Fisheries Sector Support Programme Phase 2

As a young, developing nation-state with new institutions and limited opportunities for economic diversification, Timor-Leste has struggled to lift her people out of poverty. Disturbingly over 50% of Timorese children are stunted due to under-nutrition - this statistic has essentially remained constant for the past decade. While fish consumption is currently low among Timorese, fish, with its rich cocktail of bio-available micronutrients, has the potential to contribute substantially to reversing negative nutrition indicators. Small-scale fisheries in Timor-Leste are currently limited in production capacity, and rendered vulnerable to environmental change through a focus on a few nearshore resources.

The data driven and technological approach of this project, building from data systems already in place from phase 1 (PeskAAS), brings with it the rare opportunity to utilize continuous quantitative variables to evaluate change over time and across social, economic and ecological dimensions. Fisheries outcomes in terms of production will be monitored by the PeskAAS data system developed during Phase 1, providing information on changes in total catch, catch rates, and changes in fisher behaviour (through vessel tracking). These data have been collected regularly since late 2016 from various sites around the country, and will be used to select sites as samples in the controlled trial, and to gather ongoing, high resolution catch data from project sites. A controlled trial will be carried out to evaluate the impact of fishing technology and fish nutrition messaging on fish consumption and incomes. Two communities will serve as a counterfactual (control) scenario, with 4 other sites being used to test two intervention treatments.

IF FADs increase catch rates of coastal fishers beyond the local market demand; and IF availability of fish drives the market price sufficiently lower; and IF nutrition messaging regarding fish consumption changes diet and expenditure choices of upland community households, especially lactating women and children under 5; then fisher income will improve along with the diets and nutrition of upland communities. IF all members of selected study site communities are engaged to actively participate and contribute to the process of forming rules regarding access and extraction of marine resources in their areas of influence, and IF government uphold the authority of suco level local officers and the jurisdiction of tara bandu; and IF community members have the will to protect their resources for current and future food and nutrition security, THEN co-management approaches will be effectively tested for broader dissemination and national scale implementation.