Timor-Leste gets its first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve: Nino Konis Santana National Park

Timor-Leste has won its first UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, with the designation of Nino Konis Santana National Park — a marine and terrestrial biodiversity hotspot at the eastern tip of the island, where the Wallacea region meets the Coral Triangle.

The announcement came on Friday, 5 June 2026, during the 38th session of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) council in Hernandarias, Paraguay, which designated 14 new reserves across 14 countries. It is a national first, and a milestone for a park named in honour of Nino Konis Santana, a commander of the Falintil resistance during the country’s struggle for independence.

According to UNESCO, the reserve hosts the country’s largest remaining primary forest, alongside coral reefs harbouring some 500 fish species, and includes Lake Iralalaro, the most important freshwater site in Timor-Leste. It is home to 168 bird species — among them the threatened yellow-crested cockatoo — reptiles such as the snake-necked turtle, and several endemic bats, four of which may be new to science.

The sacred Jaco Island, surrounded by coral reefs and limestone cliffs, “holds deep spiritual significance for local communities,” UNESCO said, noting that residents “fish with hand lines and traditional nets, weave Tais fabrics, cultivate vanilla and cocoa,” and “are the living fabric of this landscape.”

Timor-Leste was one of three countries to welcome their first reserve this year, alongside Montenegro and Aruba. In Europe, Portugal’s Serra da Estrela was also among the new designations.

The recognition places one of South-East Asia’s most ecologically significant landscapes on the global conservation map — and affirms a model in which the Fataluku communities who have long fished its waters and farmed its land remain at the centre of the park’s future.