the same way as one person‘s

freedom ends where another person‘s freedom begins. When this is impossible to

achieve it is, on the other hand, the duty of a human rights-based approach to

development to make sure that the rights of the most fragile layers of society are

secured first. In this sense it is necessary to preserve large parts of traditional land use

because there are no obvious substitutes to secure the well-being of poor rural

communities.

Second, a sustainable use of the resources is fundamental to secure the human

right to a clean and healthy environment. Indeed, the UN General Assembly in its 1994

resolution 45/94 recognized that all individuals are entitled to live in an environment

4514 | ESADR 2013


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adequate for their health and well-being and to have the environment protected, for the

benefit of present and future generations. The sustainability issue is all the more critical

since securing human rights in general does not consider any sort of term beyond which

it would be acceptable for a human right to be no longer secured. In other words

securing human rights implies guaranteeing intergenerational justice in the use of

resources (see Gosseries 2008) and thereby its sustainable use.

Sacred land use responds positively to this double sustainability requirement and

thus constitutes an indispensable instrument for securing well-being along the lines of a

human rights-based approach to development. Through Tara Bandu, for example the

sacred dimension of land contributes to the preservation of forests, mountains and other

geographical formations and thus to the supporting and regulating services delivered by

ecosystems. This function of culture is all the more crucial that unsustainable

exploitation of resources is historically responsible for the near disappearance of

sandalwood, Timor-Leste‘s most renowned richness.

Besides supporting and regulating services, sacred land not only supplies direct

provisioning services but it also contributes indirectly to the overall development

process. Describing the functions of the Timorese sacred house, Andrew McWilliam

sustains that ―With a common ancestry identified, ceremonies and rituals taking place in

the house re-affirm ties to ancestral generations, unify extended family members and

bind them to each other and to the specific geographic territory associated with the

house‖ (apud Castro 2007:19 and 20). Culture can, therefore, act as a tool to empower

people, protecting sacred places in Timor-Leste being critical to strengthen its cultural

identity and status as a sovereign nation. Despite the small size of the country let us not

forget that more than 30 ethno-linguistic groups share the territory.

Culture in general, and sacred land use in particular, in Timor-Leste, as in many

other parts of the world, is, therefore, a decisive instrument for nation building. When

trying to explain why the industrial revolution started in England, David Landes brought

forward the fact that this country had the early advantage of being a nation, taken not

only as a territory but also as something close to what could be called a cultural entity.

According to Landes, the importance of national identity lies on the fact that it helps

reconciling social purposes and individual action (Landes, 1999). Moreover, several

studies show that the only countries that have succeeded in development in recent

decades are those that kept intact the spine of their culture, such as Japan and South



19

Korea for instance (Dockès, Rosier, 1988; Latouche, 1992; Lê Thàn Khôi, 1992;

Morishima 1982).

The human rights principles of accountability, equality and universality raise one

other crucial question concerning the identity of the services provided and therefore, the

identity of the provider and the forms of ownership. First, the great majority of the

services provided by ecosystems can be considered public or common pool goods and

services. In this case common ownership applies and the lulik function of land emerges

as a compatible resource management system. Second only public or common provision

of those goods and the services that are necessary to secure human rights responds to

human rights principles. Private provision cannot comply with the conditions of

universality, equality and accountability for instance (Branco 2009). Indeed, markets

have no mechanisms to ensure that everyone, regardless of their ability to pay, has equal

access to the services necessary to secure human rights, such as water for example.

Likewise private providers are not accountable. If the state fails in ensuring an

individual his or her right to water the State is accountable either legally in a court of

law or politically through elections. If the market fails in ensuring human rights, whom

should an individual turn to (see Branco and Henriques, 2010: 151)? Therefore, in the

absence of a widespread public service resulting partly from the young age of the

country, traditional mechanisms of managing natural resources inscribed in Timorese

culture are vital to secure both people‘s well-being in the present and sustainable use for

the future.

CONCLUSION

Just like in many other developing countries, ecosystems performs a crucial role

in the development of rural areas in Timor-Leste and in the process of achieving a

higher standard of well-being. Timor-Leste‘s world is diverse and complex, with a

specific cultural matrix that has survived Portuguese colonisation, Japanese invasion,

Indonesian occupation, transition process conducted by the United Nations towards the

restoration of independence and the early stages of a newly independent nation. The

diversity and complexity of the cultural matrix have also been decisive to determine the

patterns of land use that are observed in the country.

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Due to their cosmology and heavy dependency on natural resources, the people

of Timor-Leste have established a very close relationship with nature, which provides

them with essential goods and services such as water, land, food, firewood, building

materials and spiritual enrichment. Many of the goods and services that support well-

being have a public or common pool good nature, which means that they do not have a

market value and, therefore, are not subject to commodification. In this sense, rather

than a factor in resisting development, culture in Timor-Leste seems more likely to be

an instrument in resisting to the commodification of nature.

In Timor-Leste people and ecosystems have established a close and holistic

relationship, ecosystems providing not only economic benefits but also important

cultural services. In short, as shown above, all land uses, land services and constituents

of well-being are interconnected and contribute to the ultimate well-being benefit of

―freedom of choice and action‖. In spite of all the efforts made by the international

community and the Timorese governments, the country still ranks 134th out of 185 in

the human development index (HDI) (UNDP 2013), while in the human poverty index

(HPI-1) Timor-Leste ranks 122nd out of 135 countries (UNDP 2009). In their struggle to

pull out from its actual stage of poor human development, Timorese people should not

be misled, though, and just concentrate on exploiting the economic value of its

ecosystems. There is still a long way to go before Timorese people can enjoy acceptable

levels of well-being and this article suggests that this journey will more likely be

abridged with their culture than without it.

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THE LIVESTOCK ROLES IN THE WELLBEING OF RURAL COMMUNITIES OF TIMOR-LESTE

Elisa Maria Varela Bettencourt, ICAAM-UE, [email protected] Mário Tilman, UNTL, [email protected] Pedro Damião de Sousa Henriques, CEFAGE-UE, [email protected] Vanda Narciso, Independent researcher, [email protected] Maria Leonor da Silva Carvalho, ICAAM-UE, [email protected] Abstract The livestock species play very important economic and socio-cultural roles for the wellbeing of rural households, such as food supply, source of income, asset saving, source of employment, soil fertility, livelihoods, transport, agricultural traction, agricultural diversification and sustainable agricultural production. The aim of this work was to identify and characterize the different roles that livestock and livestock species play in rural communities of Timor-Leste, highlighting the importance of animal production for the wellbeing and rural development, and relate the functions performed by livestock production with economic, social and cultural attributes of the communities. The data used in this study were collected in 2011 through a questionnaire survey in three rural communities in the district of Bobonaro -mountain area, irrigation plain and coastal zone, and were complemented with secondary data. Livestock production in Timor-Leste is predominantly familiar being chickens, pigs, goats, cattle, horses, buffaloes and sheep the main species. Beyond the economic function, each livestock species also performs social and cultural functions. Key words: Timor-Leste, livestock, wellbeing, development

Resumo As espécies animais desempenham um papel muito importante a nível económico e sociocultural no bem estar das famílias rurais, o qual se prende com o forneceimento de alimentos, fonte de rendimento, poupanças, fonte de emprego, fertilidade dos solos, subsistência, transporte, tração, diversificação agrícola e sustentabilidade da produção agrícola. O objetivo deste trabalhofoi identificar e caraterizar os diferentes papéis desempenhados pelos animais nas comunidades rurais de Timor-Leste, salientando a importância da produção animal para o bem estar e para o desenvolvimento rural, e relacionar as funções que a pecuária executa com os atributos económicos, sociais e culturais das comunidades. Os dados usados neste estudo foram recolhidos em 2011 através de um questionário em três comunidades rurais no distrito de Bobonaro – áreas de montanha, de irrigação e zona costeira, complementado com dados secundários. A produção animal em Timor-Leste é predominantemente familiar, sendo as principais espécies as galinhas, porcos, cabras, bovinos, cavalos, bufalos e ovinos. Além da função económica, cada espécie desempenha também funções sociais e culturais.

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Palavras-chave: Timor-Leste, pecuária, bem estar, desenvolvimento

1. Introduction The livestock species play very important economic, social and cultural roles or functions for rural households once they contribute to improve income and wellbeing of the farm family. Livestock helps on food supply, family nutrition, family income, asset savings, soil productivity, livelihoods, transport, agricultural traction, agricultural diversification and sustainable agricultural production, family and community employment, ritual purposes and social status (Moyo et al., 2010). Livestock functions can be classified in several ways. According to FAO (ILRI, 1995), two widely used classifications are based on the kinds of output produced or in the uses in which these outputs are put on. Among the kinds of output produced it should be mentioned the food, inputs to cropping, and raw materials. Among output uses, subsistence consumption by the livestock holder's household, direct supply of inputs, cash income through sales of live animals or their output, savings and investment and social functions such as paying bride wealth, or providing animals for communal feasts or sacrifices can be pointed out. Another classification divides livestock functions in economic roles such as source of cash income and mean of savings accumulation, direct feed use for family subsistence, input supply such as fertilizer and animal draught and capacity to comply with a set of social rules and obligations. Livestock has an important contribution for food supply of rural and urban areas and contributes to the family nutrition, supplying animal protein. As household income increases, the consumption of protein increases, principally from animal origin, allowing the substitution of vegetal by animal protein. Besides milk, eggs and meat used as a source of food, other livestock products are used for domestic consumption and local sale such as skins, hides and horns. Livestock feature as living savings can be converted into cash whenever the family needs it, is a security asset influencing access to informal credits and loans and being also a source of collateral for loans. In many rural regions, in special where financial markets are absent or non-existent, livestock stocks or herds are a source of asset accumulation and a measure of prosperity. Livestock stocks or assets can be mobilized at any time, satisfying planned expenditures such as children school fees and bride wealth or unplanned expenses such as the illness and death of family members. This livestock asset could be seen as “bank account” and it is also an important source of family savings that can be used in years of low crop production, reducing income insecurity and household vulnerability, being an important source of risk reduction and security increase. Livestock production is closely interrelated with crop production. The use of livestock and its sub product manure are important in crop production. Livestock is a source of energy providing draught animal power while manure improves soil structure and fertility as well as water retention. Both uses are environmentally friendly improving energy and nutrient cycling. Livestock is also used to transport agricultural inputs and outputs and people. Livestock production is an important mean of exchange between rural households and, when sold, contributes to boost and strengthen rural markets. Rural markets are an important piece in the operation mode of rural communities and a significant contribution for rural families’ wellbeing and wealth. The livestock social functions correspond to the symbolic values associated to each species and the use of animals for the fulfillment of a set of rituals and social



obligations of families and communities. Livestock gives social status to its owners once it is considered a common mean of demonstrating wealth and provides economic status as it facilitates the access to informal credits and loans to the households. Livestock is also used in traditional rituals, ceremonies and festivities and is given as a gift in worships (e.g. installation of ancestral spirits, ritual slaughter, bride wealth). In some cultures, animals can be considered sacred (cattle in India) and in others cultures (pigs in Muslim countries) animals are impure. For both these cultures, those species are not consumed by the population. In other countries or cultures, animals play an important leisure role, being used for betting, like horse racing and cock fighting, for sports, like horses in polo and bullfighting and for hunting, like dogs, falcons and horses. Animal health greatly affects livestock functions, not only by direct effects on animal productivity but also by indirect effects, namely concerning human health, coasts associated to disease control, international movement restrictions of animals and animal products as well as animal welfare (Otte and Chilonda, 2000). Concerning the direct effect on productivity, it can be due not only to the mortality and reduction of livestock herds, but also, due to the decrease on productive parameters, namely weight gain or milk production, or even through the decrease of quality of animal products. The existence of a great number of parasitary, infectious or metabolic diseases that affect fertility cannot be underestimated, despite the difficulty to quantify the associated costs. Besides the positive effects of livestock to human welfare, livestock production and consumption can also be associated to some risks, namely the transmission of important diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans (zoonosis). The absence of rigorous animal health control programs represents a high risk to the human health. Moreover the rigorous control and restrictions to animal movement and to exportation of animal products, associated with the existence of animal disease, makes the existence of national animal health programs indispensable in order to allow international trade. The social and cultural functions of livestock are often ignored when estimating the total contribution of livestock to the development and well-being of rural communities. Since those functions are difficult to value in monetary terms, emphasis is mainly placed on the physical marketed livestock production. One key to smallholder competitiveness is its ability to capture non market benefits, however not well measured to date (Ouma et al., 2003). It is relevant to know the present functions of the livestock sector, and to understand that expanding the output of one function may diminish the output of another. So, in order to evaluate its importance, from different points of views, and to ensure correct policies and practices, all of them have to be taken in consideration. Livestock production in Timor-Leste is predominantly familiar, the main species including chickens, pigs, goats, horses, cattle, buffaloes and sheep, and each one performing several functions for rural communities and families. The aim of this work is, for three rural communities in the district of Bobonaro - mountain area, irrigation plain and coastal zone -, to identify and characterize the different roles that livestock and livestock species play in rural communities, highlighting the importance of animal production for the wellbeing and rural development, and relate the functions performed by livestock production with economic, social and cultural attributes of the communities. The primary data used in this study was collected in 2011 through a questionnaire survey and complemented with secondary data from different consulted sources. The

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farrmers survey was conducted in three sucos, Tapo-Tas, Tapo-Memo and Aidabaleten, of the district of Bobonaro, where 101 households were selected by convenience sampling. The questionnaire characterized the economic and the sociocultural functions that livestock production plays in the life, wellbeing and development of rural households and communities. The secondary data used included the studies made during Portuguese colonial period and after the 1999 referendum and the data collected in the different livestock census, in special the 2004 and 2010 census. The analysis performed was essentially descriptive and qualitative, highlighting the functions that livestock still performs in the rural communities of Timor-Leste. After this introduction, in the second part livestock production in Timor-Leste is characterized, in the third section the functions of livestock production and species in Timor-Leste are explained and in the final part the main conclusions are drawn. 2. Livestock production in Timor-Leste Regarding livestock production in Timor-Leste, it is important to remember that sheep and cows were introduced sometime in the past, after the arrival of the Portuguese and Europeans in the territory and that at the beginning of the XXth century the number of cattle was very small, in 1920 was 617, and only in 1954 reached more than 10,000 heads. The evolution of the number of livestock heads during the last century shows three moments in which the livestock stocks were severely reduced: second world war, beginning of the war for independence or beginning of Indonesian occupation and referendum for independence, as can be seen in Figure 1, where the number of livestock heads is expressed in terms of livestock standard units (LSU). The LSU at the end of Portuguese colonization is very similar to the one observed nowadays. However, LSU per capita is lower nowadays due to the population growth that was observed during the last 40 years. At the end of Portuguese colonization, LSU per capita were around 0.65 while nowadays is around 0.43.

Figure 1 – The evolution of the number of livestock heads ((LSU) in Timor-Leste

A comparative static analysis can be made between the different historical periods (Table 1). For instance, between the end of Portuguese colonization (1970) and nowadays (2010), cattle increased 2.3 times, buffalos decreased 25%, horses decreased 50%, pigs increased 1.5 times and goat decreased 30%.

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

LSU



TABLE 1 Number of livestock heads in Timor-Leste during the last century

Cattle Buffalos Horses Pigs Sheep Goats LSU LSU per

capita 1927 1477 126356 73028 121225 47171 146122 254075 0.563 1946 881 64073 38487 73371 21051 52708 132468 0.329 1970 70607 127148 114152 224268 43033 217011 404788 0.640 1983 39705 40229 21584 202242 17751 74062 187279 0.297 1997 146557 73818 32792 362473 20391 202934 413930 0.491 2010 161654 96484 57819 330435 41854 152360 455989 0.428 The majority of rural households and a significant number of urban households own some sort of livestock, 76.63% of the total number of households rear livestock. Livestock species, per order of importance in head numbers, are chicken, pigs, goats, cattle, horses, buffalos and sheep (DNE 2006; DNE 2011). Between 2004 and 2010, the number of heads increased for all species reported, excepted for horses. From the household point of view, the most important livestock species are chickens and pigs. In 2004, more than 70% of the households owned these two species, while, in 2010, that percentage decreased to around 67%. The percentage of households with cattle and goats is around 20%, and between 2004 and 2010 there was an increase in the number of household holders of 8.3 and 9.3%, respectively. In the same period, the households with horses decreased 19.3%, from 17.6% to 15.0%, while households with buffalos decreased 13.6%, from 11.3 to 10.4%. The percentage of household with sheep is small, around 4%, with a reduction in the period of 11.9%. In overall terms, between 2004 and 2010, only in cattle and goat production, there was an increase in the number of households involved in those livestock activities. The average number of heads of livestock per household is low, but some large producers are found throughout the country. In 2010, the average number of heads is 6 for sheep, 5.6 for chicken, 5.0 for buffalos, 3.8 for cattle, 3.3 for goats, 2.7 for pigs and 2.1 for horses. Between 2004 and 2010, the average number of livestock heads per household increased. The reduction in the number of households involved in livestock production and the increase in livestock density per family is a phenomenon that often happens simultaneously (Table 2).

TABLE 2 Households producing the different livestock activities in 2004 and 2010

Livestock Species

Number of livestock (heads)

Number of households involved

% of households with livestock

Number of livestock per household

2004 2010 2004 2010 2004 2010 2004 2010 Chickens 659066 702474 141372 124658 72.5 67.5 4.7 5.6 Pigs 331895 330435 140697 123862 72.2 67.1 2.4 2.7 Goats 126977 152360 41902 45781 21.5 24.8 3.0 3.3 Cattle 133577 161654 39713 43028 20.4 23.3 3.4 3.8 Horses 63234 57819 34314 27691 17.6 15.0 1.8 2.1 Buffalos 95921 96484 22127 19119 11.3 10.4 4.3 5.0 Sheep 38965 41854 7897 6957 4.1 3.8 4.9 6.0 Source: DNE 2006 and 2011 As expected, the percentage of urban households with livestock is much lower than those of rural households. Around 79.9% of rural households have some sort of livestock production and only 56.1% of urban households do.

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The more relevant livestock species for urban households are chickens and pigs, 41.3 and 41.0%, respectively. Regarding the average number of livestock heads per household, urban areas show higher stock rates for all the species, except for pigs (Table 3).

TABLE 3 Comparison of livestock in rural and urban households for 2010

Livestock Species Percentage of households Number of livestock per household Urban Rural Urban Rural

Chickens 41.3 76.7 6.3 5.5 Pigs 41.0 76.2 2.3 2.7 Goats 9.0 30.3 4.0 3.3 Cattle 6.9 29.0 4.0 3.7 Horses 2.7 19.3 2.8 2.1 Buffalos 3.3 12.8 6.3 4.9 Sheep 1.8 4.4 7.7 5.8 Source: DNE 2011 The comparison between 2004 and 2010 of urban and rural households that rear livestock shows that the number and proportion of urban households with chicken and pigs decreased, while the number and proportion of urban households with sheep increased. Regarding livestock heads, the urban number and proportion of heads increased for chicken and sheep and decreased for pigs. Concerning the percentage of households involved in the production of each animal species, per district, one can conclude that the importance of pigs and chicken is similar in almost all the districts (around 70%), with exception for the urban district of Díli (around 30%) and Liquiça (84% and 82%, respectively for chicken and pigs). Covalima, Bobonaro and Oecussi are the more representative districts concerning cattle production, with almost half of households owning cattle (Covalima 49.3%, Bobonaro 43.3% and Oecussi 44.5%). Household engagement in buffalo production is higher in Viqueque (24.2%), Lautem (22.3%), Manatuto (19.2%), Manufahi (19.2%) and Ainaro (15.3%).The most important districts involved in goat production are Liquiça (50.1%) Aileu (39.7%), Oecussi (35.6%), Manatuto (32.8%) and Baucau (30.2%) and sheep production is mainly restricted to Baucau and Manatuto districts, respectively with 17.8% and 6.1% of the households involved. Horse distribution is higher in the mountainous districts, Ainaro (37.5%), Manufahi (29.7%), Manatuto (25.5%), Baucau (24.7%) and Aileu (24.0%).

TABLE 4

Livestock distribution per district (% ) Chicken Pig Goat Cattle/Cow Horse Buffalos Sheep Ainaro 4.6 5.0 4.1 4.0 11.0 5.1 2.6 Aileu 3.4 3.8 3.9 2.9 4.3 1.8 2.0 Baucau 12.0 10.7 17.0 3.8 20.8 15.1 55.2 Bobonaro 10.9 12.3 11.8 18.1 5.8 7.8 4.9 Covalima 6.8 9.6 4.6 13.8 2.8 2.6 1.7 Dili 9.9 8.6 9.5 2.2 2.5 1.5 4.3 Ermera 9.3 8.3 6.1 7.0 6.1 3.9 2.9 Liquiça 6.8 6.8 10.8 5.0 2.6 2.4 1.8 Lautem 9.6 7.5 5.6 10.4 10.5 15.9 5.9 Manufahi 5.2 5.0 3.3 4.7 7.3 6.1 0.9 Manatuto 3.5 4.3 5.6 3.8 5.4 8.9 9.7 Oecussi 6.6 7.6 8.8 10.2 2.4 1.9 2.5 Viqueque 11.6 10.5 8.9 14.0 18.7 26.9 5.7 Timor-Leste 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Source: DNE 2011



Regarding the distribution of livestock species per district, in overall terms, the districts of Baucau, Viqueque and Bobonaro are the ones that show higher proportion of livestock heads. For chicken, the order is Baucau, Viqueque and Bobonaro, for pigs Bobonaro, Baucau and Viqueque, for goats Baucau, Bobonaro and Liquiça, for cattle Bobonaro, Viqueque and Covalima, for horses Baucau, Viqueque and Ainaro, for buffalos Viqueque, Baucau and Lautem and for sheep Baucau with more 55% of total heads (Table 4).

TABLE 5

Number of livestock units per household and per district Chicken Pig Goat Cattle/Cow Horse Buffalos Sheep Ainaro 4.6 2.3 2.7 3.8 1.8 3.3 4.4 Aileu 4.5 2.2 2.1 2.2 1.5 2.2 3.6 Baucau 5.1 2.2 4.0 4.1 2.3 5.1 6.1 Bobonaro 5.9 3.1 3.3 4.0 1.7 4.1 6.4 Covalima 5.9 3.6 3.7 4.1 1.6 3.8 7.1 Dili 5.8 2.3 4.0 4.6 4.6 4.2 5.8 Ermera 4.7 2.1 2.4 2.4 1.6 2.7 3.2 Liquiça 5.5 2.6 3.2 2.4 1.6 4.1 6.0 Lautem 7.9 3.1 4.3 5.9 2.7 6.0 6.8 Manufahi 6.1 2.9 3.0 3.7 1.8 4.3 3.3 Manatuto 4.9 2.8 3.8 3.9 1.8 6.4 9.5 Oecussi 4.5 2.5 2.7 2.7 2.0 3.5 11.7 Viqueque 7.6 3.5 4.1 6.6 2.8 7.7 5.1 Timor-Leste 5.6 2.7 3.3 3.8 2.1 5.0 6.0 Source: DNE 2011 Crossing livestock heads with households involved in production, Table 5 shows animal densities per household and district. Regarding chickens, heads per households are higher in Lautem and Viqueque, for pigs in Viqueque and Lautem, for goats in Viqueque, Díli and Lautem, for cattle Viqueque and Lautem, for horses in Díli, Viqueque and Lautem, for buffalos Viqueque Manatuto and Lautem and for sheep Oecussi and Manatuto. In overall terms, animal producers of Viqueque and Lautem are the ones with higher animal herds. Livestock feeding is done using native pastures, crop and fallow land, agricultural products and waste materials around houses and villages. No grazing management rules of natural pastures leads many times to overgrazing and unsustainable animal production due to loss of the cover vegetation and enhanced soil erosion. Native pastures available occupy an area of around 200,000 ha, about 10% of the country area (Cruz, 2003). The average number of cows and buffalos per ha of native pasture is around 1.,3 heads, higher than 3 for the districts of Dili, Aileu and Ermera and less than 1 for Lautem, Covalima and Manufahi,. In overall terms, animal production is performed without any special concerns regarding feeding, reproduction or even health management. Animals are kept all together around the year, eating what is available, reproducing around all the seasons and fighting most of the diseases based only in their natural resistance. Vaccination is performed only for a few diseases, namely haemorrhagic septicaemia in cattle and buffalos; classic swine fever in pigs and Newcastle disease in chicken. However, as there is no consistent official animal identification, is difficult to evaluate the overall efficacy of its application. Pigs and goats are mostly free ranging, some being housed near human houses and sometimes feeding with domestic feed debris. Chicken are almost raised as scavenging birds. Some times are housed at night and feed with domestic feed debris.

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Buffalos, cattle and sheep are raised free in native pastures. Changes in feed quality are seasonal and associated with changes in rainfall, which results sometimes in inadequate feed supply. Problems of inadequate feeding are more frequently associated with inadequate quality, namely low protein content, than with complete absence of aliment and sometimes are due to poor feed resources utilization (Smith, 1992). The low quality of native grasses namely in the dry season, in which protein contents can fall below 4%, and the inability of the traditional grazing management methods to improve pasture utilization and enrichment are good examples of cattle and buffalo production constrains (Timor Agri, 2004). In many situations, livestock underfeeding is observed but no feed supplements are supplied. Actually, in some areas, cattle and buffalos are supplemented with leguminous trees, namely Gliricidia sepium and Leucaena leucocephala. However, and as referred in the past, at the present time frequently the nutrition of livestock species and working horses is often neglected and many still suffer from hunger (Cruz, 2003). Despite the lack of reliable information on reproductive data, there is consensus that livestock fertility rate is low. The absence of a defined reproductive season and the associated nutritional constrains described above, as well as the possible existence of diseases affecting fertility can be responsible for this situation. The low fertility will affect animal selection and genetic progress. Moreover, the use of male animals in some rituals may have important consequences on fertility, mainly if the younger and better animals are the selected ones, staying in the farms only the older males to be used in reproduction. Recently, a survey was conducted by MAF (Minister of Agriculture and Fishery), with the support of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Bogor University. The results show high serological prevalence of Brucellosis in cattle and buffalos in some districts of East Timor, which can be in part responsible for this low fertility (Conceição, 2012). More research is needed in order to understand the real impact on fertility of this disease. Local livestock species, such as chicken and pigs, are more valuable than the imported ones. Regarding the gender divisions, usually women take care of small animals that live around the house, chicken and pigs, and men of the others, goats, buffalos, horses and cattle (our observations and Miranda, 2011). Regardless the importance of livestock species in Timor-Leste, few studies have been performed in animal health distribution and no diseases are reported in OIE database (OIE, 2012). In the past, surra (Trypanosoma evansi) and hemorrhagic septicemia (Pasteurella multocida) have been described as causing high mortality in Timor-Leste, namely in buffalos (Valdez, 1927; Valdez 1929; Silva, 1954). Moreover, Silva (1960) performed a parasitic prospection in Timor-Leste in which he describes the internal and external parasitic fauna existent in the island, including Trypanosoma evansi, Fasciola hepatica Ascaris lumbricoide,Taenia solium and Coccidea sp. as well as a variety of ticks, namely, Amblyoma cyprium cyprium, Boophilus microplus, Haemaphysalis papuana, Rhipicephalus haemaphysaloides, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, which are well known vectors of important animal diseases. A recent parasitic prospection (Conceição, 2012), conducted by MAF with the cooperation of Bogor University, showed the presence of parasites in cattle, buffalos and pigs. The parasites identified with higher prevalence in cattle and buffalos were Anaplasma sp. (26.4%), Babesia sp. (23.4%), Theileria sp. (19%), and Coccidia sp., in 11.9% of the samples. In pigs the more frequent parasites included Coccidia sp. (24.6%), Eperythrozonn sp. (24.5%) and Ascaris sp. (17.6%). Nowadays, Timor-Leste official veterinary services developed and applied veterinary programs concerning the control of some animal diseases, namely, as referred,



hemorrhagic septicemia in cattle and buffalo, classic swine fever in pigs and Newcastle disease in chicken. The serological survey conducted by MAF, referred earlier in this text, also included the serological evaluation concerning the agents of these diseases. Positive serology was found in buffalos and cattle for Brucellosis and for Pasteurella multocida (hemorrhagic septicemia), in pigs for the virus of classic swine fever and in chicken for the virus of Newcastle disease and Infectious Bursal disease (Conceição, 2012). Concerning the zoonotic diseases, the risk is highly improved due to the absence of animal official identification and routine animal health controls, indispensables for the control of important zoonosis, namely brucellosis and tuberculosis. The recent confirmation of the presence of Brucellosis in cattle and buffalos (Feliciano, 2012) emphasize the urgent need of developing an official program for the control of this important disease. Moreover some livestock animals, namely pigs, are important reservoirs of emergent diseases in humans, namely Japanese encephalitis, which have been recently identified in Timor-Leste (WHO, 2012). Because pigs are mostly free ranging, some being housed near human houses, the risk for encephalitis is higher in the rural areas where rice fields and pigs coexist. 3. The functions of livestock production and livestock species in Timor-Leste The descriptions made by the Portuguese during the XX century about Timor-Leste livestock species talk about buffalos, cattle, horses and pigs as a symbol of wealth, being the greatness of a king, chief or a simple man of the people, assessed by the number of animals or herds owned. Although there were significant livestock numbers and the fact that animals are an important source of proteins, the population rarely consumed their animals at home, except during funerals or feasts. Animals were a way of capital accumulation and savings, which could be employed at the time of household necessities. The Timor-Leste population does not explore livestock in economic and profitability terms. The animals are mostly used to sell or exchange for other products and to perform ceremonies and rituals. Livestock is seen as immobilized resource or wealth with low economic profitability (Valdez, 1929; Artur, 1926; Costa, 1950; Silva, 1954; Friedeberg, 1974; MED, 2008). 3.1. Economic functions Domestic consumption Livestock species are a source of protein for Timor-Leste population but the consumption of meat is not done in a daily basis, instead it happens in the absence of vegetables, in the presence of guests and at the time when ceremonies are made, being chicken and pork the preferred ones. Meat dog is also consumed either at home or in the traditional restaurants, though in Viqueque only by men, being assumed that for women it is considered sacred (Miranda, 2011). Despite the old descriptions that referred that pure milk and milk mixed with rice or crushed corn were consumed as a delicious manjar and that the milk left was sold (Martinho, 1936), at present, milk from local production is not drunk, while eggs consumption is restricted, mostly due to the fact that in the free ranging system it is often difficult to find and collect the eggs. The results obtained in three sucos of Bobonaro district show that the majority of the population eat meat only once a week (53.9%) and 31.4% twice a week (Table 6). Tapo-Memo population has higher consumption of meat than the other two sucos perhaps because this is a more urban suco. These overall results are better than the ones obtained

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by Deus (2011) for Letefoho sub-district, in Ermera district, in which the majority of the population eat meat once a month (47.7%) and 29.1% twice a week. These modest results confirm some of the descriptions made during Portuguese colonial period that reported to be rare the Timor-Leste population eat their own domestic animals.

TABLE 6 Number of times that households eat meat per week

Number Tapo-Tas Tapo-Memo Aidabaleten Total

Nº % Nº % Nº % Nº % 0 0 0.0 0 0.0 7 20.0 7 6.9 1 26 74.3 8 25.0 21 60.0 55 53.9 2 6 17.1 21 65.6 5 14.3 32 31.4 3 3 8.6 2 6.3 2 5.7 7 6.9 4 0 0.0 1 3.1 0 0.0 1 1.0 Total 35 100.0 32 100.0 35 100.0 102 100.0

Regarding the livestock species used for self-consumption (Table 7), chickens, goats and pigs are the species more consumed. Regarding the households involved in livestock rearing in the survey, 66.3% eat chickens, 46.7% goats and 31.3% pigs. Sheep, buffalos and cattle are the species less utilized for self-consumption.

TABLE 7 Number and percentage of households that rear livestock and use for self-consumption

Tapo-Tas Tapo-Memo Aidabaleten Total

Nº % Nº Nº Nº % Nº % Chickens 9 39.1 25 89.3 19 65.5 53 66.3 Pigs 1 3.4 15 55.6 10 37.0 26 31.3 Goats 1 33.3 12 63.2 8 34.8 21 46.7 Cattle 2 9.5 5 25.0 5 18.5 12 17.6 Buffalos 1 25.0 1 50.0 1 11.1 3 20.0 Sheep 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 12.5 2 22.2 Monetary income Livestock is an important source of monetary income for Timor-Leste rural population. In our study (Table 8), the majority of the households ranked livestock as their most important second and third source of income, with 40.2% and 23.5% of households, respectively, while ranked fourth as first source of income with 18.6% of households. Regarding the 1th source of income, Tapo-Tas ranked livestock immediately after the first rank, wage work. In the other two sucos, livestock was ranked in first place as second source of income. The livestock species that contribute to livestock monetary income, stated in descending order by households, are pigs, chickens, cattle and goats, being buffalos residual. Regarding the households that are now involved in livestock rearing, 77.8% sell sheep, 66.7% goats, 60.0% chickens, 58.8% cattle, 51.8% pigs and 46.7% buffalos, as can be seen in Table 9.

TABLE 8 Livestock ranking by households as a source of income

Tapo-Tas Tapo-Memo Aidabaleten Total Nº % Rank Nº % Rank Nº % Rank Nº % Rank

1th source of income 13 37.1 2ª 1 3.1 3ª 5 14.3 2ª 19 18.6 4ª 2th source of income 9 28.1 2ª 16 50.0 1ª 16 45.7 1ª 41 40.2 1ª 3th source of income 9 25.7 1ª 8 25.0 1ª 7 20.0 3ª 24 23.5 1ª



TABLE 9 Number and percentage of households that rear livestock and sell

Livestock species Tapo-Tas Tapo-Memo Aidabaleten Total Nº % Nº % Nº % Nº %

Chickens 10 43.5 22 78.6 16 55.2 48 60.0 Pigs 10 34.5 21 77.8 12 44.4 43 51.8 Goats 3 100.0 12 63.2 15 65.2 30 66.7 Cattle 14 66.7 7 35.0 19 70.4 40 58.8 Buffalos 1 25.0 0 0.0 6 66.7 7 46.7 Sheep 1 100.0 0 0.0 6 75.0 7 77.8 Cash income received from livestock selling and from other economic activities is used to pay the school of children, to buy clothes, tools and food and for 36.3% of the households to buy animals to rear. Animal draught power and fertilizer The technologies used by subsistence agriculture are traditional ones with low modern input use. The most important vegetal activities in terms of household in crop production are maize, cassava, temporary fruits, permanent fruits, vegetables, coconuts, coffee and rice. The use of draught animal power for land preparation is mainly confined to rice while the use of animal manure to fertilize the soil is widely used in the different crops. Buffalos and horses are used in the preparation of the soil in rice fields. In the Baucau district, Silva (2011) found that around 52.1% of farmers use buffalos and 24% use horses in rice field preparation. In the suco of Tapo-tas, the households only use tools for land preparation, in Tapo-Memo, where the rice is an important culture, around 40.6% of households use animal draught power and, in Aidabaleten, 22.9% (Table 10). In these two sucos, the majority of the animals are owned by the households.

TABLE 10 Number and percentage of households using animal draught ,power

Tapo-Tas Tapo-Memo Aidabaleten Total Nº % Nº % Nº % Nº %

Animal draught 0 0.0 13 40.6 8 22.9 21 20.6 Owned 0 0.0 11 84.6 8 100.0 19 90.5 Rented 0 0.0 2 15.4 0 0.0 2 9.5 During the Portuguese colonization and Indonesian occupation, several attempts were made for the introduction and reinforce of animal draught power, not only for rice but also for the other agricultural activities such as maize. For example, with the supervision of Portuguese administration, fields experiments were made to use ploughs adapted to the thin and unfertile mountainous soils (Silva, 1910; Martinho, 1936; Thomaz, 1974). During the Indonesian occupation, attempts were made, principally through transmigrants, to increase the use of draft animals, while after 1999 several programs and projects provided training and support in the use of drafts animals and on plowing (OXFAM, 2004). But all the programs were not successful. It is worth noting that ploughs are not used in Timor-Leste by the rural population since the country is outside the diffusion area of the Chinese plough, that reached Philippines and North Borneo, and also from the Indian plough, that affected Java and Bali (Thomaz, 1973). Mean of transportation

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The Timorese horse is one of the greatest richness of Timor-Leste people. From Arab origin, with elegant shape, is small and nervous, tough and of a great resistance. Having hard shell and not using horseshoe, climbs like a goat the highest mountains and the steepest barriers and goes down without hesitation the most rugged slopes, walks the difficult and dangerous paths of rural Timor-Leste. His natural aptitude is for saddle and race, although can be used for draught (Valdez, 1926; Silva, 1954). In the past, horses were used not only as transportation and draught animal power, but also in the wars between the different kingdoms and between them and the Portuguese colonial power. Horses were also used in the hunt of deer. Until the XIX century, Timor-Leste horses were well known in the South East Asia for their excellent qualities and were exported for Philippines and Dutch territories (Martinho, 1936). Nowadays, it is still a valuable element for the people of mountainous and remote regions with access and isolation difficulties, facilitating form of social their access to rural and urban areas and markets and to main roads. Horses transport the owner, either farmers or sellers, and their agricultural products and inputs (our observations and Sá, 1963; Miranda, 2011). In some sucos in Baucau district, where there is no accessible road, the priest goes there monthly using the Timorese horse as mean of transport (our observations). 3.2. Socio cultural functions There has been an increased interest in the role and impact of livestock in the livelihoods of the poor in the last decade and livestock are starting to be viewed as a capital, like other forms of capital (natural, financial and so on). According to the FAO (ILRI 1995), paying bride wealth with animals or providing animals for communal feasts or sacrifices could be considered as social functions of the livestock activity. The social functions corresponds to the symbolic values associated to each species and the use of animals for the fulfillment of a set of rituals and social obligations (funerals, ritual slaughter, bride wealth) of families and communities, either formal and informal, and in this way animals are a mean to strengthen social networks. Livestock also play a social role by giving social and economic status to livestock owners, facilitating the access of the households to, both informal and formals, financial services, i.e. animals can be used as collateral. They are also considered a common mean of demonstrating wealth. To fully understand the social role of livestock, it is also important to consider the role that gender plays in livestock production. To treat the pigs and chickens is considered a women's work, on the opposite the guard of buffaloes and cows, which are male property, is considered a man's job. The same division applies to its commercialization, women are in charge of small animals and men of big ones (our observations and Miranda, 2011). In rituals there are animals that have a feminine symbolic value and others with masculine symbolic value, for instance pigs are considered feminine social goods while buffalos and cows are masculine social goods. Animals have also for Timor-Leste people leisure value once they are used for racing, hunting and fighting games. During Portuguese colonial period horse racing became very pleasing to the Timorese people. The descriptions made say that bets were made, in which participated local and European people, involving sometimes appreciable amounts, horses and riders entered the racetrack under standing ovations and assistants accompanied the running of the race with great enthusiasm, especially the punters or bettors (Figueiredo, 2004). Nowadays, horse racing is regaining its importance with the construction of the hippodrome in Batugadé in the border to West Timor. The last horse races were



integrated in the commemorations of the 10th anniversary of the independence of the country and counted with Australia, Indonesia and Timor-Leste participation. The horse racing is seen as important to tourism and economic development (Narciso, 2012). The deer hunting in Timor-Leste was done in the past and in some zones is still done nowadays. In the past, horses were used in this activity in which animals were hunted with a javelin. The old descriptions tell us about the ability of hunters in handling simultaneously the horse and the javelin when tracking down and killing the deer. Cock fighting is one of the older traditions of Timor-Leste and one of the games preferred by Timor-Leste people from all regions. It is a popular masculine pastime where women are not allowed to participate (Hicks, 2001). Cocks are admired in Timor because of their courage and perseverance and the courage of a man is sometimes compared with that of a cock, while a coward is called a hen. The cock fighter is inseparable from his owner and it is common to see men carrying cocks under their arms as precious possessions. Cockfights are held on any social occasion when men get together, from the spontaneous to more formal occasions and are part of many weekly markets. In the past, the animals represented always two factions or two villages and not only fight for their owners, but also for the two villages or kingdoms. There were two fights, between the two cocks and between the bets made by people belonging to the two factions. It is a gambling game and a very important leisure activity in Timor-Leste. It is a fight to first blood, it makes it very quick, 10-20 seconds from the wind-up to first blood, and there is always someone on site, to stitch up the loser and he can go home to the cooking pot or to stud. East Timorese people says gambling is in their blood after centuries of cock-fighting and many times lose all their belongings in an afternoon of betting in cock fighting (Braga, 1935; Fontoura, 1940; Sá, 1963). The Portuguese colonial government tried, but was not able to end this practice, and instead implemented a tax to its realization, thus becoming a source of income to the state. Beside the fact that many tais designs include the cock, its representation in the coins (10 cêntimos) is a tribute to the culture and to the courage of Timorese’s people to fight over time to achieve their independence. The portuguese poet Ruy Cinatti, also in a tribute to Timor-Leste culture make the following poem about cock fighting. A Luta de Galos (desporto número um dos Timorenses) Galo doido, meu brinquedo, Aninhado nos meus braços. Sinto o meu coração preso Só de pensar no combate. Pintei-lhe de verde as penas Só a pensar no combate.

The cock fighting (Timorese number one sport) Cock crazy, my toy, Tucked away in my arms. I feel my heart stuck Just thinking about the fight. I painted its feathers of green Just thinking about the fight

in “Um Cancioneiro Para Timor” – Ruy Cinatti, 1996 The description made before the second world war say that the Timor-Leste people, with his patience and perseverance, manufactures small articles from the black and white horns of the buffalos, such as dolls, utensils of ménage and adornments, which are a demonstration of his skills and artistic sense (Fontoura, 1940; Braga, 1935). Nowadays there are some handcraft made with animal raw materials such as skins and horns, used to build drums and other artifacts.

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Cattle and special buffalos are owned as an index of wealth, outward sign of wealth, often created by mere ostentation, without the intention to extract from it any net income. Cattle ownership largely determines social status in village communities. Owners of large numbers of cattle are important people in society and are always involved in important village events. The Timorese evaluates the wealth of a chief, boss, or a simple man by jewelry, clothes and animals he has, and the buffalo always enter in this calculation with a significant weight (Cruz, 2003). For all the reasons, farmers are reluctant to slaughter animals, namely cattle and buffalos, for their own consumption, except during funerals, festivals or wedding celebrations. Occasionally, a farmer will slaughter an animal but will negotiate with relatives, friends and neighbors beforehand to ensure that the excess can be sold. Cattle are more valuable than goats, sheep and pigs from a social point of view but they are not as easy to sell. Goats, sheep and pigs can be sold easily whenever farmers face economic difficulties. Ruminants are important for meeting the needs of major local markets throughout the territory (Cruz, 2003). According to Cinatti (1987), in Timorese society, the buffalo is one of the most useful/helpful animals. The buffalo is a “multi-task” animal: it works, give prestige and it is used in ceremonies. As a working animal, it is indispensable to prepare the lowland rice fields; it gives prestige as buffalos are used as a measure of wealth and as simple method of save accumulation. During the last century, several authors mention the Buffalo as the sacrificial animal per excellence in agricultural, weddings and burial rituals (Valdez, 1927; Martinho, 1936; Thomaz, 1974; Sá, 1963). Martinho (1936) refers that “estilos” of "Ocoí-Mate" cause the dead of some thousands of animals, buffaloes, pigs and goats around the year. Even nowadays buffalos are part of the “barlaque” and are indispensable in “estilos” of Ocoí-Mate. The estilo of "Ocoí-Mate" is a memorial service for departed souls. Animistic and superstitions says that the soul of the deceased does not feel quiet if relatives, in funeral ceremonies, not sacrifice a few buffalos. The buffalo meat is of inferior quality but in Timor people makes extensive use of it. Their meat is appreciated in most of the territory. In fact, in terms of meat quality, the buffalo is lower than those of cattle, but in the traditional system, presents an opposite meaning, i.e., taking as an example, the dowry and the funerals, the buffalo has more symbolic importance than that cattle. Another dimension considered important to treat this animal is the size and length of horns. The largest value resides in the length of the horns and not on the size and volume of the body. One of the social functions is the use of animals for the fulfillment of a set of rituals and social obligations (funerals, ritual slaughter, bride wealth) of families and communities, either formal and informal. For the three sucos studied, the animals that are more relevant for traditional ceremonies and festivities “estilos” are pigs and cattle followed by chicken and goats. Cattle are more important for Tapo-Tas and Aidabaleten, while pigs and chicken are for Tapo-Memo (Table 11). Regarding the households that are involved in livestock rearing, 51.5% use cattle, 47.0% pigs, 46.7% goats and 30.0% chickens. The animals used are cooked, often in a special way, and shared by participants.



TABLE 11 Nº of households which use livestock animals for ceremonies and festivities

Activities Tapo-Tas Tapo-Memo Aidabaleten Total

Nº % Nº % Nº % Nº % Chickens 4 17.4 18 64.3 2 6.9 24 30.0 Pigs 9 31.0 20 74.1 10 37.0 39 47.0 Goats 1 33.3 12 63.2 8 34.8 21 46.7 Cattle 10 47.6 11 55.0 14 51.9 35 51.5 Buffalos 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 11.1 1 6.7 Sheep 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 12.5 1 11.1 Among the several ceremonies performed around the year, it is worth to highlighting the “Finados” which is celebrated by 99% of respondents followed by the day of All Saints (Table 12).

TABLE 12 Rituals performed every year


Build and inaugurate sacred house 10 28.6 5 15.6 8 22.9 23 22.5 Remove mourning (desluto) 9 25.7 9 28.1 7 20.0 25 24.5 All Sould’s day (finados) 35 100.0 32 100.0 34 97.1 101 99.0 All Saints day 24 68.6 30 93.8 25 71.4 79 77.5 Funerals 12 34.3 6 18.8 8 22.9 26 25.5 Weddings 6 17.1 5 15.6 4 11.4 15 14.7 Call the rain 21 60.0 12 37.5 6 17.1 39 38.2 Burning grass 4 11.4 9 28.1 3 8.6 16 15.7 Almost all families celebrate some kind of worships before or/and after harvest the main agricultural production and they do that mainly as a household or family ceremony and more than of half of them as a more large communal ceremony (Table 13).

TABLE 13 Type of worship made


Worships before and after harvest 34 97.1 30 93.8 35 100.0 99 97.1 Individual worship 32 94.1 30 93.8 34 97.1 96 95.0 Family worship 25 73.5 19 59.4 33 94.3 77 76.2 Community worship 23 67.6 16 50.0 18 51.4 57 56.4 Beside the main vegetable production, cattle and buffalos are also subject to worship and these occur mainly in Tapo-Tas which is in the mountain and the most rural of them (Table 14).

TABLE 14 Main agricultural activities subject to worship


Maize 34 100.0 31 96.9 30 85.7 95 94.1 Rice 8 23.5 32 100.0 33 94.3 73 72.3 Coffee 22 64.7 2 6.3 1 2.9 25 24.8 Cattle 18 52.9 2 6.3 4 11.4 24 23.8

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Buffalos 9 26.5 1 3.1 3 8.6 13 12.9 Fishing 3 8.8 2 6.3 21 60.0 26 25.7 In all districts the communities still perform a set of rituals with a “propitiatory” nature (before sowing, after harvest, in the case of pests, to ask for rain or to ask to stop the rain …) and even technological innovations from outside the community have to be integrated into the local culture, such as the ritual of Fasi karau ain (washing the feet of the buffalo) that in the district Viqueque continues to be done, not only to animals but also to tractors (Miranda, 2011). Beyond the prayers, songs, dances and other gifts as gold, money and areca, the people proceed to the sacrifice of animals to offer to the spirits or to see in his bowels how the harvest will be. This practice highlights the importance of the investment that is made in agriculture, despite the low number of animals that each family has, they do not fail to meet their ritual obligations, providing animals for communal feasts or sacrifices, in order to try to ensure a good harvest. As gift/scarified in ceremonies, the animals most used are chicken and pigs (Table 15). The buffalos are used only by about 3% of the households.

TABLE 15 Gifts offered in the worships

Tapo-Tas Tapo-Memo Aidabaleten Total

Nº % Nº % Nº % Nº % Cock and hen 31 88.6 31 96.9 32 91.4 94 92.2 Pigs 23 65.7 27 84.4 28 80.0 78 76.5 Goats 8 22.9 3 9.4 17 48.6 28 27.5 Eggs 13 37.1 6 18.8 24 68.6 43 42.2 Cattle 4 11.4 1 3.1 4 11.4 9 8.8 Buffalos 2 5.7 1 3.1 0 0.0 3 2.9 Palm wine (tua mutin or tua sabu) 9 25.7 5 15.6 3 8.6 17 16.7 Areca e bétele 27 77.1 29 90.6 21 60.0 77 75.5 Money 16 45.7 10 31.3 19 54.3 45 44.1 Gold 5 14.3 4 12.5 2 5.7 11 10.8 If we compare these findings with the past documents seems that buffalos are losing importance but according our informants the decreased in using Buffalos in ceremonies is not because they are not important and desirable but due to the fact that they are very expensive and only affordable on very rare occasions and for very few families. This idea confirmed the description made by Claudine Friedberg: she mentioned that “During my presence, these rituals were no longer performed, undoubtedly because one no longer could afford them” referring the ‘cooling’ ritual in which a piglet and a goat were traditional slaughtered (Friedberg, 1989). 4. Conclusions In sum, we can identify in the literature written about Timor-Leste and in our research that livestock had in the paste and has nowadays different functions for Timor-Leste households. Nowadays, livestock is seldom used on agricultural works, such as buffalos and horse in rice land preparation, but the manure is often used as organic fertilizer. As a mean of transportation, horses are still used, mainly in mountainous regions, but much less than were in the past. However, when families do not have another mean of transport, use the animals mainly for cargo. Regarding consumption, livestock species are a source of protein for Timorese even though the consumption of meat is not done in a daily basis. The livestock species used



for self-consumption are mainly small animals, chickens, pigs and goats. At present, milk from local production is not drunk, although in past times buffalo milk was consumed, but this use was lost during the independence war. The Timor-Leste people use the black and white horns of the buffalos to manufacture articles such as dolls, utensils of ménage and adornments. Concerning domestic finances, animals are very important as a mean of asset savings that can be converted into cash when family needs arise. In many rural regions, livestock stocks are a source of asset accumulation. This source can be mobilized to satisfy some unexpected expenditures such as children school fees, bride wealth, illness, etc. Cattle are owned as an index of wealth, outward sign of wealth, often created by mere ostentation, without the intention to extract from it any net income. This ownership largely determines social status in village communities. Among the social functions, one is the use of animals for the fulfillment of a set of rituals and social obligations (funerals, ritual slaughter, bride wealth) of families and communities, either formal and informal. The most relevant animals for traditional ceremonies and festivities “estilos” are pigs and cattle followed by chicken and goats. From our observations, interviews and talks with local people, it is worthwhile to mention the importance given by households to the livestock social functions. However, many of these functions are often ignored when estimating the total contribution of livestock to wealth and wellbeing of Timor-Leste households. The economic value of the livestock social functions are difficult to evaluate and specific research needs to be done in order to better understand and assess the role of livestock in the wellbeing and in development of rural communities in Timor-Leste and to quantify its economic value.

References Artur, R. (1926). Politica, Administração e Trabalho na Província de Timor – A organização agrária, Boletim da Agencia Geral das Colónias, ano II, nº 9, Lisboa, pp: 53-86. Braga, P. (1935). A Terra, a Gente e os Costumes de Timor. Cadernos Coloniais Nº7, Edições Cosmos, Lisboa. Cinatti, R. (1987). Motivos artísticos Timorenses e a sua integração, Lisboa. Cinatti, R. (1996). “Um Cancioneiro Para Timor”, Editorial Presença, Lisboa. Conceição, F. (2012). Major Findings of Active Diseases Surveillance on Priority Animal Diseases of Timor-Leste, Communication presented at the final project workshop, MAF.

Costa, M. (1950). “Pecuária, Defesa Nacional”, Ano xvii, n.º s 193 – 194, Lisboa, pp. 47- 48. Cruz, C. J. (2003). “Livestock Development in East Timor, in Agriculture: New Directions for a New Nation - East Timor (Timor-Leste)”, Edited by Helder da Costa, Colin Piggin, Cesar J da Cruz and James J Fox, ACIAR Proceedings No. 113. Deus, C. C. (2011). “Impacto do desempenho da Cooperativa Café Timor na satisfação e qualidade de vida dos seus membros”, Tese de Mestrado em Gestão, Universidade de Évora, Évora. DNE (2006). Census da população, Direcção Nacional de Estatística, Díli.

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