East Timor opens first national park

Updated August 4, 2008 20:28:59

East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao signs a plaque inaugurating the Nino Konis Santana National Park. [Stephanie March, Radio Australia]

East Timor has inaugurated its first national park, in a move to protect and preserve 123,000 hectares of land and sea at eastern tip of the island.

In a report from East Timor for Radio Australia's Connect Asia program, Stephanie March says the government and the communities living in the park hope the park will lead to increased income generation and open up the door to tourism possibilities.

East Timor's prime minister, Xanana Gusmao, opened the park, which is named after his former comrade Nino Konis Santana, who was born in the area's mountains and fought for most of his life for East Timor to gain independence from Indonesia.

"(I am) very happy because we start something that it is an important process of preservation of our forest," he said.

Unlike most national parks, the new East Timor park is home to 10,000 residents, who will sign contracts to establish them as community guardians.

Mr Gusmao says the challenge is for the government to support the communities to find sustainable ways to improve the quality of the environment, but also maintain their livelihoods through farming, and also tourism activities.

"We believe that our tourism industry should be different from Bali - we cannot compete and we don't want to compete from other places," he said.

"We will explore the difference and our capability in terms of what we have, not only preserving for the foreign eyes but also for our country, for future generation."

Colin Trainor, a conservation biologist from Charles Darwin University in Australia, says the park is the largest remnant of tropical forest on Timor island and is home to dozens of significant animals - including birds, bats and marine life.

"It has the best population on the island for many of the endemic and globally restricted range an also threatened birds," he said.