Overview

The overall goal is to increase the capacity for wise governance of land and resources in Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), particularly for greater food security and poverty alleviation in rural communities. The proposal was developed in response to needs and issues identified in the 2006 PSLP project and builds on the major successes of that project. The 2007/8 project will broaden the applications developed in the 2006 project to include infrastructure planning, and delivery of basic services. Capacity for regional autonomy will continue to be built in NTT through collaborative activities, with full recognition of the skills and experience present in NTT.

The project aims to:

• Increase the capacity to plan and monitor land management strategies that will increase food security and alleviate poverty in rural communities in Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT),

• Enhance adoption of wise land management through community engagement,

• Build on skills, capacity and research that currently exist within these communities and agencies, to further improve and enhance their activities in sustainable land management.

Background:

This project builds on partnerships between NTT and NT that have developed over the past decade and have included:
• ‘International Conference on Agricultural Development in Semiarid East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), East Timor and South-east Maluku’, in Kupang, 1995.
• Review workshop of fire management in eastern Indonesia and northern Australia, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR Proceedings series (No. 91), Fire and sustainable agricultural and forestry development in eastern Indonesia and northern Australia)
• Project Impacts of fire and its use for sustainable land and forest management in Indonesian and northern Australia, funded by ACIAR (2002-2005, http://fireindon.cdu.edu.au)
• A workshop Integrated Rural Development in Eastern Indonesia, (Kupang 5-7 April 2006)

A more detailed description of the projects work plan is available here.