Appendix A4 Mid-term Evaluation Report (February 2003) Introduction
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7. Next steps7.1 Tripartite Review MeetingDue to delay in receiving the MTR report, the Tripartite Review Meeting has had to be delayed several times. At the time of writing (25 February) Chapter 5 on Subcontracts has still not been received. The most recent provisional date set for the Tripartite Review Meeting is 18 March. 7.2 Planning workshopsDetailed activities and responsibilities will be defined for each output during planning workshops to be held in Beijing, Chengdu, Lanzhou, Nanjing, Changsha and Har’erbin immediately following the Tripartite Review Meeting. It is important that these workshops are not rushed. The MTR report was delivered very late and this has created a pressure to get ahead with activities under a redesigned project. It is important that activities do not restart until all are confident that technical quality and good administration will be assured . The planning workshop in Beijing will be organized by CPMU, and those in the provinces will be organized by each PPMU with assistance from CPMU. Each workshop will be facilitated by a professional facilitator (national) and will last four days (five in the case of Beijing), but will have been preceded by preparatory work assigned to the participants. Wide groups of stakeholders will be invited to attend for the first two days of the workshops and the groups will be narrowed down to small teams for the final two days. The plans produced will include use of the government cofunding . Success of these planning workshops will require heavy involvement of as many stakeholders as possible. The following units give an indication of the range of representation at each workshop: BEIJING UNDP CPMU
The five PPMUs State Forestry Administration (SFA) – (units for nature reserve management, wetland office, wildlife conservation) Academy of Forest Inventory and Planning State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) Ministry of Agriculture (units for Aquatic wild animal protection, wetland management) Chinese Academy of Sciences State Oceanographic Administration (SOA) State Planning Commission (SPC) Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) National Wetland Conservation Action Plan Committee (NWCAP) WWF UNESCO – (Biosphere Reserves Management Office) Wetland International Conservation International Changchun Institute of Geography Taskforces of CCICED eg In-situ Conservation, and Integrated River Basin Management CHENGDU CPMU Sichuan PPMU Gansu PPMU Sichuan Forestry Bureau Sichuan Environmental Provincial Bureau Sichuan Agriculture Bureau Sichuan Water Resource Bureau Sichuan Planning Commission Chengdu Institute of Biology, CAS Grassland Research Institute WWF Conservation International Aba Prefecture Ruoergai County Hongyuan County Ruoergai NNR Riganqiao Prefecture NR
Gansu PPMU Gansu Forestry Bureau Gansu Environmental Provincial Bureau Gansu Agriculture Bureau Gansu Water Resource Bureau Gansu Planning Commission Desert Research Institute, CAS Lanzhou University Northwest Normal University Sichuan PPMU Luqu County Maqu County Gahai Lake NNR Shouqu PNR
Heilongjiang PPMU Heilongjiang Forestry Bureau Heilongjiang Environmental Provincial Bureau Heilongjiang Agriculture Bureau Heilongjiang Water Resource Bureau Heilongjiang State Farm Heilongjiang Planning Commission ADB Northeast Forestry University Jiamusi City Sanjiang NNR Honghe NNR
Jiangsu PPMU Jiangsu Forestry Bureau Jiangsu Environmental Provincial Bureau Jiangsu Agriculture Bureau Jiangsu Water Resource Bureau Jiangsu Planning Commission Nanjing Geography and Limnology Institute of Zoology, CAS Nanjing University Nanjing Forestry University WWF Dafeng NNR Yancheng NNR Dafeng City Yancheng City
CPMU
Hunan PPMU Hunan Forestry Bureau Hunan Environmental Provincial Bureau Hunan Agriculture Bureau Hunan Water Resource Bureau Hunan Planning Commission Wuhan Hydrobiological Institute, CAS Hunan Normal University WWF East Dongting NNR South Dongting PNR West Dongting PNR Yueyang City Yiyang Cityb Hanshou County
Appendix B1 Threats, planned responses and project outcomes1. Threats to wetland biodiversity Despite measures taken by government to set aside wetlands35 as protected areas and to strengthen the legal framework and its implementation, the integrity of many wetlands and their biodiversity is still at risk from:
In the rush for economic development ecological systems are being destroyed at the cost of natural production systems. For example, there is heavy pollution of the Yangtze tributaries, pollution that should have been controlled by now according to government plans, and this pollution threatens the fish of the entire lake that is building up behind the Three Gorges Dam. Many of the underlying causes of these immediate threats to wetland biodiversity lie in the ease with which activities that provide short term profit at the expense of long term stability can be carried out within the current policy, legislative and regulatory framework. The result is that different agencies often pursue their programmes independently and do not take into account fully the impacts of their actions on biodiversity, ecological processes or people’s lives. The functional significance of wetlands in the wider landscape is often ignored, for example: the importance of wetlands in irrigation water supply, ground water replenishment, for transport, micro-climate control, prevention of salt water intrusions, natural flood control, etc. Protected areas are vital tools in wetland biodiversity conservation, but many protected areas in China are simply superimposed upon a mosaic of different land uses over which management has no jurisdiction. Many nature reserve managers (the vast majority of protected areas in China belong to the this category) have to tolerate activities inside their reserves that threaten species or interfere drastically with ecological function and are forbidden under the 1994 Nature Reserve Regulations. Sometimes whole towns or cities are included within nature reserves, yet none of the available management zones permit this. 2. Responses Wetlands are extremely productive habitats that support a great range of biodiversity, provide valuable ecological benefits in terms of flood storage and shoreline protection, pollution assimilation, climate control, groundwater recharge and river base flow maintenance, as well as opportunities for recreation and aesthetic appreciation. Government recognizes these benefits and has acted to protect wetlands from the effects of fast economic development that is in some places outrunning environmental controls and proceeding in the face of negative environmental assessments.. Circular No 50 (2004) of the State Council General Office to the People's Governments of the Provinces, Autonomous Regions and Municipalities, and the Ministries, Commissions and Departments directly under the State Council, emphasizes the importance of wetland conservation and lays out various actions and approaches to be taken to strengthen wetland management, including changes in legislation, policy and funding mechanisms, and establishment of a wetland conservation management system that is implemented by different agencies in an integrated and coordinated manner. Without proper regulation of industry the wetlands of China will continue to deteriorate. Government at the highest level has called attention to this, and has intervened in some cases to postpone or halt development projects in the interests of long term sustainability and is promoting limitation of public aspirations to “comfortable” or “well off” lifestyles in an effort to decrease the rush towards extravagant ones. As the government follows through with measures on policy and institutional coordination the project will provide technical support for the full range of agencies with impacts on wetlands to ensure that wetland biodiversity considerations are included routinely in decision making and action. Good decision making requires accurate data analysed well and shared with all partners. A well informed public can contribute to decision making through coherent debate and holding government accountable for implementation of policy. Many of the problems faced by local natural resource managers stem from flaws in policy and coordination in parent institutions at the state level, as described above for protected areas for example. Through its activities the project will enhance vertical exhange of ideas and experience as well as horizontal coordination between agencies at each administrative level. The project will work at the national level in Beijing, at the provincial level in Heilongjiang, and at the prefectural, municipal and county levels, including nature reserves, at four wetland sites (see Appendix B2). At each level the project will provide support to strengthen wetland information systems and the sharing of data between relevant organizations; to ensure that legislation conforms to basic criteria on wetland biodiversity conservation, to improve wetland management practices locally, to publicize the values of wetland biodiversity, the ecological services that wetlands provide and details of development decisions affecting wetlands, to raise the capacity of government officials to make sound decisions, to use the results of the project at other administrative levels and to disseminate the results nationwide. Through bringing agencies together for consultation and sharing of information according to the directions of the State Council Circular the project will start to break down some of the institutional barriers to coordination that currently hinder progress on wetland biodiversity conservation, indeed on environmental conservation in general. The scope of the project will extend to decision makin on the new Nature Reserve Law and the possible introduction of a new system of objective based protected area categories. It is through such changes that progress will be made on lifting some of the funding and jurisdictional constraints under which protected area managers operate and which limit their powers in protecting wetland biodiversity. .
Until now the main focus of project activities has been the nature reserves at the pilot sites. There has been an overemphasis on construction and hardware that place heavy long term maintenance burdens on the nature reserves and encourage misguided investments in animal breeding farms and other commercial enterprises, undue attention to marking boundaries and zones, a narrow focus on birds, a neglect of wider relationships outside the nature reserves and a tendency to promote unnecessarily large protected areas. The project has taken an ‘incremental” approach, mainly building on institutions within the sphere of the Implementing Partner.
The role of civil society and media action in resolving conflicts on the environment is increasing. A number of proposed projects have sparked heated public debate, with objectors recording success in cancellation of a recent dam project in Sichuan, and postponement of approval of a major series of dams on the Nu River in Yunnan. The project will encourage appropriate public involvement through provision of information and opportunities for dialogue, and aims to include the people most closely affected by the environmental problems in designing solutions. The project will develop patterns of consultation and communication to involve scientists in decision making and action, and to take into account their research findings. The aim is to establish knowledge driven planning and management with open sharing of research and monitoring results, and with full accountability of government officials to the public for their decisions and for enforcing policy and law. 3. The four Project Outcomes OUTCOME A Wetland biodiversity conservation is a routine consideration in government decision making and action at national level In order to achieve this outcome the project will have to work with a wide range of national government agencies whose policies and decision making have impacts on wetlands, such as the Ministry of Water Resources (and associated River Basin Commissions), the Ministry of Agriculture, including the Department of Fisheries, the State Ocean Administration (SOA), the State Environmental Protection Agency, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Commerce, and the National Tourism Bureau. As a basis for the work of the project sectoral analyses will be carried out to assess the impacts of each sector on wetlands and the extent to which sector specific policy and legislation meets criteria for wetland biodiversity conservation. The results of these analyses will form the basis for recommendations for a national policy and legal framework to cover wetlands conservation, including specific sectoral legislation and cross-sectoral legislation and plans. This policy and legal work will also involve the Environment Protection and Natural Resources Protection Committee (EPNRCC) of the National Peoples Congress and the Legislative Office of the State Council . Speedy work will be necessary in order to have direct input into the environmental content of the Eleventh National Five Year Plan (2006-2010). The CCICED task forces on Protected Areas and on Integrated River Basin Management have drafted recommendations for high level advisory bodies to the State Council, and similar recommendations have been made by the ADB/EPNRCC project on transjurisdictional environmental management referred to above. In case such a body is established this project will provide technical advice and specific recommendations on inclusion of consideration of wetland biodiversity. The Wetlands Division of SFA, which is responsible for implementation of the Ramsar Convention in China, will take the lead, with the support of the project, in strengthening of information networks, both in the accuracy and relevance of the information collected and its analysis and sharing with partners. The project will work towards open sharing of the information required for the routine consideration of wetland biodiversity in decision making. This will include sound information not only on the biodiversity itself but on proposed development projects, land use changes, and environmental impact assessments. There is a great range of laws whose implementation affects wetlands, and that do not include specific reference to wetland biodiversity or ecological integrity. For example, much legislation is focused on resource management (eg Agriculture Law, Soil and Water Conservation Law, Fisheries Law) and is silent on environmental impacts on wetlands, or produce conflicts with the enforcement of environmental legislation such as the Environmental Impact Assesment Law, the Environmental Protection Law or the Wild Animals Protection Law. There are inconsistencies in the implementation arrangements of the Water Law and the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law already identified by the ADB funded project Transjurisdictional Environmental Management (TEM) (component on Local Legislation to support Transjurisdictional Water Pollution Management). The project will produce an integrated document on the various overlaps, omissions and ambiguities in current laws with the legal departments of all relevant ministries and the NPC so that there is a common set of criteria and principles as a basis for making revisions in each law as these come up for revision. Ecosystems do not stop at international borders so the project will provide technical advice on the routine consideration of wetland biodiversity in decisions affecting other countries, for downstream on shared rivers. The on-the-job training approach will see personnel trained during work on actual problems that arise from day to day, as well as the assignments for sectoral review, the development of criteria for assessment of consideration of wetland bioidiversity in decision making, and the preparation of recommendations for changes in policy and legislation to match those criteria. SFA is leading the preparation of National Wetland Conservation Regulations (NWCR) as a basis for enforcing compliance with measures required for protection of wetland biodiversity and ecological services. The project will support the GOC with preparation of the NWCR through provision of technical assistance. Policy on wetlands is fragmented both legally and institutionally so there will be emphasis on placing the proposed regulations in the context of other relevant legislation, including existing and proposed measures on natural resource taxation and pricing incentives, in order to eliminate ambiguities and overlaps and focus on the components essential to complement and cross-reference existing legislation. The project will make recommendations specific to wetland biodiversity conservation in connection with the drafting of a new Nature Reserve Law currently under way in SFA, SEPA and EPNRCC of NPC and on other initiatives on protected areas. There are recommendations from the CCICED Protected Area Task Force that may lead to the establishment of a range of different objective-based management categories for protected areas in China and allow managed resource protected areas, similar in some ways to the Ecological Functioning Conservation Areas (EFCA) being promoted by SEPA. With the cooperation of a wide range of agencies SFA has overseen the production of the China National Wetland Conservation Programme (CNWCP) (2002-2030). The project will assist with ensuring that this programme and its implementation are in line with best practice on wetland biodiversity conservation, and will provide recommendations for periodic revisions. The project will encourage the sharing of relevant information with the public, and will involve relevant civil society organizations in dialogue on wetland and water management and work towards the institutionalization of such public involvement, as an important part of decision making. OUTCOME B Government agencies in Heilongjiang province routiinely consider wetland biodiversity conservation in decision making and action The project will work with the Heilongjiang provincial government to support implementation of the measures and approaches proposed in the State Council Circular on Wetlands. The word “routine” is very important in the project’s objective and outcomes. Unless considerations of biodiversity become routine they will not be effective in curbing the loss of biodiversity and ecological services provided by wetlands. The immediate problems facing government officials are well known: loss of wetlands leading to increased dangers from flooding, directives (and large government grants) to restore farmland to wetlands on the one hand, and continued demand for farmland on the other hand, mainly through immigration, plus widespread water pollution, the collapse of fisheries and uncertain incomes from cash crops. There are water shortages in some areas due to diversions. Solutions to the problems depend on coordinated actions by a range of different agencies. At the provincial level, laws generally reflect national laws. There are some fundamental bottlenecks to effective water resources management in that the various laws (notably the Water Law and the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law) and regulations do not cross reference each other sufficiently, and use terminology ambiguously. The Environmental Protection Bureaux and Water Resources Bureaux, concerned mainly with water quality and water quantity respectively, report to the provincial government but do not interact sufficiently in the field, and Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry and Nature Reserves all depend on decisions on water allocation. There are Provincial Wetland Regulations that came into force in August 2003, but implementation of these and of the relevant laws is not always effective or transparent. Water pricing is not always applied rationally, low value crops are irrigated when there may be higher priorities, and the enforcement of water quotas for farmers requires improvement. The project will involve a wide range of agencies that have influences on wetlands, and sectoral analyses will be carried out to determine the scope for project interventions in detail. Recommendations will be developed for provincial policies, legislation and coordination affecting wetland biodiversity, including review of the existing provincial wetland conservation regulations and other legislation and their implementation. This includes consideration of decisions and actions that have impacts across the international border in Russia, and relevant international agreements with Russia that have potential influence on wetland biodiversity conservation. Biodiversity knows no political boundaries and the Heilong/Amur basin has be managed as a whole if wetland biodiversity is to be conserved. The project will contribute to establishment of links to provide information exchange and consultations on relevant activities and proposals. There has been increased attention recently to actions under joint agreements at various administrative levels between Russia and China on trade and the environment but progress is slow and wetland biodiversity is not adequately addressed in any of the agreements. The project will contribute to the revisions of existing agreements and decisions to develop further agreements and enforcement arrangements, and will assist with routine exchanges of observers provided for under existing agreements. The focus will be on exchange of information on resources and policy, and learning from the management experiences of each other. A GEF funded Amur Basin regional project is under preparation and will concentrate on wide ranging environmental policy: this project has a vital role in supplying the wetland biodiversity input to transboundary decision making and working to make sure that it becomes routine. These results will be achieved through workshops, provision of relatively long term but intermittent technical advice in addition to the resident outcome coordinator, and through publications and arrangements for meetings with counterparts from neighbouring parts of Russia. The project will work closely with the the Provincial Development and Reform Commission. Knowledge and data management on wetlands in the provincial forestry bureau, and systems of sharing data with the other relevant agencies, will be improved. Great attention will be paid to reliability of data, efficiency of data handling and analysis, and to keeping the data systems streamlined, focused and no more complex than necessary for the task. The sharing and common use of monitoring data by different agencies is essential for good water and wetland management. The role of Environmental Protection Bureaux and protected area management bureaux in providing data that are accepted and utilized by other agencies is vital. Through collaboration with relevant agencies the project will demonstrate the use of data in decision making and planning. Technical advice (including expert studies and social, economic and biophysical analysis) will be provided in support of developing effective policy and coordination approaches to dealing with pollution and its monitoring, drainage, restoration of wetlands, nature reserve boundary revision, ecotourism, alien species, and the ecological and economic costs and benefits of the measures taken to conserve fish stocks in the Sanjiang plains and rivers, including the sturgeon fry release programmes The project will encourage the sharing of relevant information with the public, and will involve relevant civil society organizations in dialogue on wetland and water management and work towards the institutionalization of such public involvement, as an important part of decision making. There are links here with Outcome D below. OUTCOME C Government agencies at local levels take into account wetland biodiversity conservation in decision making and action at four wetland sites This outcome will focus on site level demonstrations of good practices in wetland management – it will include strong elements related to coordination of planning mechanisms for wetlands as part of the wider production landscape and demonstrate new approaches to implementing these. In all of the project demonstration sites wetlands and the biodiversity they support are under pressure from a wide range of threats. These include conversion of wetlands for agriculture or aquaculture, crop changes, agro-chemical applications and water use for irrigation that rarely consider the importance of wetland functions for the wider environment, industrial factory development, large infrastructure projects for water diversions and road development, and overharvesting, legal and illegal, of wetland resources. Nature reserves play some role in mitigating these effects, acting as refuges for important biodiversity at some stages in their life cycles, but many species, including those of global importance also use much of the wider landscape. However, some of the important features of the wetlands are actually dependent on certain levels of human activities. For example, many of the migratory birds, especially the cranes, ducks and geese use the agricultural landscapes as important feeding areas. The population dynamics of many of the migratory species and their fidelity to certain sites along migration routes is often unpredictable and the need to adaptively manage and protect areas within the wider production landscape is an important consideration in their conservation. All natural ecosystems are dynamic, rarely if ever self-contained, and involve complex webs of interdependent processes, and wetland ecosystems in particular are subject to rapid changes in the distribution of water and biological resources quite apart from the changes occurring as a result of local or global climate change. A look at the historical records of the wintering areas of crane (Grus sp.) species in southern and central China shows significant changes over time: many areas favoured now were not used in the past, and vice versa. Further changes can be expected in the future and effective policy must cover the maintenance of wetland function over wide areas and not be limited by the current preferences of individual species or within the boundaries of protected areas. There project will work with both protected area managers and decision makers in the whole range of sectoral agencies whose programmes have impacts on the landscape, including protected areas. Many protected areas in China, are little more than ‘paper reserves’ in the wider production landscape – with high human population pressure and a wide range of economic activities taking place within them. The large sizes of many protected areas reflect the pragmatic approach of declaring large reserves on paper in an attempt to exert some form of control over activities that would be better managed through a landscape approach to conservation. A myriad of different government agencies and economic entities and individuals influence wetland biodiversity and ecological integrity at the site level, and the nature reserves themselves have their own effects too. Policies that require nature reserve managers to raise revenue for operational costs have led to activities that are clearly deleterious to the wetland functions and biodiversity that the nature reserves were designed to protect. In Chinese wetland nature reserves such revenue raising activities include cultivation, aquaculture, reed farming, and some forms of tourism developments, and the resulting negative effects include habitat destruction, pollution, eutrophication, disease, genetic changes and overfishing to feed captive fish, channeling for reed cultivation, and increased disturbance and opportunistic hunting. Revenue raising in nature reserves is important, but should be compatible with the objectives of the nature reserves. Here too the project will assist with a sound technical approach to consideration of wetland biodiversity in decision making and action, together with recommendations for changes in policies in the parent agencies to solve the problems. Even when conservation funds are made available as grants or loans to local people for revenue generation, the environmental effects of the activities funded by such schemes are not always well assessed. In some integrated conservation and development projects no environmental criteria are used. The criteria for assessing consideration of wetland biodiversity in decision making wil be applied at these levels too. The importance of the maintaining natural ecological processes and habitats if aquatic species are to be saved will be stressed to all developers, whatever their motives: captive breeding and gene banks will simply not compensate for losses due to dams and diversions for example. This outcome will strengthen capacities to collect good data and to manage and analyse them for decision making. The project will contribute to the forging of links between relevant organizations through on-the-job training and specific workshops. Sectoral analyses will be prepared at the site level and they will be used to develop economic frameworks for wetland conservation at each site. Good economic frameworks will contribute to inclusion of wetland biodiversity considerations in decision making in a way that makes sense to local officials faced with pressures to develop local economies. There will be feedback to the central level policy development process on wetland biodiversity considerations in decision making in development sectors and the environmental protection sectors such as protected areas. The public will be involved in wetland biodiversity conservation through enhancing their understanding of its importance so that they are prepared if necessary to hold government officials to account, when policies are not enforced properly. Sectoral analyses and economic frameworks for wetlands conservation Ecological objectives for wetlands conservation in China compete with a large number of social and economic requirements for land and water which, cumulatively, threaten virtually all of China’s wetlands. In many circumstances, the limiting constraint is not a lack of understanding of the ecological values of wetlands, but simply economic necessity or population pressures. There is little probability of success in wetlands biodiversity conservation on a broad basis when conservation measures are perceived by local governments as measures that deprive local populations of livelihoods or living space. Economic choice is the basis for decision-making on a broad range of environmental issues such as pollution control which is down-graded by local governments when pollution control negatively affects local taxation or employment for example. Therefore, success in wetlands conservation can only be guaranteed when wetlands are seen as a net economic benefit to local and provincial governments which have the legal responsibility for managing water quality and quantity. There are many possibilities for economic benefits ranging from the new and rapidly growing domestic tourism industry, to managed wetlands for pollution control. The latter has considerable merit insofar as municipal pollution control investment is largely focused on large cities, to a much lesser extent on small cities, and not at all on villages. Sectoral analyses will be carried out as at the provincial and national levels examining current management practices and policies within each sector (agriculture, transport, industry, water resources, fisheries, nature reserves for example) to identify their objectives and roles and the constraints they face. These will be accompanied by cost-benefit analyses of the four wetlands sites, as a basis for showing the economic benefits of wetlands conservation, and drawing up a number of options for various types of economic use of wetlands together with assessment of their social, financial and ecological impacts. Strengthened capacities in decision making and action for conservation of wetland biodiversity at each site. The project will work in local government offices and in nature reserves, at a pace decided by the preparedness of the staff at each site. Training “on the job” will be the main basis for technical capacity development, and in order to make such training effective a certain amount of basic wetland management will be supported by the project, including survey and monitoring work, and environmental education. Training will principally be carried out through deployment of long term, full time national and international United Nations Volunteers (UNVs) in combination with carefully selected national training consultants. A coherent project programme for each sector will be developed to address both capacity development and the underlying constraints to progress that will not be lifted by training. Each sector will have to demonstrate the need for project inputs such as training, information, research and monitoring, and equipment, and include them in their operational work plans, before the project proceeds with those components. . By the end of the project will have the confidence and understanding to make sound decisions based on clear analyses of problems. They will be putting their training into practice and where appropriate will have the basic facilities and equipment necessary to fulfill their duties. Local government and protected area staff will be given specific training in research, monitoring and data handling and use in habitat and species management. Databases, whether relational or spatial, will be built up slowly according to demand, using relatively simple equipment and systems that can be added to as the users demonstrate progress and define their needs neatly.. Staff in the local Development and Reform Commissions and governors offices will increase their abilities to make proper use of the information available to interpret EIAs well and to improve their decision making with respect to wetland biodiversity in general. Training on the job will enable project staff to follow through the development decision processes in specific cases and advise on procedures, criteria and judgments as they proceed. Supplementary training, including study tours and training of trainers where necessary, will be arranged. Biological monitoring and data sharing are important pre-requisites for development of wide-area, multi-sectoral land management plans. The project will strengthen capacity to decide on the appropriate level of effort to put into monitoring and how to select the best indicators of wetland health for assessments of wetland biodiversity conservation status. The project will demonstrate the monitoring of key indicator species whose abundance can be linked to wider environmental quality or problems, and which can be easily and relatively inexpensively monitored. Although almost every nature reserves in China has a museum and an exhibition room the many of the displays do not address the main conservation problems or the context of the nature reserves in the wider ecosystem. The project aims to provide better information to the public, so that any interventions they make in decision making and action are based on sound concepts and data. Each of the four project sites has different conditions and problems, and project activities will vary between sites so as to provide a different emphasis to the demonstrations at each site. At Yancheng, for example the emphasis will be on improved public knowledge of wetland functions and value; at Dongting on development of biodiversity monitoring programme and sharing and use of the data by sectoral agencies; at Sanjiang on biodiversity considerations in water management and international transboundary coordination; and at Ruoergai on biodiversity considerations in pasture management and interprovincial transboundary coordination. Yancheng Coastal Marshes:emphasize improved public knowledge of wetland functions and value The focus of the current education messages at the two nature reserves will be adjusted outwards to the wider ecosystem, including coastal ecology and its links with livelihoods, through demonstration of new approaches to communicating environmental messages, with the involvement of the public. New displays will be designed that better interpret the local coastal ecosystems, clearly showing the ecological processes and linkages in these ecosystems – and especially the functions and values of coastal wetlands for local people, the high hunting pressure on wild bird populations, and the conflicts between mud flat enclosure and aquaculture with conservation. Wildlife ‘communities’ found within the coastal marshes and mudflats will be explored (not just the rare species), and species of global conservation importance such as the Red-crowned Crane and Saunders’ Gull will also be highlighted. Factors such as the influence of the introduction of alien species, the damming of rivers upstream and the enclosure of mudflats with sea walls will also be clearly interpreted. An overall view of the dynamics of the Yellow Sea inter-tidal mudflat ecosystem and its modification by man’s activities will be covered. The role of human livelihoods in providing components of wildlife habitat will also be demonstrated: salt farms, some types of aquaculture ponds and some arable land all provide feeding areas for shore birds and water birds. Many of the threats to biodiversity and wetland functioning come from large commercial enterprises and infrastructure projects, so it will be essential that the managers of such entities, as well as local farmers, fishermen and land workers are included in outreach and collaborative activities. Local government will play an important role in coordinating involvement of these sectors and implementation of resulting outreach awareness programmes. The State Ocean Administration’s programmes concerning coastal zone survey and assessment and integrated management will be included in the planning of this output. On the job training in environmental education and interpretation techniques will be carried out in part by the United Nations Volunteers, and also through a subcontract for design and implementation of the new programmes. There will be opportunities for formal training too, including possibly a study tour to examine interpretation facilities elsewhere in the region. Dongting Lake: emphasize use of indicator species monitoring and data sharing in decision making and actions Recent declines in numbers of some formerly common water birds (especially little egret Egretta garzetta and coot Fulica atra) have alerted local managers and conservationists of the need to identify the causes of such declines and to investigate the underlying threats to the ecology of the whole lake. The health of the lake ecosystem is very closely tied to the health of the human population living in the basin. There are increasing concerns about pollution in the Yangtze basin and the government has acknowledged that actions to control pollution are behind schedule. Fisheries management and reed management, flood control measures, siltation, potential changes in water levels resulting from Three Gorges Dam operations, will all have effects on the biological resources and water of Dongting Lake. There is a need for a biodiversity monitoring programme - it is vital to be able to follow long term trends in the variables that demonstrate the effects of use of lake resources, of pollution, and of river basin management measures, so that use of lake resources can be better planned and managed. Although there has already been considerable survey and inventory work carried out within the Dongting Lake basin, and there are annual bird counts in the Yangtze basin under the Asian Waterbird Census, there has never been a unified approach to monitoring by the various agencies and institutions involved in data collection. Useful monitoring of such an area in a cost-effective manner is a complex undertaking: selection of variables, particularly effective indicator species and habitat quality indices, and standardization of methods and sampling regimes will have to be planned carefully. Local training will be required, particularly to design effective sampling protocols, and there will also be a study tour to observe the research and monitoring programme of the UK Broads Authority – tailored to the needs of reed management and wetland restoration (see Section ll of the main Project Redesign Document). The project will demonstrate how a basic, indicator species wetland monitoring programme within the Dongting Lake basin enables shared data on biodiversity to be used in land use decision making. The indicator species will be identified carefully during project implementation, according to objectives and practical considerations. The project will not attempt to monitor the whole of the Dongting Lake basin – it will establish workable monitoring protocols (including the use of biological indicator species) with the key agencies and promote sharing and use of data by all. The project will develop monitoring programmes that are sustainable, working with the local Environmental Protection Bureaux and nature reserve management bureaux on design and data collection and with the local governments and their sectoral agencies to share and use the data collected. Other partners will include local bird watching clubs, pulp mill operators, fishermen organizations, conservation NGO's and the general public. Local people will be involved through assisting with observations and reports. By the end of the project it is expected that a focused monitoring programme for key species and habitats in the Dongting Lake will be in operation and producing coherent and standard data of relevance to decision makers, on trends in biodiversity. The data will be shared with decision makers in local and provincial governments. Sanjiang: emphasize biodiversity considerations in water management and international transboundary coordination In 1975 wetlands accounted for 32.5% of the entire Sanjiang Plains area, and by 1995 this was reduced to only 16%. During that 20-year period many wetlands were drained for conversion to agriculture, and drainage, pollution and agricultural water management remain the biggest threats to wetland biodiversity and wetland function in the Sanjiang area. Development of the Sanjiang Plains, including implementation of the ADB Sanjiang Plains Wetland Protection Project, continues and further influences on the wetlands from water engineering projects and agricultural initiatives are expected. The project will work to raise the capacity for sound decision making on wetland biodiversity conservation as it is affected through water management, including irrigation, drainage, dams, diversions and pollution control, reflecting the needs of local people in the long term and the obligations to conserve globally important biodiversity. There have been some recent initiatives to try and “restore” wetlands or manage them in isolation from the agricultural landscape and the natural hydrology – these have either failed due to technical difficulties or simply not been economically viable. Proposals for the “restoration” of wetlands in Honghe NNR are a case in point – they are limited in scope (focused only on one small wetland area) and involve heavy engineering (through construction of new channels, sluice gates, and other water control structures). These types of development often lead to more impacts on the environment and wetlands in particular – through the need to dig deeper drains and failure to look at the larger hydrological picture. There is an urgent need to look at the wider geographical scope in Sanjiang – rather than focusing on restoration of small, isolated wetlands like Honghe, it would be more effective to develop and demonstrate broad-level solutions to the effects of the drainage system on the wetlands of the region, including biodiversity and ecological services. Rather than looking to heavy engineering for answers, low impact ecological solutions should be developed and promoted. This might include promotion of set-a-side areas for important biodiversity, restoration of wetlands in marginal agricultural areas and areas prone to frequent flooding, “no reclamation” policies in vulnerable flood plain areas, ecological buffer strips along rivers and streams to prevent excessive run-off from agro-fertilizers and other pollutants, etc. On a broader scale the use of water for agriculture needs to be carefully assessed – in particular the impacts of irrigated or non-irrigated crops on local hydrology – and the effects of these policies on the use of agricultural land by important biodiversity. The project will work at several levels within the Sanjiang Plains. Through strong multi-sectoral involvement at the provincial level (see Outcome B) and close collaboration with the Provincial Development and Reform Commission (PDRC), the project will prepare recommendations for changes in long term development strategies and short term plans that reflect the considerations of wetland biodiversity conservation. The project will also work directly with the key government officials from relevant agencies (eg Environment Protection Bureau, Fisheries Department, Water Bureau, Agricultural Bureau, and the State Farm Bureaux). No consideration of wetland biodiversity in decision making and action for Sanjiang would be complete without looking at the whole river system and this includes Russian territory. The Russian and Chinese governments are well aware of the need for cooperation on the environment, particularly as there are increasing mutual economic ties and trade links too in the region, and are developing ties through a number of joint agreements. However, wetland biodiversity is not yet addressed from the ecosystem point of view so this project will have an important role in providing technical support on inclusion of wetland biodiversity considerations in decision making and action on transboundary issues and will assist with access to information and knowledge and recommendations on proposals for future collaboration. The project will provide technical support and advice to local partner agencies during the development of proposed hydrological management schemes for the area. Technical advice will range from providing expert opinion and assessment of water management or agricultural reclamation schemes, predicting impacts on wetland biodiversity and wetland functioning and inputs to EIA reviews. At the same time the project will promote awareness of the natural functional values and benefits of wetlands amongst local partner agencies, and state farm personnel in particular. The project and local agencies will implement small-scale demonstrations of ecological solutions to water management and use around the Sanjiang Plains. Technical advice and support will also be co-opted through partners such as the Heilongjiang Agriculture Reclamation, Survey, Design and Research Institute (HARSDRI). Close collaboration with the ADB Sanjiang Wetlands Project will be maintained throughout, in particular to advise on impacts of proposed and approved interventions on ecological and hydrological processes and biodiversity. Technical advice (including expert studies and analysis) will support development of effective policy and coordination that will feed back into the activities under Outcome B at the provincial level. Ruoergai Marshes: emphasize biodiversity considerations in pasture management and interprovincial transboundary coordination. A limited research programme and a monitoring programme to follow trends in rangeland (dry grassland and wetland) health will provide basic information on the effects of various herding and water management regimes and development activities on the dry grasslands and wetlands. Understanding of the complexities of ecosystems and their management, and the Ruoergai ecosystem in particular will be enhanced through workshops and a carefully planned study tour with local government staff. The project will also work, through consultations and workshops, to establish more effective interagency coordination on development and management actions affecting the Ruoergai Marshes environment and to improve dialogue with and involvement of local people in decisions on the economic development of the region. As with all the outcomes, one of the first tasks, during the inception phase, will be to make firm arrangements with major partners, but the adaptive management approach adopted by the project will allow formation of partnerships as required throughout the project. Partners that will be involved from the beginning include the Livestock and Agriculture Bureaux, the county and prefectural governments, the Water Resources Bureaux, and the Environmental Protection Bureaux. The skills, knowledge and experience of Ruoergai herders will be taken into account in maintaining or re-establishing environmentally sustainable grazing systems for the whole area, and practical ways of changing herders’ practices to mitigate damaging effects on biodiversity conservation and ecological function will be identified, and demonstrated where possible through incentive based conservation schemes. It has been suggested that alternative livelihoods may provide a way of reducing pressure on the grasslands. It may be that some herders will find employment in a well organized tourism business but the solutions to the problems resulting from overgrazing in some areas are more likely to lie at present in modification of herding practices rather than taking large numbers of people out of herding. Demonstrations of new management approaches will be arranged where appropriate, possibly in ecological approaches to zokor and pika management or in wetland reclamation. Pikas and zokors are still being poisoned on the Tibetan plateau in official government operations that are now discredited by scientists and rangeland managers both within and outside China. Blocking of drains with hay or straw bales is already being carried out in some places but the long term effects are not yet known. By the end of the project it is expected that proposals for improved approaches to land use decisions and planning, including grazing management, will have been developed, with the support of local herders. It may be that fundamental changes in policy will have to be made in connection with grazing practices. OUTCOME D Improved processes of monitoring and evaluation, and collection, analysis, use and sharing of information, knowledge and experience in wetland biodiversity conservation Project management in Beijing will oversee a comprehensive programme of exchange of information and experience both within the project for internal learning and for the general public. The general principle of operation of the project is for sectoral analyses and work on policy framework at the centre to form the basis for work at the provincial and site levels with feedback provided from the provincial and local levels for further refining of the policy at the centre. The GEFWPO will make sure that these exchanges take place, but many of them will be done by the staff and counterparts assigned to the other three outcomes (A, B,C). There will be workshops throughout the project held specifically to report on experience to date at various levels, and in various aspects, to which representatives from Beijing and other project sites and provinces will be invited as appropriate. For example representatives from wetland sites will meet to exchange ideas and experiences on implementation, in particular on the aspects that were emphasized in implementation in one site only. And provincial and site representatives will be invited to take part in a provincial level workshop in Heilongjiang and to develop proposals for how to apply at home the lessons learned and the approaches used. The project will prepare a wide range of materials for dissemination of results to other provinces and localities but it is the task of government outside the project to ensure that the results of the project are applied throughout China. The project will, under Outcome D, select one province and one wetland site late in the project for pilot dissemination of project results so that possible problems can be dealt with before the end of the project. The project website will be simple yet effective in design and will serve an important linking role for the project and for informing the public. There will be efficient (ftp)facilities for downloading data for use within the project and by interested members of the public. The public will be kept informed at each level through a variety of approaches, including newsletters and technical publications, television, radio, DVDs and meetings. There will be a monthly seminar on Wetland Biodiversity Conservation in Beijing, to which the public will be invited, and similar seminars will be arranged in Harbin and at each project site. The Technical Advisory Group that monitors project progress towards the objective and the outcomes will produce periodic reports to the PSC. The GEFWPO will deal with the follow up to reports and PSC decisions and will compile a record of the monitoring inputs and changes made so that it can be used as a resource for projects in preparation. There will be an annual workshop at which the results of the whole project are presented and discussed, prior to the annual Tripartite Review meeting. |