Appendix A4 Mid-term Evaluation Report (February 2003) Introduction
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Appendix B7 Sustainability of project resultsManagement of wetland ecosystems, in China as in many countries, is shared by a number of different organizations and split up in ways that encourage individual agencies to maximize economic returns from different ecological components and land holdings, particularly as the same agencies are often responsible for both regulation and exploitation. The success of the project will depend on introduction of changes in policy, decision-making processes and management approaches. Such changes will only be effective if they persist after the project ends. The project will stress slow, measured, on the job training at the local level, so that material assistance is provided only as the needs arise and the capacity is developed. Through this strategy changes in techniques and approaches will be instilled sufficiently well to be continued after the end of the project. There will also be a momentum built up through contacts with other organizations that will facilitate continued development of sound management practices. Coordination at the local levels will be enhanced by using experienced UNVs and national outcome coordinators full-time over two years at each site. In Heilongjiang the project will demonstrate new approaches to policy formulation and decision making at the provincial level under the leadership of the Vice-Governor (Outcome B). . All five provincial governments have provided guarantees, including financial commitments that training, monitoring activities, data sharing, website maintenance and newsletter publication introduced under the project will be continued after the project ends. The China National Wetland Action Programme (2002-2030) has been approved by GOC and will be an important framework for defining future priorities as it goes through periodic revisions over the next 25 years. Recommendations for revisions to the Programme resulting directly from project outcomes will also ensure sustainability of the project’s results. An important recommendation made by both the Integrated River Basin Management and Protected Area Task Forces of CCICED – one that will be reinforced by the project – is the formation of high level advisory bodies to the State Council. Establishment of such a body to advise on environmental governance in general, and inclusive of wetland issues, river basin management, grasslands, protected areas and others, would ensure sustainability of project results Close collaboration with the Wetlands Division of SFA on a daily basis will allow project and Wetland Division staff to respond to wetland management problems together and to strengthen their performance in implementing the Ramsar Convention in China. Such collaboration will have an important impact on the capacity of the Wetlands Division and will facilitate the sustained application of the project’s approaches and philosophy after the project ends. In addition, “point of contact” staff for wetlands issues will be identified and supported in the key sectoral ministries and administrations – the project will be working closely with these point of contact staff in such a way that capacity will be gradually developed within the partner agencies also. The likelihood of these staff playing an expanded role in multi-sectoral cooperation on wetlands after the project is high. The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) will monitor progress towards the conditions that need to be set for sustainability. All problems identified by the TAG will be reported back to both the UNDP and the whole Project Steering Committee and the TAG reports will form the basis for the changes in the programme when required, whether to adapt to changes on the ground or the failures of initial approaches. In order to achieve improvements in institutional coordination and policy, and policy implementation it will be necessary to work closely with the key agencies that have influence over wetlands. The costs of related meetings, consultations and exchange of information will be covered by project funds during the project. GOC already places a high priority on wetland conservation and the modification of existing land and water use practices to meet ecologically acceptable criteria, and will allocate funds to continue programmes initiated under the project. GOC has provided assurance that such costs as are required to continue the processes of consultation and joint policy development after the project ends will be covered. The project aims to convince planners and financial decision makers of the economic values of wetlands and the need to look at the long term effects of management decisions and their implications for future costs: in this way the results of the project would be sustained with no further inputs. Wider applicability The project is specifically designed to provide demonstrations and to learn from those demonstrations and apply the results and experience in other areas. The project’s work at four wetland sites at the local level, for example, will be fully documented and the results analysed, summarized and communicated to other local governments, under Outcome D. Both during and after the project selected staff from project wetland sites will travel to other wetland sites to introduce new concepts of wetland management and ways of working, that they have learned and put into practice (see description of Outcome D in Appendix B1). The results will also be used at the national level for refining policy on wetlands. Fourteen wetland sites (the four project sites plus an additional ten) have been identified by SFA under the National Wetland Conservation Programme as demonstration areas for wetland management. The project is already planning links with these sites to begin the process of wider application of project results. The project demonstration components for each of the four wetland sites cover a range of topics, including monitoring to detect trends in biodiversity, informing the public and involving them in policy development and strengthening of capacity in sound management of wetlands with respect to water use and livestock management. Reports of results and experience will form the basis for development of wetland management interventions at other wetland sites, initially in the same province but eventually nationwide. The mechanism for application of results nationwide will be through reporting to the GEFWPO and then via the Wetlands Division of the SFA and other partners to other wetland managers and specific projects and to policy makers working with the project in a range of different agencies. Apart from written reports, there are various methods provided for in the project for communication of project conclusions: they include access to literature, websites, seminars, site visits, newsletters, technical advisory groups and simply putting people in touch with each other (see Appendix B1). It is not only through communication with government agencies and wetland managers at the local level that the results of the project will be used more widely. Results will also be shared with other conservation practitioners, both individuals and organizations, including managers of current projects, designers of new projects and staff of civil society conservation organizations who are engaged in work with similar objectives in China and elsewhere. Dissemination of project results, ideas and approaches will be carried out by some organizations themselves, without further input from the project itself, if those results and approaches are of sufficient interest and value. Results already produced, and the experience of the project to date have been of interest to several organizations which have come to the project for advice on how to avoid the problems that the project faced early on. |