Preliminary remote sensing analysis conducted by FAO indicates that fire events in Timor-Leste take place at massive scale, with more than 80 percent of the national territory affected every year. Of this, 44 percent is affected by moderate & severe fire incidents.

One of the key drivers to fire events is the prevailing ‘slash and burn’ shifting cultivation, which is the predominant farming system in Timor-Leste. The method involves cutting and burning vegetation or forest during the dry season, mostly in October and November. Newly opened land is cultivated for 1 to 7 years, depending on the initial soil fertility and slope, before it is left fallow. Other drivers of fire events include the regeneration of grassland or simply the clearing of unused land. Given the pronounced dry season, running between June to October/November, fire events get easily out of control resulting in entire valleys and mountain slopes torched every year. FAO’s preliminary analysis suggests that ‘slash and burn’ and uncontrolled fires are potentially the top contributors to Green-House-Gas (GHG) emissions.

Apart from contributing to climate change, ‘Slash and burn’ and uncontrolled fires have been identified by various reports as the main contributors to land and environmental degradation, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, soil erosion and landslide susceptibility and degradation of ground water reserve and water supplies.

FAO presented these findings at the third annual National Climate Change Conference 2019 (NCCC), held on the 6^th and 7^th of June at the Ministry of Finance’s Auditorium in Dili. The conference was organized under the auspice of the State Secretariat for the Environment with the support of the Working Group on Climate Change and the participation of Government representatives, donors, international agencies, non-governmental organizations as well as Universities and the civil society.

Mr. Raphy Favre, representing FAO at the Conference, delivered a presentation and said that ‘there is a significant opportunity to mobilize efforts across sectors to address ‘slash and burn’ shifting cultivation and uncontrolled fire in Timor-Leste. The first step is to better understand the reasons why farmers are burning land and forest and to measure the contribution of this practice to climate change. The second round of Nationally Determined Contribution in 2020 offers an opportunity to account for these factors.’

There are proven sustainable agriculture practices that can help farmers to increase food production without depleting the country’s environment. These are called ‘Climate-Smart Agriculture’. In Timor-Leste, Conservation Agriculture, agroforestry, and sustainable livestock and pasture management are key Climate-Smart practices with the potential to transform farming systems. ‘There won’t be an emergence of small-holder ‘commercial agriculture’ without addressing ‘slash and burn’ farming’ said Mr. Favre at the conference.

The conference was a platform for Government to gather information from a variety of agencies to guide policy decisions on addressing climate change. The need to reduce ‘slash and burn’ farming and uncontrolled fires was a key conclusion of the 3^rd National Conference.