Coastal areas governance

Workshop

“Coastal areas governance in a context of rapid tourism urbanization and climate change in Southeast Asia”

Fundação Oriente, Dili, Timor-Leste
February 6th, 2019

Christine Cabasset (IRASEC) and Vicente Paulino (Universidade nacional Timor LoroSa’e – UNTL) organized a workshop on “Costal areas governance in a context of rapid tourism urbanization and climate change in Southeast Asia”, on the 6 February, kindly hosted by the Fundação Oriente in Dili. This workshop was ending a research programme funded by the Regional Forum on Climate Change (RFCC, currently based in AIT Thailand), and handled by researchers from IRASEC, the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT, Thailand) and the University of Udayana Bali (UNUD, Indonesia). Dili workshop has seen the light thanks to the support from the France Embassy in Indonesia and in Timor-Leste, and especially from the France Institute (Institut français) in Timor-Leste.

The event was officially co-opened by the Secretary of State for Environment, HE Demetrio Amaral de Carvalho and by France Ambassador in Indonesia and in Timor-Leste, HS Jean-Charles Berthonnet, with the contributions of UNTL Rector Francisco Martins and IRASEC Director Claire Tran, in presence of the National Director for Climate Change, Augusto Pinto, and of the France Attaché for Cooperation and Culture in Timor-Leste, Elsa Marcesse. About 60 people attended the workshop, in which many UNTL students and teachers and representatives of both the public and the private sectors.

After a conceptualization and methodology presentation, Vilas Nitivattananon (AIT) exposed its findings in Thailand, Agung Wiranatha (UNUD) in Indonesia, and Christine Cabasset (IRASEC) in Timor-Leste, before concluding with transversal remarks at regional scale. Many questions came from the floor, in which about Education of Environment and about the relation between tourism development and safeguarding of cultural specificities.

Like in Bali and in Pattaya in 2017, the workshop was a part of a three days field visit in Dili, the national capital, and in Atauro Island. On the 7 February, the research team and IRASEC Director Claire Tran met the Secretary of State for Environment, Demetrio Amaral de Carvalho, and the National Director for Climate Change Augusto Pinto, for a discussion about tourism, local development and environment.

Download program.