In the early morning in Batugade, a village clinging to the rugged western edge of Timor-Leste near the border with Indonesia, Therezina Dos Santos once a homemaker, now a coastal revival leader, wades into the mud of a mangrove nursery she helped establish in 2023. With the support of the Kiwa Initiative-backed Restoring Ecosystems and Strengthening Coastal Resilience project (RESTORE), she and her neighbors are restoring a natural barrier against rising seas.
Here, the scars of the 1975-1999 Indonesian occupation are everywhere: roads reduced to rubble, families torn apart, a generation raised under the weight of military boots. The traditional governance system known as Tara bandu, a framework for community-based resource management, had also been gutted by the conflict. When independence arrived in 2002, the people faced a daunting task, not just rebuilding the past, but shaping its future.
Mangroves as community anchor
The government’s formal recognition of customary laws and community-based management has created a hybrid governance model where ancestral wisdom meets modern science. "By restoring the mangroves, we’re showing the State what we can achieve together," Therezina says. "Nature becomes the language we speak." As both treasurer and data collector for the RESTORE project, Therezina reconnects the field with institutional needs.
Twice a week, she updates seedling survival rates, crab damage, and growth patterns using Kobo Toolbox; an open-source mobile data collection app provided and taught by the Kiwa Initiative. "They came to teach us about data collecting, but we taught them too," she smiles. "We showed them that the women who plant rice can also restore mangroves and see results." Her role also balances the nursery’s finances, challenging the idea that women belong only at home. The RESTORE project’s dual focus, mangrove restoration and food production, has given the community a good return on their investment. A cycle of survival that Therezina and her neighbors are determined to complete.
From local Data to national impact, informing Policy through community action
And these mangroves are the foundation of local livelihoods. In Timor-Leste, where marine catches supply up to 60% of protein needs for many households in coastal areas (Nature Food, 2026), the restored ecosystem boosts fishers’ catches. In her village, Therezina became the spearhead of restoration efforts, turning environmental challenges into collective progress. Her data updates support broader coastal management: "Now we collect data ensuring that what starts as a local effort shapes decisions across the province and the country." And threats remain, crabs devouring seedlings, and buffaloes, trampling the young plants; to protect the nursery, landowners and Maliana’s provincial government are stepping up, committing funds to build fences.
Therezina’s work embodies the spirit of Tara bandu, now revitalized for climate adaptation. In a land scarred by conflict, the mangroves are crafting a new social contract, one where community leadership drives more adaptive governance.
