Photo: Prof Karen Edvayne/Facebook
Timor-Leste’s annual whale migration season will soon begin, so the country will once again welcome an influx of foreign tourists eager to experience the unique opportunity to view and swim with whales and other cetaceans migrating through its tropical waters. Currently, Timor-Leste is the only place in the world where swimming with whales is permitted and has therefore become a prime destination for this unique tourist activity. In addition, Timor-Leste is known globally as a marine biodiversity hotspot, which has attracted the interest of marine biologists and conservationists from around the world.
However, the growing whale tourism sector faces serious challenges, primarily stemming from a lack of government regulations and legal oversight. The situation is now extremely urgent, with many marine experts and industry insiders warning that if Timor-Leste experiences another season of unregulated whale tourism, the disruption caused by boats and hordes of tourists may cause whales to change their migration patterns, perhaps permanently. Unregulated whale tourism not only risks harming the animals – it could also destroy a nascent industry with major potential to contribute to Timor-Leste’s social and economic development. Moreover, the current lack of regulation of whale tourism activities means that the Government is losing significant tax revenues which could both contribute to Timor-Leste’s fiscal sustainability and be re-invested to improve management of the industry such as by strengthening maritime security capacity. Fundasaun Mahein (FM) has written the following article exploring this issue and offering recommendations for Timor-Leste legislators and policy makers.
Whale tourism holds enormous potential for Timor-Leste in terms of job creation, tax revenue and economic growth through increased international tourism. In addition, Timor-Leste’s exceptional marine biodiversity makes this country extremely important for scientific research and international conservation programs. Despite this, successive governments and Timorese politicians have demonstrated little awareness of this important sector or the urgent need to pass laws and regulations specifically focused on managing this important sector.
Timor-Leste was first identified as a global “hotspot” for whales and other cetaceans by researchers in 2008. However, it was not until almost a decade later that the whale tourism industry began to grow significantly, with whale watching and swim-with-whale tours mostly located in the sea between Dili and Ataúro. Following requests from local tour operators for regulations to manage this growing industry, the Government, with donor support, created national “guidelines” for whale-watching activities in 2020. These guidelines are “voluntary”, meaning that they trust private tour operators to implement them. At the time, the Government also promised to establish laws and mandatory licensing rules. However, although the Government has held consultations on draft whale watching and swim-with-whale legislation since then, regulations have not yet been finalised.
Even if laws – rather than “guidelines” – are eventually passed at the governmental and parliamentary level, Timor-Leste still has limited institutional capacity to enforce maritime regulations. State security institutions, particularly those with responsibility for overseeing maritime zones, lack the knowledge, training and experience necessary to oversee and manage this growing sector effectively. This means that they will struggle to enforce any future regulations effectively without significant improvements in their capacity.
The lack of regulation of Timor-Leste’s growing whale tourism industry is also leading to significant losses in potential revenue for the government. Currently, tour companies based outside Timor-Leste dominate the international whale tourism market. In contrast to Timor-Leste-based scuba diving companies which provide whale watching tours, these foreign operators are not registered as commercial businesses in Timor-Leste, declare no income to the government, and pay no taxes. Many swim-with-whale tours cost up to $1,000 per person per day, but most of this revenue does not contribute to the national economy or government coffers. As a result, Timor-Leste is missing out on a substantial source of income from whale tourism which should contribute to the state’s fiscal sustainability, and, importantly, the sustainable management of this rapidly growing sector.
In regulated whale tourism industries worldwide, governments use licensing and taxation to generate revenue, which is then used to monitor and manage the sector to ensure its sustainability. In Timor-Leste, the absence of such regulations means the country loses not only tax revenue, but also the environmental and socio-economic benefits that a well-managed whale tourism industry can bring. Funds that the Government could allocate to support whale conservation programs, strengthen maritime security capacity, and support local guides and tour operators are, instead, flowing out of the country. The current situation thus represents a major lost opportunity for Timor-Leste to create a self-sustaining industry that both protects whale populations and generates long-term economic growth and other social benefits.
Another key factor enabling the growth of unregulated whale tourism is the ineffective oversight of inward-bound migration into Timor-Leste. Currently, numerous overseas-based foreign companies operate whale tours, bringing in their own tour guides without obtaining the appropriate work visas. Instead, these guides arrive at Dili’s International Airport and receive “tourist” visas upon entry. This practice not only circumvents national immigration laws but also allows these foreign companies to operate without contributing to the local economy through taxes or fees typically associated with other commercial business operations.
While tour companies themselves are guilty of breaking immigration laws, the root of this problem lies in Timor-Leste’s outdated visa policy and inefficient bureaucracy, which incentivise illegal activities. As FM noted in a previous article, despite a recent policy change, it is still impossible for most foreign citizens to obtain a working visa without first entering Timor-Leste. Compounding this is the fact that visa processing times are long and the lack of a specific visa category for short-term employment. Employees of foreign tour operators may apply for a working visa once inside Timor-Leste, but the opaque rules and excessive processing times make this impractical, particularly for international staff who will work in Timor-Leste for only 2-3 months, such as whale tour guides. In this way, existing visa rules and inefficiencies within the Migration Service not only undermine immigration controls but also contribute to the unregulated growth of the whale tourism industry, further exacerbating the challenges of enforcing sustainable practices within the sector. Therefore, to build a more sustainable and regulated industry, FM suggests that the Government must also reform visa policies, specifically by creating clear and efficient pathways for legitimate foreign businesses to obtain short-term work visas before they enter Timor-Leste.
The current, unregulated, ‘free-for-all’ approach to whale tourism, where foreign tour operators exploit Timor-Leste’s marine wildlife without oversight, not only endangers whale populations, but also undermines the sector’s long-term viability. By failing to create and enforce effective regulations that control the number of vessels and monitor interactions between tourists and whales, and simultaneously failing to ensure whale tour companies and tour guides are trained, accredited and engage in ethical and sustainable whale watching practices, this growing industry risks destroying one of the country’s most valuable marine assets.
FM believes that Timor-Leste’s policy makers must take heed of the experiences of other developing countries with heavy dependency on marine economic sectors such as Sri Lanka and Tonga, where poor regulations and ineffective enforcement and compliance have led to unsustainable whale watching industries. As a result of too many vessels, overcrowding, harm to and/or harassment of animals, the whales have changed their migration patterns, and the whale tourism industries have collapsed.
The lack of regulation of the whale tourism industry not only jeopardises the sustainability of the marine tourism sector itself – it also threatens global conservation efforts and ongoing scientific studies into cetacean populations. Timor-Leste’s waters are a recognised global biodiversity hotspot, including for endangered, rare and threatened species such as blue and sperm whales, making this country an unprecedented site for cetacean research. Scientific studies in Timor-Leste’s waters have the potential to contribute significantly to our understanding of cetacean behaviour, migration patterns, and marine ecosystem health. Such knowledge is crucial not only for local and regional conservation efforts but also for informing policies and practices related to marine economic sectors, including tourism, shipping, fishing and petroleum exploration.
Existing research indicates that unregulated human interactions with whales can alter their natural behaviours, making it difficult for researchers to collect critical life history and other important data. For instance, repeated human contact can cause stress in whales, potentially leading to changes in migration routes, breeding patterns, and feeding behaviours. Without a comprehensive, whale watching regulatory framework to control and monitor vessel and human activities and cetacean interactions, both current and future conservation and scientific research efforts in Timor-Leste risk being compromised, which will damage the country’s reputation as a key site for whale and marine research.
The failure to implement effective licensing and regulation of the lucrative whale tourism industry contradicts the IX Government Program which proposes to make the Blue Economy the cornerstone of Timor-Leste’s development. At its core, the Blue Economy concept emphasises the need to balance sea-based economic activities, such as marine tourism and fishing, with the preservation of marine ecosystems. To achieve this, Blue Economy adopts an integrated approach where environmental sustainability and socio-economic prosperity are seen as mutually reinforcing goals. Sadly, the current absence of whale tourism regulations promotes neither.
FM notes that Timor-Leste’s National Ocean Policy (NOP), which was approved in 2023 after several years of consultations, fails to specifically mention whales or whale-related tourism activities. Moreover, despite the IX Government’s promotion of the Blue Economy concept and celebration of International Ocean Day in June 2024, there has been little ‘follow-up’ on the NOP since its approval, including the establishment of the National Ocean Steering Committee which is tasked with implementing the NOP. These facts suggest that there is a lack of awareness among policy makers about the urgency of implementing a robust regulatory framework focused on whale-related activities.
In sum, the current lack of regulations focused on Timor-Leste’s economically important and rapidly growing whale tourism industry is both alarming and unsustainable. Without effective legislation and improved enforcement capacity, unregulated whale tourism activities pose a significant threat to whale populations in Timor-Leste’s waters. This includes potential to change behavioural patterns and drive whales away from Timor-Leste. This risks major harm both to individual animals and cetacean populations, and to the reputation of Timor-Leste as a global whale tourism and cetacean research destination.
On the other hand, by implementing a comprehensive licensing and regulatory framework specifically focused on whale and cetacean tourism activities, Timor-Leste can ensure that revenues generated by this sector are re-invested into effective maritime surveillance and compliance, whale conservation, monitoring and research, accreditation, education and training, and community-based livelihood development. According to experts who consulted with Fundasaun Mahein, this entails passing a law focused specifically on cetacean tourism and research, while creating an accompanying policy which supports whale conservation efforts and ensures a sustainable and ethical whale tourism industry. Measures to facilitate foreign tour operators to register in Timor-Leste are also needed to ensure that they pay taxes, obtain relevant visas for foreign employees and, when possible, contribute to local employment and capacity development. Then, to ensure that the law and policy are adequately enforced, significant resources must be allocated to build maritime security capacity within relevant state security institutions, which can be partly funded by revenues generated by whale tourism activities. Finally, the law and policy should aim to support ongoing scientific monitoring and research programs and building local capacity (tour operators, managers, regulators), which can also be funded with revenues generated by the whale tourism industry.
To fully realise the benefits of Timor-Leste’s marine biodiversity and fulfil the IX Government’s promise to promote the Blue Economy, policy makers must work together to ensure effective regulation of the whale tourism sector. By mustering the necessary political will to implement the measures outlined above, Timor-Leste’s leaders can support the growth of a sustainable whale tourism industry which can contribute significantly to Timor-Leste’s economic development, fiscal sustainability and environmental security. Failure to do so will not only harm the whales but could also result in the collapse of one of the country’s most promising industries, while harming our international reputation as a haven for marine wildlife. FM therefore urges the Government to prioritise regulation of the whale tourism industry, before this precious resource is lost.
