Cultivating Hopes through Community Reforestation: How One Community Is Restoring Its Local Ecosystem One Tree at a Time.
The article continues to highlight the update on reforestation program executed on the ground by Fundação Carbon Offset Timor (F-COTI) and funded by Green Climate Fund (GCF) through United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Timor Leste. The project is entitled: Catchment Management and Rehabilitation Intervention through Reforestation/Afforestation in Ermera Municipality. This project represents one of several sub-components under the “Safeguarding Rural communities and their physical assets from climate induced disasters in Timor-Leste” (UNDP-GCF-SRC).
Training that focuses on leveraging women’s potential
The initiative supports farmers in identified villages in Ermera Municipality which includes rural and illiterate farmers and women to manage and restore forests, leveraging their traditional knowledge and the unique perspective they have as primary caregivers often ignored and overlooked by large organizations.
Beyond ecological restoration, the project also aims to empower local communities to establish community nursery to sell seeds, thus generating additional income and improving family livelihoods.
The project also provides training and workshops that not only build technical skills in reforestation and afforestation in Ermera but also enhance women's confidence and leadership capabilities, enabling them to take on roles traditionally dominated by men and advocate for their rights within their communities.
In delivering training, FCOTI’s builds on its flagship carbon removal reforestation activities in other Municipalities. The training and awareness raising activities taught local participant to move from a reliance on cutting down trees for fuel to using sustainable forest management, which helps sequester carbon and maintain biodiversity. This carbon removal component can potentially bring extra cash to families.
For FCOTI, these trainings combined with actual reforestation, showcase how empowering rural women is not just a social justice issue, but a critical and effective strategy for achieving sustainable development and climate resilience.
Women's involvement in training and reforestation activities faces disproportionate challenges rooted in systemic gender biases, including socio-cultural norms, unequal access to resources (like land and credit), and exclusion from decision-making processes.
In Ermera, women’s participation has been hindered by household chores responsibilities, caring for young children and the fact that most of them are illiterate and not outspoken. We think that women, not only in Ermera but in other rural municipalities are still bearing the difficult legacy of colonization where women’s voices were suppressed. This often leads to women feeling intimidated to raise their voices.
Reforestation that aims to protect small critical infrastructure
The other purpose of reforestation is to protect small community infrastructure built by UNDP. The key rationale for site selection when using tree planting for infrastructure protection lies in leveraging the hydrological and slope-stabilization (hydro-mechanical) benefits where they are most needed, such as on vulnerable slopes or in areas prone to high stormwater runoff.
Trees that are planted in identified watershed areas in Ermera protect infrastructure built by UNDP and public sector by actively managing water within the local environment.
Tree canopy intercepts a significant amount of precipitation, reducing the volume of water that reaches the ground and the impact force of raindrops, thus decreasing surface erosion. Tree roots absorb large quantities of water from the soil for photosynthesis and release it as vapor into the atmosphere (transpiration). This de-watering process helps maintain unsaturated soil conditions, which increases the soil's shear strength and reduces the likelihood of saturation-induced landslides or flooding around infrastructure.
In addition, root systems create a network of macropores in the soil, which improves the ground's capacity to absorb water and promotes groundwater recharge rather than surface runoff that can flood or erode infrastructure.
Tree Maintenance Activities
The main activity of maintenance activity is mulching and ring weeding. Mulching grass provides key benefits including acting as a natural fertilizer, improving soil health by adding organic matter, retaining moisture, and reducing waste in landfills. This process helps farms become healthier, and requires less watering and less effort.
In Ermera, soils are typically thin, sandy, skeletal, and less fertile on the steep slopes due to ongoing erosion and gravitational movement. However, they are often well-drained and can be fresh and rich in humus in certain areas. Soil fertility is often a major concern in Ermera.
Results of the project include but not limited to 32,000 trees planted in eight villages in Ermera Municipality covering an area of more than 36 hectares. Six community nurseries were established at the initial stage of the project involving close to 400 participants of whom more than 35% are women. The tree planting and nursery establishment and training activities conducted so far have directly benefitted more than 500 individuals and indirectly benefit 23,000 people from eight targeted villages in Ermera.
A Newly Planted Casuarina Seedling in Ermera
Various training on reforestation/afforestation related topics on carbon in trees, planting management such as thinning, weeding, pruning, restocking, organic fertilizers and drip irrigation have increased the knowledge of local communities to maintain and care for trees; It has motivated the communities to revive their interests in reforestation and afforestation. In the initial stage of capacity building, there is a total of 283 community members participants of whom 191 are male (67%) and 91 are female (33%). Of the total number of participants, 8 participants identified themselves as people with disability and 31 participants are illiterate. In total, the training program under this project has impacted directly 379 people with an estimated indirect benefits reaching up to nearly 4,000 people.
Mrs. Jacinta Madeira Amaral from Poetete village stated that the terracing training was highly valuable, particularly as the team conducted a direct, practical demonstration in the field. She expressed her gratitude for the comprehensive instruction, which covered both the practical construction of terraces and their underlying function. She added that trees planted in her land by the roadside constructed by UNDP will, in the future prevent soil erosion and protect not only the road but also her house located right below the road.
Meanwhile, Mr. Fernando Soares, the village chief of Batumano acknowledged with deep gratitude that his village has received many useful trainings in organic fertilizers and pesticides which offer numerous benefits for soil health, environmental sustainability, and the production of healthier crops and food. He is quite thrilled that his village has received seedlings to reforest denuded areas.
The project has further promoted a sense of ownership and leadership in the community in that it engages with local leaders at village and municipal level. At Suco level the project has enabled the mobilization of local stakeholders and ensure collaboration and coordination. It forged partnership and further strengthen the social fabrics that bind community which further promotes peace and stability.
A Coomunity Nursery in Ermera
The community reforestation can serve as carbon sinks, soil restoration, moisture retention, prevention of landslides and rehabilitation of watershed areas. The reforested areas will gradually serve as a sanctuary for biodiversity that house wild mammals, reptiles and birds. The casuarina trees can become canopy for coffee, the prominent perennial crops in Ermera.
The project strengthens ties between local authorities and their own community members but also among farmers themselves. The implementation of these activities pull community together in a shared goal that further strengthen their social cohesion.
By November 2025, additional 10,300 seedlings are ready to be added to the planting as part of restocking efforts. This will further benefit additional communities that will receive and plant these trees in their farms.
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