[TimorLesteStudies] Seminar: Deforestation and catchment response in Timor-Leste: convergence of community views and science, or delusion?

[Jennifer Drysdale]

Please note, this seminar will be recorded and available from the 
Timor-Leste Studies Association's website 
(http://www.etstudies-aust.org/Seminars.html) by 30 April.


Deforestation and catchment response in Timor-Leste: convergence of 
community views and science, or delusion?

A Seminar by

Professor Robert Wasson, CDU

Where:  The Fenner School of Environment and Society (formerly the 
Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies)
                 Seminar Room, Level 6,
                 Hancock Building West (43), Biology Place, ANU.
                 (Take lift to Level 5, then take stairs to Level 6)
Day:            Monday 23 April
Time:           12-1pm
Enquiries:      Ben McDonald (benm at cres.anu.edu.au or phone 6125 6769)

Abstract
The government of Timor Leste is concerned that deforestation and 
upland erosion is negatively affecting the rivers and coastal 
resources of this mountainous country.  Set within the bounds of this 
upland-lowland debate, consultation with focus groups in four centres 
within the catchment of the Laclo River resulted in a generally 
consistent set of concerns and explanations from the local 
people.  Many of these descriptions and explanations of change in 
this catchment are consonant with scientific understanding from the 
Western tradition.  Some scientific findings are not mirrored in the 
knowledge of local people, and the spiritual account of landforms and 
catastrophic floods is usually excluded from the scientific studies. 
The comparison of local and scientific understanding in the Laclo 
catchment will be analysed within the ongoing debate about whether or 
not traditional / indigenous / local knowledge is different from 
scientific / universal knowledge.


Narciso Almeida de Carvalho, MAFF; Francisco Inicio MAFF; Alexio 
Leonita Amaral MAFF; Andrew McWilliam, ANU; Frank Tirendi AIMS; 
Professor Robert Wasson. Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Charles 
Darwin University.