Decree-Law No. 5/2016 of 16 March, Sistema Nacional de Áreas Protegidas, is the Government of Timor-Leste’s law creating the National System of Protected Areas. It was published in the Jornal da República, Série I, N.º 11. It defines the categories of protected area, how they are managed and what is allowed inside them, and it classifies a list of existing areas. For tourism it matters because most of the country’s nature-based attractions sit inside these areas, including Nino Konis Santana National Park, Mount Ramelau (Tatamailau), Mount Matebian and parts of Atauro. The preamble describes ecotourism as one of the country’s great opportunities.
Key contents
- Categories in the public domain: national park, wildlife sanctuary, natural monument, protected landscape and nature reserve. A nature reserve may have a specific focus, such as marine, forest, botanical, bird or wetland.
- Other types allowed in the system: private or community protected areas, transboundary protected areas and provisional protected areas.
- Management instruments: each area needs a management plan with zoning, including no-entry zones. The plan must define which tourism and ecotourism activities may take place, and must record any customary rules (lisuk, lisan or tara bandu) that apply. Management committees include local authorities and the relevant ministries, among them tourism.
- Implementation: the government had five years to approve a plan for formally creating the system.
- Annex I: 46 classified areas with municipality, administrative post and approximate area. Examples include Nino Konis Santana National Park, Mount Matebian, Mount Tatamailau, Mount Manucoco on Atauro, Cristo Rei, Lake Tasitolu, Lake Maubara, Tilomar reserve, mangrove areas at Hera and Citrana, and the Batugadé and Suco da Vila nature reserves.
Document details
- Publisher: Government of Timor-Leste, Jornal da República
- Date: 16 March 2016 (Série I, N.º 11)
- Language: Portuguese
- Pages: 16 (decree extract)
- Download: Official gazette issue (mj.gov.tl)