Environmental Restoration in Aileu: Harvesting the Fruit of Hope

Remexio Sub District is one of the target areas for implementation of Scaling-up climate adaptation strategy, including water source restoration, environmental rehabilitation and sustainable food system. The project is implemented by Permaculture Timor Lorosa’e (Permatil) and funded by the Kiwa Initiative programme, managed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

The Kiwa Initiative's Permatil project in Timor-Leste is a permaculture-based initiative that aims to improve food systems and climate resilience in the Aileu Municipality. The project aims to increase the knowledge, skill and attitude around affective watershed and water source management, environmental rehabilitation and resilient food system across Timor-Leste with one of the specific objectives is scaling-up environmental rehabilitation and creating food resilience as adaptation to climate change. 

Permatil, in collaboration with the community members from six targeted villages in Remexio Sub-District, initiated water conservation activities in early 2024. To enhance the impact of these efforts, in early 2025, we distributed a total of 2,760 water conservation and fruit saplings to 63 households. These saplings were planted across 18 hectares of land within the sub-district.

Paulina Mery, a community member from Acumau Village, expressed her gratitude to Permatil for selecting her as a recipient of the saplings. She shared her happiness about the timely distribution, which was perfect for planting. Ms Mery said, “I received rambutan, orange, durian, and casuarina trees”. She added, “the water conservation trees were planted around the water springs, while the fruit trees were planted on my own farm”.

Community members from the six villages are very enthusiastic about planting the saplings during the wet season. They are hopeful that the trees will grow well to provide a source of income in the future

Permatil Kiwa Initiative project titled “Scaling up climate adaptation strategies, including water resource restoration, environmental rehabilitation, and sustainable food systems” is a local project under the Kiwa Initiative. The initiative is funded by the European Union (EU), Agence Française de Développement, Global Affairs Canada (GAC), Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and (DFAT) and New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).

The Kiwa Initiative has established partnerships with the Pacific Community (SPC), the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Oceania Regional Office of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).