SFG2978 REV Guangdong Agricultural Non -point Source Pollution Control Project Financed by World Bank Ethnic Minority Development Framework Project Management Office Guangdong Agricultural Non-point Source Pollution Control Project October 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 3 1.1 PROJECT BACKGROUND ......................................................................................................................... 3 1.2 PROJECT CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................... 4 1.3 PURPOSE OF THE ETHNIC MINORITY DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK (EMDF) .......................................... 5 1.4 DEFINITION OF “ETHNIC MINORITY” ...................................................................................................... 5 2. APPROVAL AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EMDP ............................................................ 7 2.1 IDENTIFICATION AND SCREENING OF MINORITY ..................................................................................... 7 2.2 SOCIAL ASSESSMENT .............................................................................................................................. 7 2.3 PREPARATION OF THE EMDP .................................................................................................................. 8 2.4 APPROVAL OF THE EMDP ....................................................................................................................... 9 2.5 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EMDP ........................................................................................................... 9 3. OVERVIEW OF ETHNIC MINORITIES IN PROJECT AREA.................................................. 4 3.1 POPULATION OF ETHNIC MINORITIES ..................................................................................................... 4 3.2 MAIN FEATURES OF LOCAL ETHNIC MINORITIES.................................................................................... 5 3.3 CURRENT POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR ETHNIC MINORITY ........................................................................ 7 4. LIVELIHOOD OF LOCAL ETHNIC MINORITIES .................................................................. 18 4.1 OVERVIEW OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 18 4.2 TECHNICAL SUPPORT AND AGRO-CHEMICAL SUPPLY ............................................................................. 19 4.3 LOCAL SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION ........................................................................................... 21 4.4 SITUATION OF LOCAL ETHNIC MINORITIES ............................................................................................ 22 5. ANALYSIS OF PROJECT IMPACTS ON ETHNIC MINORITIES .......................................... 25 5.1 POSITIVE IMPACTS ................................................................................................................................ 25 5.2 NEGATIVE EFFECTS ............................................................................................................................... 26 5.3 BRIEF SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................. 28 6. PUBLIC CONSULTATION AND PARTICIPATION ................................................................... 29 6.1 PUBLIC CONSULTATION AND COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION SO FAR.......................................................... 29 6.2 THE CURRENT PERCEPTIONS AND EXPECTATIONS OF THE PROJECT OF THE LOCAL FARMERS ................. 30 6.3 PUBLIC CONSULTATION AND NEGOTIATION IN THE COMING PREPARATION STAGE .................................. 32 6.4 THE PUBLIC CONSULTATION AND NEGOTIATION DURING PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION ............................ 33 6.5 PUBLIC CONSULTATION AND INVESTIGATION IN THE LATE PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION .......................... 34 6.6 COMPLAINTS AND GRIEVANCE MECHANISM .......................................................................................... 34 7. SUGGESTIONS FOR POSSIBLE NEGATIVE IMPACTS ........................................................ 36 7.1 PREPARATION OF STAFF ........................................................................................................................ 36 7.2 EARLY PUBLICITY OF THE PROJECT ....................................................................................................... 36 i 7.3 INFORMATION DISCLOSURE .................................................................................................................. 36 7.4 DEMONSTRATION AND PILOTING .......................................................................................................... 36 7.5 TRAINING OF TRAINERS ........................................................................................................................ 36 7.5 TRANSPARENCY OF PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION .................................................................................... 37 7.6 POSSIBLE IMPACTS ON AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION ............................................................................ 37 7.7 PROJECT MANAGEMENT ....................................................................................................................... 37 7.8 PREPARING EMDP ............................................................................................................................... 37 8. ARRANGEMENT OF IMPLEMENTING AGENCIES............................................................... 38 8.1 IMPLEMENTING AGENCIES .................................................................................................................... 38 8.2 THE CAPACITY BUILDING OF IMPLEMENTING AGENCIES ........................................................................ 38 9. MONITORING AND EVALUATION ............................................................................................ 39 10. INFORMATION DISCLOSURE ................................................................................................. 41 ANNEX A: STRUCTURE OF EMDP ................................................................................................ 42 ii 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Project Background Since the reform and opening up, China's economic rapid development increased the degree of development and utilization of water resources, however, water environment protection and repair work is relatively slow, the water environmental issues have become increasingly prominent. Data indicate that agricultural non-point source pollution is the major pollution sources of water environment in China. Guangdong Province is a major economic and agricultural province, but in recent years, with the increase in population and the rapid development of the rural economy, agricultural nonpoint source pollution situation became very grim. It is not only a serious threat to the ecological environment security, which restricts the efficiency of agriculture, but also a threat to human health. After calculation, the province's agricultural COD contributes for 40% of the province's total pollutant emissions, ammonia emissions account for 42% of the province's total emissions. Agricultural nonpoint source pollution has been directly restricting the sustainable social and economic development of Guangdong. Therefore, agricultural nonpoint source pollution control has great significance in both promoting the agricultural structure adjustment of Guangdong and improving production conditions as well as the agricultural ecological environment in rural areas. This project is China's first World Bank loan project in agricultural nonpoint source pollution control. Its goal is to systematically reduce the extent of non-point source pollution of water and soil through comprehensive prevention and control means and to promote the establishment of agricultural nonpoint pollution control system through capacity-building, knowledge management, monitoring and evaluation. Ultimately, Guangdong residents can enjoy economic, social and ecological benefits from agricultural non-point source pollution control, thus the overall well-being is enhanced. There are four sub-projects in this World Bank Project of Guangdong agricultural non-point pollution control: (1) environmental-friendly farming; (2) livestock waste management; (3) monitoring and evaluation, capacity building and knowledge management; (4) project management. The first sub-project includes the following three projects: reduced fertilizer and pollution control project, pesticide reduction project and conservation tillage project. The project implementation period is five years, from January 2014 to December 2018. The project was initiated in 2014 with 6 counties for piloting, including Huicheng, Huiyang, Boluo of Huizhou City, Taishan, Kaiping, Enping of Jiangmen City. In the second half of 2016, 9 piloting counties were added into the first phase, including Haifeng, Lufeng of Shanwei City, Xingning, Jiaoling of Meizhou City, Longchuan of Heyuan City, Yangshan of Qingyuan City, Deqing of Zhaoqing City, huangzhou, Gaozhou of Maoming City. Since 2017, 13 piloting counties will be added into the second phase, including Wuhua, Pingyuan, Dapu, Meixian of Meizhou City, Zijin of Heyuan City, Qingcheng, lianshan of Qingyuan City, Xinyi of Maoming City, Lianjiang, Leizhou of Zhanjiang City, Yunan, Xinxing, Luoding of Yunfu City. Of the 13 counties to be initiated in 2017, Lianshan County of Qingyuan City is the Ethnic Minority Autonomous County mainly with Zhuang and Yao. 3 1.2 Project Contents Detailed contents of the four sub-projects are showed in Table 1-1 in below. Table 1-1 List of project construction content and scale Sub-project Contents 1.1 Reduced fertilizer and pollution control project: The promotion and application programs are proposed for formula fertilizer, slow / controlled release fertilizer, integrated water and fertilizer, and rice control technology. And related public support for the proposal is configured. 1.2 Pesticide reduction project: Comprehensive crop pests prevention and Sub-project 1. control for the main product of the project area including rice, corn, vegetables, Environmental-friendly litchi, banana and potato; after the implementation of the project, those farming agricultural products will be awarded a pollution-free green certification, the provincial funds will be awarded. 1.3 Conservation tillage project: Choose rice and corn crops for the pilot test. Among which are two Rice Conservation Tillage pilot (1 in Huizhou and 1 in Jiangmen) and two maize conservation tillage Pilot (1 in Huizhou and 1 in Heyuan) 2.1 Environmentral friendly energy: Biogas systems and sewage purification projects in a total of50 farms. Sub-project 2. 2.2 Ecological energy: Biogas systems and sewage purification projects in a Livestock waste total of100 farms. management 2.3 New technology example: The high bed fermentation ecological farming technology demonstration 3.1 Monitoring and evaluation: Propose method for daily monitoring and result evaluation for the following fields: the progress and effectiveness of the project; the security policy enforcement, etc. Sub-project 3. Monitoring and 3.2 Capacity building: Mainly includes lab construction, purchase of equipment, evaluation, capacity technology and policy research, technical training, technical visits, promotion building and knowledge and other management activities. management 3.3 Knowledge management: Mainly includes the establishment of agricultural nonpoint source pollution Knowledge Database and Information Database. Sub-project 4. Including daily management of the project, management of progress, management of project incentive subsidy and meeting arrangements Project management 4 1.3 Purpose of the Ethnic Minority Development Framework (EMDF) It is already discovered by both provincial PMO and the Bank that the second phase of the project (to be initiated in 2017) include one Ethnic Minority County (Lianshan Zhuang and Yao Autonomous County of Qingyuan City). Though the exact locations of the sub-project contents in the county is not finalized, this Ethnic Minority Development Framework (EMDF) has been developed in accordance with the applicable state and local laws and regulations, and the Bank’s Operational Policy OP4.10 “Indigenous Peoples”. Purpose of the EMDF is to guide project preparation in any location concerning ethnic minority. The World Bank OP4.10 has clearly described that any WB financed project should be able to (a) avoid potentially adverse effects on the Indigenous Peoples’ communities; or (b) when avoidance is not feasible, minimize, mitigate, or compensate for such effects. Bank-financed projects are also designed to ensure that the Indigenous People receive social and economic benefits that are culturally appropriate and gender and inter-generationally inclusive. As for this particular project, objectives of EMDF are: for those minority people who are willing to participate into the project, to provide a guideline on preparing project application and related activities for any organization involved so that the benefit of ethnic minorities will not be compromised and / or negatively affected through: 1） Identification of all the ethnic minority groups and / or individuals that所有might be impacted by the project; 2） Preparations of countermeasures during project implementation that will ensure and/or limit the negative impacts to ethnic minority people; 3） Ensuring that once negative impact happened, proper and sufficient compensation will be allocated for them; 4） Ensuring that by through the project, livelihood of the impacted ethnic minority people will be improved or at least recovered to the level before the project started; 5） Ensuring that project management and implementation will not interrupt and negatively affect their culture and faith, so that the sustainability of their culture and tradition will not be compromised. 1.4 Definition of “Ethnic Minority” According to OP4.10, general definition of Ethnic Minority is: social groups with a social and cultural identity distinct from the dominant society that makes them vulnerable to being disadvantaged in the development process. Ethnic Minority (Indigenous People as commonly used by WB) can be identified in particular geographical areas by the presence in varying degrees of the following characteristics:  Self-identification as members of a distinct indigenous cultural group and recognition of this identity by others;  Collective attachment to geographically distinct habitats or ancestral territories in the 5 project area and to the natural resources in these habitats and territories  Customary cultural, economic, social, or political institutions that are separate from those of the dominant society and culture; and  An indigenous language, often different from the official language of the country or region. 6 2. APPROVAL AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EMDP 2.1 Identification and Screening of Minority Identification foundation The term “Indigenous Peoples” is used in a generic sense to refer to a distinct, vulnerable, social and cultural group1 possessing the following characteristics in varying degrees: 1） Self-identification as members of a distinct indigenous cultural group and recognition of this identity by others; 2） Collective attachment to geographically distinct habitats or ancestral territories in the project area and to the natural resources in these habitats and territories;2 3） Customary cultural, economic, social, or political institutions that are separate from those of the dominant society and culture; and 4） An indigenous language, often different from the official language of the country or region. Identification methods (1) On-site survey Learning the population and ethnic composition of each village, identifying minority villages, and the residential pattern of ethnic minorities through on-site survey (2) Data collection and literature review Learning the demographics, and production and living patterns of the ethnic minorities and Han people in the project area by collecting statistical yearbooks, reports, annals and other literatures reflecting demographics, ethnic groups, cultures and customs in the project area. Screening Early in determined subproject preparation, According to the identification of Minority, PMO need to undertake a screening to determine whether Indigenous Peoples are present in, or have collective attachment to, the project area. In conducting this screening, the Bank seeks the technical judgment of qualified social scientists with expertise on the social and cultural groups in the project area. 2.2 Social Assessment The breadth, depth, and type of analysis required for the social assessment are proportional to the nature and scale of the proposed project’s potential effects on the Indigenous Peoples. 1 The policy does not set an a priori minimum numerical threshold since groups of Indigenous Peoples may be very small in number and their size may make them more vulnerable. 2 “Collective attachment” means that for generations there has been a physical presence in and economic ties to lands and territories traditionally owned, or customarily used or occupied, by the group concerned, including areas that hold special significance for it, such as sacred sites. “Collective attachment” also refers to the attachment of transhumant/nomadic groups to the territory they use on a seasonal or cyclical basis. 7 The social assessment includes the following elements, as needed: 1） A review, on a scale appropriate to the project, of the legal and institutional framework applicable to Indigenous Peoples. 2） Gathering of baseline information on the demographic, social, cultural, and political characteristics of the affected Indigenous Peoples’ communities, the land and territories that they have traditionally owned or customarily used or occupied, and the natural resources on which they depend. 3） Taking the review and baseline information into account, the identification of key project stakeholders and the elaboration of a culturally appropriate process for consulting with the Indigenous Peoples at each stage of project preparation and implementation (see paragraph 9 of this policy). 4） An assessment, based on free, prior, and informed consultation, with the affected Indigenous Peoples’ communities, of the potential adverse and positive effects of the project. Critical to the determination of potential adverse impacts is an analysis of the relative vulnerability of, and risks to, the affected Indigenous Peoples’ communities given their distinct circumstances and close ties to land and natural resources, as well as their lack of access to opportunities relative to other social groups in the communities, regions, or national societies in which they live. 5） The identification and evaluation, based on free, prior, and informed consultation with the affected Indigenous Peoples’ communities, of measures necessary to avoid adverse effects, or if such measures are not feasible, the identification of measures to minimize, mitigate, or compensate for such effects, and to ensure that the Indigenous Peoples receive culturally appropriate benefits under the project. 2.3 Preparation of the EMDP Based on the screening, the Bank concludes that Indigenous Peoples are present in, or have collective attachment to, the project area, the borrower undertakes a social assessment to evaluate the project’s potential positive and adverse effects on the Indigenous Peoples. An ethnic minority development plan (EMDP) will be developed based on the SA and consultation with the affected minority communities. The PMO will determine if the affected minority communities provide extensive support for the Project based on the SA, and free, prior and informed consultation. If the minority communities provide such support, the borrower should prepare a detailed EMDP. The IPP includes the following elements, as needed: 1） A summary of the information, A review, on a scale appropriate to the project, of the legal and institutional framework applicable to Indigenous Peoples. Gathering of baseline information on the demographic, social, cultural, and political characteristics of the affected Indigenous Peoples’ communities, the land and territories that they have traditionally owned or customarily used or occupied, and the natural resources on which they depend. 8 2） A summary of the social assessment. 3） A summary of results of the free, prior, and informed consultation with the affected Indigenous Peoples’ communities that was carried out during project preparation (Annex A) and that led to broad community support for the project. 4） A framework for ensuring free, prior, and informed consultation with the affected Indigenous Peoples’ communities during project implementation (see paragraph 10 of this policy). 5） An action plan of measures to ensure that the Indigenous Peoples receive social and economic benefits that are culturally appropriate, including, if necessary, measures to enhance the capacity of the project implementing agencies. 6） When potential adverse effects on Indigenous Peoples are identified, An appropriate action plan of measures to avoid, minimize, mitigate, or compensate for these adverse effects. 7） The cost estimates and financing plan for the IPP. 8） Accessible procedures appropriate to the project to address grievances by the affected Indigenous Peoples’ communities arising from project implementation. When designing the grievance procedures, the borrower takes into account the availability of judicial recourse and customary dispute settlement mechanisms among the Indigenous Peoples. 9） Mechanisms and benchmarks appropriate to the project for monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on the implementation of the IPP. The monitoring and evaluation mechanisms should include arrangements for the free, prior, and informed consultation with the affected Indigenous Peoples’ communities. 2.4 Approval of the EMDP Before determining if the related projects or components are eligible for Bank financing, the PMO will submit EMDPs for the related projects or components committed by local governments to the Bank for review two months before project implementation. Such related projects or components will not be implemented until approval. The approved EMDPs must be disclosed via local newspapers and government websites before implementation. 2.5 Implementation of the EMDP A specific implementation schedule should be proposed for all activities to be conducted, agencies appointed and funding sources secured in the EMDP. At the implementation stage, the PMO will implement the EMDP, address the affected ethnic minorities’ needs for and suggestions on the Project through public participation, and enhance positive benefits and mitigate negative impacts by taking pertinent measures. 9 3. OVERVIEW OF ETHNIC MINORITIES IN PROJECT AREA 3.1 Population of Ethnic Minorities According to the statistics from Guangdong Provincial Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission, as of 2012, there were three ethnic autonomous counties, seven ethnic townships and more than 3 million of ethnic minority people in Guangdong. Among them, more than 600 thousand ethnic minority people living in the province for generations. Besides, there are about 2.5 million ethnic minority people from other provinces living for over half year, mainly distributed in 9 cities of the Pearl River Delta, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Zhanjiang, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing, accounting for 97.38% of the total population of unsettled ethnic minority people. Guangdong is the province with the largest inflow of ethnic minority population from all around the country, all the 56 ethnic minority groups in China can be found. The ethnic minority groups that live for generations in Guangdong include Yao, Zhuang, Hui, Manchu, and She. Of the 600,000 locally resided (with official registration) ethnic minority population, more than 1/3 distribute in 3 Autonomous County and 7 Ethnic Townships, including Liannan Yao Autonomous County, Lianshan Zhuang Yao Autonomous County, Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County and Sanshui, Yao An Yao Nationality Township in Lianzhou City, Chengjia Yao Nationality Township in Yangshan County, Shendushui Yao Nationality Township in Shixing County, Xiashuai Zhuang Yao Nationality Township in Huaiji County, Lantian Yao Township in Longmen County, Zhangxi She Nationality Township in Dongyuan County. Among them, Lianshan Zhuang & Yao Autonomous County which belongs to Qingyuan City is one of the project counties planned for the second phase of the project. Located in the Nanling Mountains, Lianshan Zhuang & Yao Autonomous County (in Zhuang language: Yen Gag Guenj Boux Raeuz Boux Yiuz Lienz Sanh) lies in between Guangdong, Hunan and Guangxi provinces (regions). In this area, mountains rise steeply and rivers crisscross. With high and steep terrain, 87% of the total area is mountainous. Meanwhile, forest coverage of the county is 84.5%, ranking first in Guangdong. With its natural resources, Lianshan is rich in Shatian pomelo, ginger, rosin, Chinese yam, mushrooms, tea oil, honey, japonica, bamboo shoots and other native products. Under jurisdiction of the county, there are 7 townships (Jitian, Taibao, Hedong, Yonghe, Futang, Xiaosanjiang and Shangshuai), 3 state-farms, 47 administrative villages and 4 urban communities. The county located on a gentle hillside of the Jitian Riverside. The terrain in its North is higher while lower in South. Population of the county town is about 20,000 with a relatively small urban area. Major local languages in Lianshan include Zhuang, Yao, Lian Shan and Cantoness with local accents, and also, Mandarin is accessible. Lianshan is a multi-ethnic county. While Zhuang People distributed around the county, they mainly concentrated in the south of Jiatian, Shangshuai, Xiaosanjiang, Futang, Yongfeng and other townships with only a handful of Han Chinese mixed together. The Yao people live mainly in the northwestern part of Sanshui Township, north of Dabao Township. Shangcao and the southern part of the Xiaosanjiang Township also have a small amount of diaspora. Han people 4 mainly live in the northern part of the county, including Hedong, Taibao, Dafu, Shangcao, Yonghe and Jitian Townships. According to governmental statistics from Lianshan County, by the end of 2013, the total number of households in Lianshan reached 31,519 and the total population reached 118,162, including a male population of 61,473 and a female population of 56,689. Among them, the number of agricultural population reached 96,494, accounting for 82% of the total population while the number of non-agricultural population reached 21,668, accounting for 18% of the total. The number of resident population has exceeded 92,900. There are altogether 73,306 ethnic minority people in Lianshan County, accounting for 62.04% of the total population. Among them, 55,093 are Zhuang people, accounting for 46.61% of the total; 17,923 are Yao people, accounting for 15.19% and 290 are other ethnic minorities. Table 3-1 Minority Population Profile in Lianshan Zhuang and Yao Autonomous County Percentage of total Ethnic Group Population population (%) Zhuang 55093 62.04 Yao 17923 15.19 Other ethnic minorities 290 0.245 Note: the data (as of 2013) was released in February 2015 by Lianshan Zhuang and Yao Autonomous County Government In accordance with OP 4.10 0f the Bank on ethnic minority, objectives of the development of ethnic minority of this project are: (1) To provide all the relevant information in a manner consistent with the traditional culture and customs of ethnic minorities in the project area, and to fully communicate and consult them; (2) To contribute to the achievement of project objectives by integrating the needs of ethnic minorities into project design; (3) To minimize the potential negative impacts and risks of the project to ethnic minorities through the adoption of measures and actions while at the same time enhancing the access of ethnic minorities to benefit from the projects in ways and means acceptable to the ethnic minority groups. 3.2 Main Features of Local Ethnic Minorities Features of the main ethnic minorities in the project area are listed in Table 3-2. Table 3-2: History and Beliefs of Major Ethnic Minorities in the Project Area Ethnic Main Features of the Ethnic Group Way of Religion Group living Zhuang Zhuang People was once called slang, Liao, Inhabited The county respects and protects Liang, Butu, Nong, Sha, Wuhu and so on. citizens' freedom of religious belief, 5 During the Warring States and Qin and Han protects and administers the normal Dynasties, the Zhuang ethnic group was religious activities of the three religious gradually differentiated, reorganized and churches in the county, allows merged from Xiou and Luo Yue of Baiyue. In activities within the limits of the the Southern Song Dynasty, they were called Constitution, laws, regulations and "Zhuangjun", "Zhuangding". To the Yuan policies, at the same time, combat and Dynasty began to be known as ethnic, and stop illegal religious activities later renamed "Zhong" or "Tong". In the late according to law, encourages religious Qing Dynasty, they were once called "Tong". people to join in the socialist material And then after the establishment of the civilization, spiritual civilization, People's Republic of China, they were called political civilization. “Tong”. In 1965, according to Premier Zhou Christian. In the period of the Republic Enlai proposed and by the NPC Standing of China, Catholicism and Christianity Committee considered and adopted, "Tong" were introduced into the prefecture, was changed to "Zhuang". In Lianshan county, and there were preaching points in Zhuang people are divided into two groups: Yonghe. In 1994, the relevant the Host Zhuang and the Guest-Zhuang. departments approved the establishment of Christian gatherings Yao was called "Moyao" in Sui and Tang in Taibao Liantang, Hedong Mancun, Dynasties. There are Guoshan Yao and Bapai Jitian Shigu. Catholic Catholic Yao living in the county. Guoshan Yao, at first believers scattered in Jitian, Yonghe, surnamed Deng, moved from Hunan Jianghua Taibao town. In addition to major to Jitian Danzhu at the end of the Yuan Yao Scattered Catholic festivals in which believers go Dynasty. Bapai Yao was earliest named Tang, to churches in Lianzhou, they generally whose ancestor Tang Hua moved from the only live a religious life at home. Hunan Lanshan to Liansha in Ming and Qing Dynasties. In addition, the new village of Bapai Yao, Li belongs to Youlingpai. Other Other ethnic non-Habitat ethnic minorities Ethnic includes Miao, Manchu, Hui, Dong, Jing, Li, Scattered Minorities Mongolian, Tujia, etc., Most of them came to work in Lianshan County. Note: The data comes from the Lianshan Zhuang and Yao Autonomous County Government. Although there are many ethnic minorities living in the project area, the interviews with ethnic and religious commissions in Qingyuan City and Lianshan County along with the field visits showed that the ethnic minorities, such as Zhuang and Yao have lived together over vast areas with Han people while some live in individual concentrated communities in small areas. In the routine agricultural production and daily life, all ethnic groups use Chinese to communicate, and use Chinese characters as written text. At the same time, the degree of integration of local ethnic minorities is high. Intermarriage among the three groups is very common. Local Zhuang, Yao-based ethnic minorities do not have their own unique religious beliefs. However, both Zhuang and Yao belong to the type that owns a lot of festivals. Famous festivals of 6 Zhuang people such as the Cattle King's Birthday (Lunar calendar April 8), Song Festival (Lunar calendar June 6); for Yao people, the Water-Sprinkling Festival (Lunar July 15), Panhuang Festival (Lunar October 16) and so on are also well-known. With the social and economic development, festivals which originally belong to one ethnic minority now have become the festivals that celebrated all over the county, especially by the Zhuang and Yao people together. In general, the scale and social impact of the celebrations are small due to the limited fiscal capacity of Lianshan County Government. Minority languages in the southwest of the region are well preserved. Thus, people there can basically communicate in the Han and minority languages. Lianshan County is located in the mountainous area between Guangxi and Hunan. It belongs to the Karst landform, and it’s mainly composed of rocky mountains and hills. The county in general lacks of connected and large pieces of arable land. The per capita arable land is about 1.2 mu according to local statistics, while the per capita cultivated land area of the southern mountainous area is less than 1 mu. At the same time, the county is the source of the Pearl River, which means that it belongs to the Restricted Development Zone. As a result, the county lacks of industry and mining. Resident income basically depends on cultivation and forest / fruit production. Regardless of ethnic minority, rural labors basically migrate out for living. As Lianshan County occupies a better ecological environment in Guangdong Province, the local eco-tourism and green / organic agricultural products have been developed in recent years. However, due to the far distance from the consumer market, the income growth from the newly developed areas is slow. Overall, differences of the agricultural population among different ethnic minorities are small. Agricultural production are all characterized as small area planting as main industry, going out for work as major sideline and single income structure. 3.3 Current Policy Framework for Ethnic Minority The development of EMDP shall be based on the relevant laws and regulations of the People's Republic of China on ethnic minority, the relevant regulations of the Guangdong Province, and the World Bank policies on Indigenous People (OP4.10). The main policies include the relevant laws and regulations of China and relevant regulations of Guangdong Province, the state support policies, the regional development plans of Guangdong Province and Qingyuan City and the World Bank OP4.10. Specific policies framework and main contents are shown in Table 3-2. Table 3-3 Policy Frameworks for Ethnic Minority in China, Guangdong and WB Name of Policy and Category Main policy content and main points Regulation National laws and ① In addition to enjoying the same power of the local Relevant regulations: “The government, the autonomous regional autonomous region also has state laws Constitution of the the following rights: autonomous legislative power; autonomous and People's Republic of management of local political affairs, local economy, financial regulations China”, "Law of the affairs, local science, education and cultural affairs; the formation and relevant People's Republic of of local public security forces and the use and development of regulations China on Regional minority languages. of National Autonomy", ②Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of Guangdong "Law of the People's religious belief, and the organs of self-government of the State Province Republic of China on and the autonomous areas guarantee the freedom of religious Villagers' Committee", belief of all nationalities. “Regulations of the 7 Name of Policy and Category Main policy content and main points Regulation People's Republic of ③ Formulate national administrative regulations in order to China on the promote the national rural economic and cultural development of Administration of Ethnic such undertakings to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Villages”, “"Minority ethnic minorities and enhance national unity. cause" twelve five "plan" ④In addition to being deprived of political rights, the 18-year-old Relevant Regulations of villagers, regardless of ethnicity, race, sex, occupation, family Guangdong Province: " background, religious beliefs, education, property status, The provisions of residence period, have the right to vote and stand for election. national language and ⑤ The state helps various ethnic minority accelerate their common language in economic construction and cultural construction from the aspects Guangdong Province" of finance, materials and technology. ⑥The use of minority languages is governed by the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, the Law on Regional National Autonomy of the People's Republic of China, and other relevant laws and regulations. ① Among the 55 ethnic minorities, 28 ethnic groups with a population of 300,000 or less are supported. Including the Salar. The planning period is 2011-2015. ②Development Goals: By 2015, administrative villages inhabited by ethnic minorities that have less population basically accomplish the aim of basic infrastructure while villages with less population basically achieve the goal of improved livelihood. The number of poor people in less populated areas reduces by half or more. Per capita net income of farmers and herdsmen reach the local average or above level. 1/2 of the national farmers and herdsmen per capita net income reach the national average or above level. The level of infrastructure protection, people's "Planning of Support the livelihood security and self-development capacity increase development of national significantly. By 2020, the development of less populated areas State Support minority will be more coordinated, life will become more prosperous, the Policy population(2011-2015)" environment will be better, society will be more harmonious, and a well-off society will be built. ③Main mission: Strengthen infrastructure construction to greatly enhance the development of security capabilities; Develop special industries to Promote the masses to increase income; Protect and improve people's livelihood, and promote equalization of basic public services; Develop cultural undertakings and cultural industries to Making the national culture prosperous; Strengthen human resources development, and enhance self-development capacity; Promote national unity, and build a harmonious home. ④Policy measures: Increase capital investment; increase financial services; increase assistance to counterparts; increase the strength of the building of human resource; increase the intensity of existing policies and regulations to implement. This policy aims to ensure that the development process fully respects the dignity, human rights, economies, and cultures of Indigenous Peoples. Operational Policy World Bank (OP4.10) and Bank (1) The Bank recognizes that the identities and cultures of Procedure (BP4.10) Indigenous Peoples are inextricably linked to the lands on which they live and the natural resources on which they depend. These distinct circumstances expose Indigenous Peoples to different types of risks and levels of impacts from development projects, 8 Name of Policy and Category Main policy content and main points Regulation including loss of identity, culture, and customary livelihoods, as well as exposure to disease. Gender and intergenerational issues among Indigenous Peoples also are complex. As social groups with identities that are often distinct from dominant groups in their national societies, Indigenous Peoples are frequently among the most marginalized and vulnerable segments of the population. As a result, their economic, social, and legal status often limits their capacity to defend their interests in and rights to lands, territories, and other productive resources, and/or restricts their ability to participate in and benefit from development. At the same time, the Bank recognizes that Indigenous Peoples play a vital role in sustainable development and that their rights are increasingly being addressed under both domestic and international law. (2) Bank-financed projects include measures to (a) avoid potentially adverse effects on the Indigenous Peoples’ communities; or (b) when avoidance is not feasible, minimize, mitigate, or compensate for such effects. Bank-financed projects are also designed to ensure that the Indigenous Peoples receive social and economic benefits that are culturally appropriate and gender and inter-generationally inclusive. (3) When a project affects Indigenous Peoples, the TT assists the borrower in carrying out free, prior, and informed consultation with affected communities about the proposed project throughout the project cycle. At all stages of the project, the parties consulted have prior access to information on the intent and scope of the proposed project in a culturally appropriate manner. It shall also be determined that if the affected communities give broad support to the project based on the SA and consultation process. (4) The EMDP should be flexible and practical, and include the following: legal and institutional framework suited to ethnic minorities; information on demographic, social, cultural and political features of affected communities, ancestral territories owned, used or occupied by them, and natural resources on which they live; a summary of SA; a summary of free, prior, and informed consultation results in affected communities at the preparation stage, which has gained broad community support for the project; a framework for ensuring free, prior, and informed consultation with affected communities during project implementation; an action plan for ensuring that ethnic minorities receive culturally appropriate social and economic interests; after potential negative impacts on ethnic minorities have been determined, an appropriate action plan that avoids, minimizes or mitigates, or compensate for such impacts; the financial budget and financing plan for the EMDP; a procedure for addressing appeals from minority communities arising from project implementation; and an M&E and reporting mechanism, and indicator system suitable for the implementation of the EMDP. China's policies and regulations concerning ethnic minorities are consistent with the WB's concern for ethnic minorities: Fully respect for the dignity, power, economy and culture of the ethnic minorities; Respecting the equality and development of ethnic minorities and giving special attention to the development of various economic, social and cultural undertakings so as to 9 safeguard the rights and interests of ethnic minorities and promote the socio-economic status of ethnic minorities. China's policies and World Bank policies are concerned with public participation, consultation and action plans for ethnic minority communities. At the various stages of project preparation, implementation and monitoring, pay attention to provide information on all relevant projects in a manner consistent with the cultural practices of ethnic minorities, listen to the views, attitudes and expectations of ethnic minorities and obtain broad support from ethnic minority communities. This requires public participation throughout the project cycle, especially vulnerable groups such as women and the poor, to ensure that they can benefit from the project. Both China's policies and WB policies have emphasized the need to adopt measures to ensure that: (a) the affected minorities are socially and economically benefited in accordance with their cultural practices; (b) take measures to avoid, minimize and mitigate potential negative impacts on minorities. 10 4. LIVELIHOOD OF LOCAL ETHNIC MINORITIES It is proposed that the project in Lianshan will be carried out in two townships namely Xiao sanjiang and Yonghe. In order to carry out the project better, the EMDF team conducted a more in-depth research on livelihood of the local ethnic minorities, including agricultural production pattern and social-economic conditions. Findings of the investigation are presented in below. 4.1 Overview of Agricultural Production (1) Crop farming Xiaosanjiang and Yonghe towns are located in the mountainous area of northern Guangdong, which belong to the subtropical climate area, both characterized of mountain micro-climate, with rich hydrothermal and sun-light resources. However, local cultivated land is in general very limited by the geographical conditions – major type of arable land is terrace and the single cultivated lands are always in small pieces. The two towns both adopt the way of single harvesting cultivation, with planting rapeseeds and other economic crops at the same time. In recent years, as the marketing channels and prices are difficult to satisfy local farmers, the local paddy rice produced is mainly for self consumption. Table 4-1 Agricultural capital cost of Rice planting in per acre Agricultural Frequency (per Input (0.5 kg) Price / Time resources production) Seeds 3 1 40~50 RMB / 0.5 kg Pesticide Herbicides & insecticides 4 20~30 RMB / time Urea: 40 1 1.5 RMB / 0.5 kg Chemical Fertilizer Compound fertilizer: 40 1 2.0 RMB / 0.5 kg Organic manure Not fixed 0 (2) Forestry Part of local terraces are for sugar orange; large fruit hawthorn and other kind of economic forest, mountain land is mainly covered with cedar and pine trees and each household has in average 8 mu of mountain land. Due to limited yield and logistics costs, farmers’ income from the traditional products like grapefruit, sugar orange and others is low; the new varieties which were introduced from elsewhere in recent years, however, have not formed market yet. As for the timber market, cedar trees are widely cultivated, however, the pulling effect on the income of farmers is limited, due to the long production cycle (generally around 30 years) (3) Animal husbandry In terms of animal husbandry, the local Zhuang, Yao, Han people are accustomed to feed pigs, but for the reasons of functional requirements in water-source protection areas and the environmental protection requirements and other policy in Guangdong Province, as well as other reasons including the unstable market of pork and the decreased labor (due to migration), led to the disappearance of pig-raising by single households. According to the sampled household survey, only 10% of farmer household still raise pigs, for the main purpose of self-consumption. 18 There are certain number of farmer households raise the so-called “free-caging” chicken, ducks and geese, also mainly for self-consumption. The amount of other livestock productions is low. The survey found that there is a handful of special production including few bamboo rat and fresh-water fish feeders. Since 2015, the small-scale pig farming has been restricted and phased out by Guangdong Provincial government. The policy also caused income decreasing of local small households or at least reduced their income sources. According to the sampled survey, farmers who live on the income of cropping account for about 65%. 24% of the farmers live on animal raising and only 5% of them live on working outside. (4) Trends on agricultural production As for the inputs on agricultural production, due to the reliance on the limited and small pieces of land, local farmers are accustomed to large input of pesticide, chemical fertilizer for ensuring productivity, regardless of ethnicities. But there have been the following trends in recent years:  Many farmers (accounting for 70% of the sampled survey), said that due to the declining in grain price and the increase in wage income for the recent 3-5 years, local paddy rice produced is mainly for self-consumption. With the increase in the proportion of self-use and the price of production materials, farmers tend to reduce the amount of inputs on fertilizer and pesticides.  Some farmers (about 30% of the sampled) made it clear that the production outputs will be stagnant as time goes on, even if more fertilizers and pesticides are used. Thus forcing farmers to recognize the limitations of fertilizers and pesticides.  The Organic rice production which began 2 to 3 years ago let the farmers (especially in the southern villages and towns with more rice field) realized the relationship between the control on chemical fertilizer, pesticide use and economic income. However, farmer's attitudes toward organic rice planting area has been declining recently, due to some factors like the unstable market channel; conflict with traditional production pattern; more stringent acquisition conditions; the lack of distribution and processing enterprises. 4.2 Technical support and agro-chemical supply (1) Technical support Overall, local farmers know the idea / name of soil testing and compound fertilize, meanwhile, a small proportion of farmers have the knowledge about soil testing (about 35% of the interviewed farmers) – mainly concentrate on using of targeted kind of fertilizer. But all of the respondents said that they have never asked technical department for soil testing actively, because of the concern on cost of the service. Compared with compound fertilizer, farmers show a higher understanding degree on lower toxic pesticides. In recent years, high toxic pesticides (including government-banned pesticides) already disappeared in local agricultural materials store. Local farmers are accustomed to planting vegetables for self-consumption and try to avoid using pesticides. In terms of agricultural products which are for marketing, most farmers interviewed said that plant diseases and pests are more frequently happened in recent years, while the efficacy of the 19 available pesticides are getting poorer. Hence the only choice for farmers is to increase the dosage and concentration of pesticides, and causing the increases in expenditure. With the abolition of agricultural tax in the last century and the market reform, resources which can be handled by grass-roots government are getting less and frequency of the services given to farmers by technical staff gradually disappeared year by year. Township level technicians have fewer opportunities to face farmers directly, instead they concentrate more on contacting the village leaders to carry out training and other forms of work. Farmers can hardly find the technical staff, in addition to the regular program of public services (such the compulsory immunization for animal raising). On the other hand, with the increase of information channels and the convenience of logistics, ordinary farmers can get the information about technology and products from the market, other farmers, internet and media easily. The reliance on official technicians basically disappeared, especially in traditional, conventional agricultural production. Specific to Lianshan, Farmers in Yonghe Township understand the soil-testing technology, but they know less on their own soil structure; farmers of XIaosanjiang basically know nothing on soil-testing. Main sources for farmers to obtain information on agricultural production and technical support are those private owned Agro-chemical shops for fertilizer, pesticides, seeds and basic farming facilities in town places. Some owners of the shops in most cases are the local people who used to be township technicians. (2) Market of agro-chemical products and others materials There are multiple varieties of fertilizers available in local agro-chemical shops. Credit sales are very common between suppliers and distributors, as well as between farmers and owners of the shops. Local farmers are used to buy agricultural materials from fixed shops and the promotion of new fertilizers / chemicals mainly depends on the recommendation of the shop dealers and demonstration / piloting organized by the large dealers / producers. With the deepening market and institutional reform, both work load and resources of grass-root level agricultural technicians in the non-key areas have declined. At township level, this group or their relatives often take advantages of their own characters to marketing of agro-chemicals and other related products – as a common phenomenon in rural area. Along with the market-orientation, pesticides and fertilizer manufacturers usually need to face with farmers directly for promotion of their products, in addition to the most basic agro-chemical shops. This process is also conducive to develop a more fixed and routine habits for farmers on buying and using the productive materials. At the same time, local agro-chemical shops became the main platform for farmers to obtain technical advices. Over 90% of the farmers interviewed had experiences on taking sampled crops with disease from their land and asking the shop owners for advices. In addition, the form of credit - selling can also kick the poor-quality, high- prices pesticides, fertilizers and other products out of local market. 20 Case 1 One owner of agro-chemical shop suggested, when it comes to the promotion of new products, that the dealers will bring the product into a village to do test / demonstration by choosing (with money) a piece of land, giving fertilizer / pesticide to the farmer, sending their own spray team. They check the results at the time of harvest and take sampled rice to do professional inspection as the basis of further promotion. Case 2 On talking about the experiences on buying fake pesticides, a villager in Xiaosanjiang shows that he bought a kind of fertilizer two years ago with no effect to the crops. Afterwards, he went back to the shop owner for compensation. But the owner said that there must be some problems on his soil and have no way to deal this kind of problem.. A villager in Yonghe said:” It’s also very difficult for me to distinguish whether the fertilize is true or not. That is, I use it, observe for couple of days, if no effect, I may use again, even if I go back to complain to the shop owners, in most cases they don’t know either. In turn, it is also realized that there is no authoritative technical force to guide farmers in the use of pesticides, fertilizers and other products, farmers are basically relying on the accumulated personal experiences in farming. And once a problem appeared in the use of agricultural products, it is difficult to obtain direct and effective advices / helps. In the group discussions, all farmers indicated that it’s almost no way for the government to organize the unified adoption of a certain variety of seed and fertilizer / pesticide in villages, this idea is also agreed by grassroot agricultural workers and local government officials. 4.3 Local social and economic situation Xiaosanjiang and Yonghe Townships are located in the north and south of Lianshan County respectively, with poor production and transportation conditions and low level of economic development. Lianshan County belongs to the area of Source of Pearl River and Area for Restricted Development. The restriction on local development of industry, forcing local government, enterprises and farmers to realize the wider prospects on green agricultural products, eco-tourism and the market of organic food. On the other hand, farmers understand the market value of the organic rice grown on their own. But what people know are based on their common sense, leading their rice has not been certified by official organization yet. The scattered individual farmers are not capable to carry out large-scale production and haven’t formed any specialized economic organization for marketing of local agricultural products. All administrative villages in Lianshan County are equipped with good conditioned and paved roads interlinked with outside. Most administrative villages have fixed public transportation services, in addition to some remote villages. Important infrastructures are completely settled in those administrative villages, achieving 100% supply of electricity and water. Almost every household has motorcycles. The villagers live mainly on fuel wood and electric energy. Since 2010, the annual per capita cash income of local farmers have showed a rapid upward trend. In general, the per capita arable land in the northern area is a bit more; the site conditions are better, the income level is slightly higher, compared with the southern mountain area. There is 1 mu land per capita in this area, the main varieties of crops for the villagers are rice, 21 which can produce 350-400 kg per mu, with a slight growing trend. Aquaculture is based on poultry-bleeding, as well as few farmers living on pig-breeding. Due to the highly limited land size, there are no mainstreaming and dominating agricultural products, so the majority of product sales are retail-based acquisition of scattered. Those 50-60 year-old middle-aged farmers are the major labor force in villages, while younger people go out for seasonal migration. Most people over the age of 60 are illiterate, and most people in 40-50 year-old mostly end up their study after junior high school education. In terms of family income, 88% of the interviewees were mainly engaged in farming. 64.70% of them live on income from crops, while 23.54% of them live on aquaculture (mostly poultry). Villagers who can earn 5000-20000 RMB per year accounted for 53%, while 6% percent of the villagers earn less than 5000 RMB and 40% of them can earn more than 20000 RMB. The proportion of population live in poverty is small, in addition to some special groups like the households without labor or with severe diseases. According to the field research, about 94% of farmers think they have reached better-off, 35% of them are satisfy with their family status and 41% are not satisfied with their livelihood. 4.4 Situation of local ethnic minorities (1) Ethnic disparities There is a high degree of fusion among the local ethnicities, and there are more intermarriage among Yao, Zhuang and Han people. As time goes by, the local minorities do not have their own unique religious beliefs, but have their own festivals, such as the better-known festival named Niuawngdan and Panwangjie, but the public fiscal support is very limited, so is the outreach of social impacts of local traditions. Because of the poorer roads, and less affected by the outside world, more minority languages are well preserved in some remote southwestern villages. Local people always use the Mandarin and minority languages to communicate with each other because many young people working outside and the popularity of television. In comparison, for local ethnic groups engaged in agricultural production, Yao people are under the best conditions, followed by Han, Zhuang People are under the relatively disadvantaged conditions. The reason of this difference is mainly due to the traditional possession of arable land, forest land, resulting in different endowments. In addition, it is worth noticing that Zhuang people of the three ethnic groups have higher degree of solidarity than the others because of the relative concentration of their living. This degree of solidarity is reflected the way treating outsiders and participating in collective activities. (2) Ethical features With the longtime of fusion, cultural integration, economic integration, the dress, and the behavior of local people have been converging, in addition to festivals, weddings, and a very small number of occasions. Moreover the Zhuang, Yao villagers of over 60 year-old often wear their own ethical clothing. Even for the most representative festival of different ethnicity, local people tend to celebrate together in regardless of ethnic groups. In terms of diet structure, the local climate and natural resources make the food and cooking of different ethnic groups consistent. Similarly, the housing patterns and conditions have been 22 convergence due to the market supply, government support and other reasons. In the most representative occasions as weddings, funerals and other ritual ceremonies, only people over the age of 70 have the full set of knowledge and capable to operate. For younger people below 30 / 40, most of them engaged in outside migration and are no longer familiar with the local traditions even the Singing that used to be the fundamental skill for a Zhuang people.. In recent years, with the promotion of eco-tourism and folklore tourism, the local government has begun to formulate plans to encourage qualified communities to carry out folklore tourism and make certain government investment, mainly for the housing and scenic spots with ethnical features. In the interviewed communities, a small number of young people have abandoned the opportunity to work outside and back home for participating in eco-tourism development. Although eco-tourism has not formed a certain scale yet, but it will gradually promote the traditional culture and production. Results of interviews show that ethnic minority villagers who capable on speaking their own language account for 63%, 25% of them can speak a little. While 88% of the villagers are aware of their own customs and habits and about 25% of them keep the full set of ethnical costumes at home. It is noteworthy that, if certain project activities in the coming future is designed and paid too much attention to the ethnical disparity, it may cause some adverse effect for instance lead a discriminatory challenge with ethnic minority groups. (3) Gender disparities Due to the high degree of integration among the Han, Zhuang and Yao, they do not reflect difference in terms of gender. In general, the differences between local women and men, which were learned through interviews, have the following characters in relationship with the possible implementation of the project:  The proportion of male farmers who have seasonal jobs outside of their home villages is slightly higher than that of female farmers. The gender difference of such farmers is very small when it comes to people under 30 years old, the proportion of such female workers from Zhuang is slightly smaller than that of Yao and Han mainly due to the remoteness of their villages.  In recent years, the number of female farmers with seasonal jobs outside of their home villages has been on the rise due to the declining of farming capacity and the lack of scale and competitiveness of agricultural production.  The same as Han, it is very common for Yao and Zhuang women to manage household chores and the daily life. Decisions related to agricultural production, such as choosing of seeds, fertilizer and chemicals are in most cases jointly determined by men and women.  During the discussions on project implementation, 100% of the women participated have showed the trust on the project and are interested in low-toxicity pesticides and subsidies for the implementation; while men tend to worry more about the effects and yields of grain while talking about the promotion of the project contents. 23  Most of the male respondents (over 65%) consider that the promotion of technologies and products such as compound fertilizer and low-toxic pesticides should be tested and demonstrated in the village in small scale in order to convince the villagers.  Both men and women believe that if the techniques and agro-chemical products promoted by the project lead to a reduction in output, they should receive some reasonable compensation.  Things are generally male-oriented on social occasions including participating in community meetings and technical trainings, purchasing fertilizer / pesticide from agro-chemical shops, and consulting with agricultural technicians outside the village.  A small number of young people under the age of 30 interviewed said that if there were suitable projects in the village (ecotourism, farmhouse, organic farming, etc.), even if the income was not as good as going out for a short period of time, it would be the first choice for them to stay in their villages but not to take seasonal jobs outside of their home villages. 24 5. Analysis of Project impacts on ethnic minorities This project is a public welfare project and will reduce pollution discharges from agricultural non-point sources the Lianshan Zhuang and Yao Autonomous County of Qingyuan City. It will play an important role in improving the health of the local people. According to the results of the social survey and the project’s development objectives, the implementation of this project may have the following impacts on the agricultural production and livelihood of the ethnic minorities in the county. 5.1 Positive impacts (1) Agriculture The adoption of environment friendly crop production practices in Lianshan county will produce positive environmental, economic and social benefits. As demonstrated from implementation results of the original six project counties, implementation of this project has a positive effect on the reduction of the use of agricultural inputs such as pesticides and fertilizers. In the mean time, combined with the local farmers’ adoption of environmentally friendly pollution practices, its implementation will further promote the development of green or organic agriculture in the county. And the improvement of the quality of local agricultural products will also help to increase the added value of agricultural production, so as to increase of farmers' incomes. (2) Local farmers participation in public affairs Project implementations will promote farmer participation in all project activities including social monitoring at the local level. Through project promoted consultations and public disclosure activities, local farmers and indigenous people in particular will have increased chances to participate in community (and even beyond) affairs. If organized properly, active participation of farmers in project implementation will benefit project implementation and improve farmer ’s perceptions on public affairs. (3) Living environment Project implementation will effectively reduce the use of agricultural fertilizers and pesticides, thereby reduce the degree of agricultural non-point pollution. This will improve the local agricultural production and living conditions and improving the quality of life of the local ethnic minorities. (4) Ecological benefits As the source water conservation area of the Pearl River of Guangdong, Lianshan county shoulders the heavy responsibility of water conservation. Implementation of this project will help the county to protect source water quality. The use of low toxicity and low residue pesticides will also reduce potential ecological risks associated with the use of chemical pesticides. At the same time, the implementation of the project also helps to improve the governance of the local environment, contributing to the construction of the beautiful countryside and the development of rural tourism. (5) Social benefits 25 The concerned project county is in the mountain area of northern Guangdong with a large “left-behind” population and a high percentage of elder farmers. The implementation of the project in the meantime improves the production and living conditions of local elderly people, also helps by increasing the frequency of public affairs attract the elderly to participate in community activities, indirectly increasing the degree of participation of the elderly population of the local minority and enliven the cultural life of the elderly. In addition to the elders, the large number of left-behind female farmers and their children will benefit from their attendance to tailored3 training and dissemination / disclosure activities of environmental protection related knowledge / techniques promoted by the project. As experiences from other projects have shown, information dissemination through school children and women are effective and sustainable approaches. At the community level, especially for those EM communities, by promoting eco-friendly agricultural production practices the project will help not only increase farmer income from the production of better quality grains but also increase farmers’ participation in local public affairs which will eventually benefit community development. 5.2 Negative effects (1) Ethnic discrimination Due to geographic reasons, Lianshan County is relatively poor with a large amount of male labors undertaking seasonal jobs outside of their home villages. This has left the elders, women and children behind with elders and women farmers undertaking most of agricultural production tasks. There is a risk that local governmental officials may ignore the characteristics of the left-behind EM farmers and implement the project in EM communities with general information disclosure, dissemination, and training activities without considering capacity and knowledge needs of these EM farmers. This may create a sense of ethnic discrimination in EM communities and prevent these communities from actively articulate their interests and seeking tailored support from the project. To address this risk, it is proposed that frequent and targeted information disclosure, disseminations, and training activities be organized in those communities with active involvement of EM farmers. In doing so, the project will help EM farmers develop a sentiment that the project is “specifically targeted” at them and their needs will be fully incorporated in the design and implementation of project activities in their EM communities. (2) Declining in income After the implementation of the project, the project area will gradually reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers. It is difficult to effectively reverse the inertia of local farmers to rely on pesticides and fertilizers to increase agricultural outputs. In addition, the decline in agricultural production due to the reduction of the use of pesticides and fertilizers may have a certain impact on the lives of the minority people. To address this concern, the project will help project farmers analyze their overall production costs and income and recognize that reduced production costs 3 Here, “tailored” refers to activities designed for attracting participation of women and children with full consideration of sensitivities of local languages. 26 will compensate their potential yield decrease, if any. As the use of project promoted formula fertilizers and high efficiency low toxicity and low residue pesticides helps to improve the quality of agricultural products, the project is working on identifying effective measures to promote such high quality agricultural products in the market. This is a priority task under the entire project. Successful identification and adoption of such measures will ensure project farmers to receive premium prices for their agricultural outputs. (3) The balance of interests of different stakeholders The project aims to switch project farms from relying on the traditional, and popular in most cases, fertilizers and pesticides to proper uses of environmentally friendly formula fertilizers and high efficiency low toxicity and low residue pesticides. As this may reduce the consumption of such inputs in general, it may not be welcomed by local fertilizer/pesticide dealers and shop owners who may have an interests on sales volumes and incomes. In addition, at the beginning of project implementation, those left-behind elder and female farmers may have used only conventional fertilizers/pesticides. Without any knowledge of project promoted formula fertilizers and high efficiency low toxicity and low residue pesticides, they may be suspicious about whether such inputs will deliver a good yield and thus become resistant to such inputs or use on their own additional inputs. To mitigate these risks, project implementation will pay attention to the interests of different stakeholders and promote awareness of all stakeholders on environmental, social and economic benefits of environmentally friendly production practices. Shop owners will be invited to market project promoted inputs through a transparent and competitive selection process at the local level. Selected shop owners will be required to attend project training to improve their technical capacity on project promoted inputs. For project farmers, multiple rounds of training and public awareness campaigns will be organized to improve their understanding of project activities. As project participation is voluntary, farmers with serious concerns can wait to see actual implementation results of pioneer farmers before they decide to participate in project activities. (4) Increase workload of local officials Project implementation will increase workload of the governmental staff related agricultural production at the local level. Especially those work at the township level will have to take on project implementation activities in addition to their routine tasks. These staff most often have never worked on the World Bank project and will have to spend extra time to learn project procedures and requirements. Different from domestic tasks, the Bank project has required local officials to carry out a large amount of dissemination and information disclosure activities before and during project implementation as well as carry out frequent supervisions and inspections during project implementation. There is a risk that local officials involved in the project may have no incentives to undertake the increased workload and compromise the quality of project implementation. To address this potential risk, PMUs at the county and township levels have been formally established with clear staff assignments. The provincial PMO has also instituted procedures to evaluate the performance of PMUs with inputs from project beneficiaries and social assessment findings. 27 (5) The effect of redecoration of existing labs and training facilities During project implementation, such decoration activities may produce noise, dust and construction wastes. Such adverse environmental factors may have a negative impact on the minority households and communities reside next to such facilities. This risk will be mitigated through the proper adoption of appropriate ECOPs specified in the project’s EMP. (6) Challenges in information dissemination and disclosure Located in the mountain area in northern Guangdong, Lianshan County is with relatively backward economy. Many farmers taking seasonal jobs outside of their home villages while elders, women and youth are left-behind. Most often, such left-behind population has limited education. This situation may not be conducive to the pre-project information dissemination and disclosure, which will adversely affect the implementation of the project activities. 5.3 Brief summary Implementation of the project in Lianshan Zhuang and Yao Autonomous County will bring positive impacts to project farmers. Such positive impacts have been clearly demonstrated in the 6 original counties under the project. In addition, as discussed above, measures have been identified to help the county avoid and minimize the potential negative effects and risks associated with project preparation and implementation in this specific county. Project implementation will also follow closely the Bank’s safeguard policy and the country’s existing laws and regulations. During the free information disclosure and public participation events organized for preparing the EMDF, most of participating local farmers developed the idea that the project could help to improve both agricultural production and living environment and deemed the project as positive in general. It is confirmed that project preparation and implementation will involve intensive information disclosure and public participation to ensure that targeted beneficiary farmers develop proper understanding of project impacts as well as technical details of project promoted environmentally friendly crop production practices. All together, these will help ensure project farmers to receive positive impacts of project interventions. 28 6. PUBLIC CONSULTATION AND PARTICIPATION 6.1 Public consultation and community participation so far To prepare the EMDF, the Department of Agriculture of Guangdong Province employed a professional team of the China Agricultural University (CAU) to execute the in-depth investigation and survey (October 2016) in sampled local communities in the Lianshan County. The team has four professionals with support of representatives of the provincial PMO and Qingyuan PMU, as well as project staff of Lianshan County. The survey covered a total of two townships (the Yonghe town and Xiaosanjiang town) and four administrative villages, one of which was investigated by the project office in the early stage. The project office of the Agricultural and Science Bureau of Lianshan County carried out diagnostic investigations respectively in August, 2016 and September, 2016, which mainly involved two administrative villages of Xiaosanjiang town and filtered 1000 mu farmland in accordance with project participation requirements. According to the introduction of the project office, the main contents of the diagnostic investigation include:  Counting the farmland areas suitable to participate in the project  Introduction of the contents and basic situation of the project to the village leaders  Information dissemination and disclosure on project contents to the related farmers When carrying out the information dissemination to some of the village leaders and farmers, the county PMU also communicated with key local households, family farms and farmer cooperatives in accordance with the area (paddy) and quantity (pig farm) of project, and simply introduced the contents of the project to the managers of these organizations as well as collected the willingness of these organizations to participate in the project. In reviewing the information collected, the CAU team found that project preparation in the country was carried out with low frequency of information disclosure, imprecise publicity contents, small coverage and other issues, which were manifested in:  Officials of township governments responsible for agriculture did not have a full understanding of the background of the project and the specific requirements;  Village leaders’ understandings of the project mainly focused on simple contents such as connected farmland areas and subsidy to chemical fertilizers and pesticides;  Farmers had a partial understandings of the project contents, management mode, operation mode, etc.;  The understanding of the project of related enterprises, cooperatives, family farms, rich and influential families mainly focused on information such as area, quantity, subsidy and cooperative investment (farm). In view of the situation above, in the interview process in townships, villages and farmer households, the CAU team conducted information dissemination and disclosure to the interviewees. Components, purposes, objectives as well as possible measures going to take of the 29 project been introduced to the village leaders and farmers (including the elders, women and the leaders of the cooperatives and the family farms). Government agencies interviewed by the CAU team included: (a) Lianshan County Agriculture Bureau, Forestry Bureau, the Ethnicity and Religion Bureau, Bureau of Culture, Women's Federation, involving a total of 8 leaders from these bureaus; (b) Officials in charge of agriculture, minority affairs and civil affairs of Yonghe town and Xiaosanjiang town with a total of 6 persons; (c) The staff of the agro-technical station of Yonghe town and Xiaosanjiang town amounted to 8 persons; (d) Four agencies of agricultural means of production of the town. Agriculture-related enterprise and cooperatives interviewed by the research group included: one organic rice producing enterprise, a cooperative of farmer households, two village-level cooperatives of the production of related organic paddy and vegetables, and one large-scale pig farm. The CAU team carried out the village-level investigation and survey in forms of group interviews, interviews with village leaders, interviews of key informants (managers of cooperatives and family farms) and random household interviews. A total of 53 local residents including village leaders and managers of family farms and cooperatives were interviewed, 35% of whom were women. At the time of the EMDF preparation, the following issues concerning the previous information dissemination and disclosure activities were identified:  The county government carried the information disclosure and dissemination activities mainly to township officials, village leaders, large pig farm owners, big cooperatives and limited number of farmers;  Some of the targeted official and village leaders are not those who will directly involve in project preparation and implementation;  The information provided were general in nature and not tailored for different audiences;  Information passed through those who were informed to potential beneficiary farmers became fragmented and incomplete;  Even with detailed information provided during the preparation of EMDF, farmers in general (despite gender and age differences) still hold suspicions towards the project promoted eco-friendly fertilizers / pesticides and crop production practices. Based on these identified issues, it is suggested that the project should allocate more resources and attentions to public consultation, information dissemination and disclosure to potential project villagers (not only those to be involved in the project). Such events should not only present project information but also be interactive so that farmers’ interests and concerns could be solicited and responded properly. 6.2 The current perceptions and expectations of the project of the local farmers At the preparation of this EMDF, local farmers have limited understandings on the project and tend to think that the project is with a single purpose of “controlling agricultural pollution”. In 30 addition, the proposed implementing agencies of this project at both county and township levels lack sufficient understandings of the project. Furthermore, information disseminated to farmers are not enough. Such dissemination and disclosure have mainly focused on elaborating technical ideas, giving out leaflets with general information, and simple promotion of project promoted agricultural inputs. The CAU team conducted the investigation based on the pre-designed questionnaire and the interview outline. The following findings are observed:  Village leaders and villagers have not heard of the "World Bank" and "non-point source pollution control project".  100% of respondents said they did not know whether there was a problem of pollution in their home and the vast majority of people had not heard of the concept of rural non-point source pollution.  Among the villagers interviewed, 17.65% of them have heard about this project and they got the information from the chat of village leaders or the conversation of technicians.  Through the information dissemination during the investigation and survey, most of the farmers (76%) interviewed believe that the implementation of the project will bring help to the family. Among them, nearly 29% believe that participating in projects will increase production and income, and 71% of them think that the project will change the way of local farmers’ pattern of production in a more positive way.  Even the people holding optimistic attitudes towards the project still believe that demonstration plots and models should be implemented in advance to convince the majority of the villagers in the promotion of the formula fertilizer and high efficiency, low toxicity, and low residue pesticide in the project.  Through the introduction of project during the investigation, 94% of farmers support the project, but some of them are still cautious. It was recoded that 88% of people said they would like to participate in the project, 81% of whom were interested in subsidies to agricultural inputs; 13% would like to participate through cooperatives. Through repeated communications, the CAU team as well as the accompanying officials of the project office introduced the project in details to the village leaders and villagers. Based on the introduction, communications with the farmer household was carried out. In summary, farmers' concerns and expectations for the project were mainly reflected in the following points:  The authenticity of the promotion. Since the early publicity is not sufficient and meaningful, some farmers even worried about the authenticity of the project as well as the authenticity of project promoted formula fertilizers and high efficiency, low toxicity and low residue pesticides. Therefore, it needs the government departments to ensure the authenticity of the project and the content of the promotion.  The technical adaptability. The project should provide technical supporting system for local characteristics.  The suitability of the project. Farmers have higher acceptance of pesticides and fertilizers. 31 They reported weeding as their top concern, and it would be difficult to link their products with the market. They also admitted that highly toxic herbicide is widely used. They were worried about whether the project would ban on the use of herbicides.  The convenience of the project. The project provides partial subsidies to agricultural inputs and does not allow reselling of subsidized agricultural inputs.  The profitability of the project. The project promotes the systematization and marketization of the local farmers so as to achieve the goal of agricultural products to enter the market and to achieve the goal of increasing production and income.  The demonstration of the project. Village leaders and farmers generally wished the project to adopt the principle of demonstration of a patch in the village first and promotion second. In addition, some of the village leaders and farmers hope to organize a visit to the farmland of the first term of the project. 6.3 Public consultation in the coming preparation stage At the time of EMDF preparation, the project has not yet been fully consulted and discussed in potential beneficiary communities. The understanding of local farmers including those ethnic minority farmers about project interventions and benefits is fragmented so far. Although the nature of the project is about environmental protection and public welfare and it will not involve land acquisition, demolition, and changing livelihood of farmers, it may still cause farmers’ concerns over reduced crop yields as a result of adopting project promoted formula fertilizer, high efficiency, low toxic and low residue pesticides, and environmental friendly crop production practices. Such concerns, if not properly identified and addressed, will negatively impact project implementation and the achievement of the project’s development objective. Therefore, in view of the current local social situation, it is suggested that in the next phase of project preparation, the concerned project county carry out additional survey and public consultations as soon as possible. Especially in such remote and under-developed agricultural areas as Lianshan County, it is important to have stakeholder groups such as local project staff, government officials, agricultural dealers, cooperatives, family farms, village leaders and farmers develop a full understanding of the project as soon as possible and understand the project principle of the World Bank and operating methods of the project. The following basic procedures are suggested for the project office to conduct public participation and survey: (a) In accordance with the SA, EMDF and other related documents, clearly identify all stakeholders to be involved in project implementation in the county under the guidance of experts as needed; to understand, analyze, and summarize stakeholders’ understanding, needs, expectations and project impacts; and to prepare more targeted public consultation and public participation; (b) The participatory survey shall hold meetings at the village level, with the assistance of township leaders and village leaders, to ensure the full participation of the community residents, especially women, the elderly, poor and other vulnerable groups. 32 (c) The Participatory survey shall focus on potential questions from stakeholders, such as problem identification, demand analysis, project activities, organizational construction, implementation and management, and monitoring and evaluation. The survey shall allow community residents to fully express their views in advance and through discussion, analysis and consensus building, their ranking of different demands. In doing so, comments and suggestions will be formed and then the results of community discussion will be disclosed to the public; (d) Community representatives elected by the residents of the community, project office, and agricultural experts determine proposed project activities at the community; (e) Community representatives will promptly inform the community residents of the proposed project activities at the community and listen to feedbacks; (f) Finalize the proposed project activities and disclose it again to the public. By following the above outlined procedure on consultation during the next phase of project preparation, as well as for the preparation of EMDP whenever required, free, prior and informed consultations will be conducted and broad community support for the project will be ascertained. 6.4 The public consultation and negotiation during project implementation The field research of this EMDP introduced the project to the local leaders and the local people as much as possible. However, despite the recognition of community residents, the insufficient depth and breadth of the coverage and public consultation are difficult to ensure that the results of the public consultation can be sustained, due to its non-special work and lack of authoritative publicity and promotion from the government. At the same time, in the actual operation of the project, with the changes in various circumstances, there may need an objective adjustment and improvement. Therefore, it is necessary to make corresponding arrangements for interested parties according to the specific problems encountered in order to maximize the interests of all parties, especially to safeguard the rights and interests of ethnic minority groups and other vulnerable groups in the minority communities. The framework of the public negotiation and consultation during implementation of the project implementation is in the following: (a) After the project enters the substantive stage of construction, within the period of construction, for any problems involving the vital interests of the minority community residents, the local project office and construction side should report to the community residents in advance through community planning group or village committee and carry it out after getting the consent of the vast majority of community residents. (b) The different opinions of a minority of people in the community are not unreasonable, which the project office and the construction side should take seriously, and in the meantime, a play should be given to the influence of village committee, community volunteer service group, community elders, families and other grass-roots social organizations as well as individuals, to do well in the work of persuasion and explanation and avoid confrontation and even conflict; (c) The places for consultation and negotiation must be selected within the community to facilitate community residents; the time must be arranged in the leisure time of the majority of the 33 community residents to ensure that residents can participate, and in the meantime, manage to use local dialects to introduce the contents related to profession, management, operation and so on to the local people (especially seniors and groups less likely to go out). 6.5 Public consultation and investigation in the late project implementation In accordance with the provisions of the national policy of ethnic minorities and the World Bank's security policy, the undertaking unit of the project shall assist the project office in the late implementation of the project to carry out public participation survey, monitor if it respected the dignity, rights, economics and culture of the ethnic minorities fully in the process of the construction of the project and if it achieved the mission to promote the World Bank to achieve poverty alleviation and sustainable development and investigate the benefits of minority members from the development of the project. The implementations of public participation are as follows: Questionnaire survey. According to the different contents of each sub-project, compile the public questionnaire, which includes the main activities the project may involve, social influence, mitigation measures taken and consultation to the public. The questionnaire should be sent to the staff directly related to the project and the number of items of the questionnaire shall not be less than 50. And summarize the views of all aspects. Expert consultation. Invite experts in all fields in the project province, city and county, such as environmental protection, ecological protection, cultural relics protection, agricultural commission, water conservancy and Bureau of land and resources, to conduct special technical consultation and discussion about the development problem of the ethnic minority brought possibly by the implementation of this project. To understand the possible impact of the project, issues that should be paid attention to in the project, and mitigation measures should be taken. To solicit opinions from non-governmental organizations. To solicit opinions from non-governmental organizations in the province and city of the project including organizations of ethnic minorities and other social groups with the forms such as forum, telephone interview and correspondence. The undertaking unit of the project must invite the experts in all fields, the masses affected by the project, technical personnel, social experts, government departments, etc. to make recommendations or fill in the public participation form according to the relevant requirements of the World Bank and china. The staff participating the investigation team need to make a good record: such as announcement time, time and place of the meeting, consultation materials, list of the participants, meeting conclusions and summary. 6.6 Complaints and grievance mechanism In order to ensure the interests of the ethnic minority groups affected by the project, an appeal mechanism needs to be established to ensure that the ethnic minority groups have channels to appeal to all aspects of related issues of the project. Stage 1: if the ethnic minority groups in the project area are dissatisfied with the implementation of the project, they can present an oral or written complaints to the community voluntary service group, the village committee or the agencies of project implementation; if it is a oral complaint, it shall be managed and kept in a written record by the village committee or the 34 agencies of project implementation. The village committee or the agencies of project implementation shall deal with it within two weeks. Stage 2: if the ethnic minority groups in the project area are still not satisfied with the decision in stage 1, after receiving the decision, they can lodge a complaint to the volunteer leadership team of street or township and relevant agencies and management agencies shall make a decision within two weeks; Stage 3: if ethnic minority groups are still not satisfied with the decision of the stage 2, after receiving the decision, they may appeal to the administrative organ with jurisdiction for arbitration in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China. Stage 4: if the ethnic minority groups are still not satisfied with the decision of the arbitration, after receiving the decision of the arbitration, they can sue in a civil court according to the civil procedure law. Ethnic minority groups can propose prosecution for any aspect of project construction. The appeal ways above will be informed to the ethnic minority in the project area through meetings and other means, to make the ethnic minority have a full understanding of the appeal right they have. At the same time, it will make use of media tools to strengthen the publicity report, arrange working opinions and suggestions from all parties to the ethnic minority into information articles and hand them over to agencies of project management and implementation in all levels to study and manage. All agencies will be free to accept complaints and appeals from minority groups, and the reasonable costs incurred will be paid from the project's non -foreseeable expenses. In addition, bilingual reception staff will be equipped in each the stage, and at the same time, the number and the address of the staff the ethnic minority shall complain to will be open. 35 7. SUGGESTIONS FOR POSSIBLE NEGATIVE IMPACTS 7.1 Preparation of staff Adopt the forms of training, on-site working, visiting tour to the site of the first phase and so on, to quickly popularize and introduce relevant information of project background, inputs, objectives, management methods, implementing features, working methods, operations, detection methods, World Bank policies and so on to county-level officials, technicians, township leaders, staff of agricultural and technology station(especially refer to the government staff that speak minority language and local dialect), village leaders, demonstrative farmer households and so on. 7.2 Early publicity of the project In the publicity and preparing stage of the project, popularize the project contents, target and main measures through participatory methods, especially the local market fair or folk festivals. At the same time, increase the understandings to the project of local minorities and farmer households by adopting the ways of on-door explanation, issuing the “basic information leaflet” and so on, so as to gain the support of local people. In addition, have open and unlimited collecting to problems that minorities concern, and answer different questions and furthest eliminate worries of minority masses. 7.3 Information disclosure The project needs to disclose information concerning the construction contents that may implement to local minority people and communities and collect feedbacks. For the information of selecting agro-chemical shops, ways of gaining subsidies for project farmer households, project management requirements, project management institutions, project technical supporting institutions, appealing channels and so on, use minority languages and local dialect to inform all farmer households and communities. 7.4 Demonstration and Piloting Aiming at the features of minorities, carry out demonstrating working of productive measures about soil testing, using of compound fertilizers, using of low toxic pesticides and so on as soon as possible at community level through community investigation and public consultation, it is suggested to organize (small scale) field demonstration could bring the best effect. At the same time, organize representatives of stakeholders including farmers, village leaders, agro-chemical shop owners and government staff to visit and investigate the first phase project site. 7.5 Training of trainers To guarantee the effects of technical training and popularizing that the project involves, it is suggested to adopt the method of step by step trainings down to community level, especially in those relatively isolated minority communities. The most effective training will be the farmer to farmer training and field demonstration / piloting. Therefore, carrying out the capacity building for township level agricultural technicians and supporting staff, community leaders and technical modeling households as soon as possible. 36 7.5 Transparency of project implementation After initiation, the project implementation progress should be transparent and relative information accessible to local minority communities and people timely. Through organizing community opening activities, to promote local understandings to the project and increase the close relationship between project management / implementing agencies and local communities / minority people. What’s more, for the project, insist on the principle of opening and participating, and bring representatives of the minority people into project management / consultation. 7.6 Possible impacts on agricultural production The project mainly treats agricultural pollution. Aiming at the problem of profit decreasing that may be brought by decreasing pesticides and fertilizers, assist local competent department to connect agricultural products and market in the process of project management, furthest guarantee the reduction of output but no reduction of profits of crops. At the same time, in the possible project construction process, take initiative to absorb local labor force to participate it, and increase non-agricultural employment. 7.7 Project management Project management is the treatment of agricultural pollution with taking the decreasing of pesticides and fertilizers to be the main means, and in the process of it, need to bring the agro-chemical shop owners into the management, and adopt effective measures to gradually use bio-pesticides or nuisance with low toxic pesticides to replace the current pesticides and fertilizers. Simultaneously, in the production management towards project farmer households, aiming at the local farmers of mainly middle-aged and elderly people, adopt forms of high-frequency technical support, inspection, on-site guidance and so on to guarantee project effect. 7.8 Preparing EMDP Due to the features of environment protection and public benefit, the project looks will have little direct negative impacts, but in fact the project involves multiple stakeholders including: county-level agricultural administrative offices / bureaus, county level agricultural technicians, township government and township level agro-technicians, agro-chemical shop owners, village leaders, ethnic minority farmers and households, owners of pig farms, commercial companies relate to agricultural products, farmer cooperatives, family farms, etc.. The project unit should submit features of influenced areas, social assessment and results of public consultations / negotiations with influenced minority communities to the Provincial PMO, the Provincial PMO should make preliminarily check and submit to World Bank, World Bank will decide whether it is necessary to prepare EMDP according to the submitted documents / material. The project unit will than complete the necessary document upon the Bank’s requirements. Annex of this EMDF is the standard structure of an EMDP. 37 8. ARRANGEMENT OF IMPLEMENTING AGENCIES 8.1 Implementing agencies In order to strengthen the coordinating and management of the project, and ensure the smooth implementation of the project, Guangdong province established the coordinating and leading group of using the loan project of World Bank in 2012, and set up full-time project management office within the Provincial Agricultural Department. The project coordinating and leading group was in charge of the organizing, leading and coordinating working of the project and solving relevant large problems, in charge of the guiding and coordinating working of the project implementing; PMO is in charge of the construction and implementation of the project, constructing the project working progress regular system, setting up relevant working groups according to the specific requirements of the project construction and specific undertaking relevant working tasks. 8.2 The capacity building of implementing agencies In order to promote the smooth development of the project, and strengthen the capacity of the project implementing agencies, the main staff of PMO have participated relevant training organized by World Bank from 2012 to now. Specific training contents include the project management, purchasing management, project performance system and management, placement planning and supervision of farmers with seasonal jobs, environment protection and supervision, public engagement, minority and social gender and so on. During project implementation, in order to promote the smooth implementing and guarantee the benefits of influenced communities / people, project implementing agencies planed to carry out a series of relevant trainings about project management, operation and assessment. The specific training contents include the general situation of the project and the background, relevant laws and regulations of World Bank and our country, methods of public engagement and so on. In addition, aiming at the new added counties and cities in the second project, the Provincial Project Management Office should organize staff of the project management offices of counties and cities to have training about project management, project process and so on and ability construction as early as possible. If possible, bring the technicians of minority villages and towns into the training and ability construction. 38 9. MONITORING AND EVALUATION In order to ensure that EMDP will get effective implementation and reaches the expected objectives, the project owner should supervise and assess the implementing agencies of EMDP, and the M&E results should be recorded in the quarterly report, so as to report to World Bank. M&E on the development and benefits of ethnic minorities should include both internal and external M&E. The internal M&E on EMDP implementation should be performed by PMO, to check the implementing progress and implementing process of EMDP. At the same time, PMO should entrust an independent institution / individual to perform external M&E to the minority development activities of the whole project through the method of open tendering, until the project is completed. Independent institution or individual, academic or institutional unit, non-government organization (NGO), independent consulting company, all can be selected, but there should be qualified and experienced staff, simultaneously, their TOR should be accepted by the World Bank. Under the premise of fund guarantee, the internal M&E on ethnic minority related implementation should be organized twice a year, and the external supervision should be once a year. Compiling of the external M&E report of the minority development planning is needed. Table 7-1 the supervision and assessment outline of the minority development planning M&E Interval and Methods Scope agency reporting (a) M&E methods shall include The independent Internal Semiannual internal field survey, sampling survey, monitoring agency shall monitoring monitoring reports computational analysis and conduct monitoring will be will be submitted by overall expert assessment; semiannually during the performed the PMO to the (b) The field survey will be implementation of the by the PMO, Bank; external conducted comprehensively on EMDP, with focus on and external M&E reports will be the implementation progress of the following activities: M&E by a submitted by the the EMDP, availability and (a) Are the right of the qualified independent M&E effectiveness of funds, ethnic minorities and independent agency to the Bank institutional and management minority groups to M&E annually. aspects; participate in the agency. (c) The project area and project equally households (especially ethnic guaranteed practically? minority households) shall be (b) Are the linguistic subject to sampling survey using and cultural rights of the classified random sampling the ethnic minorities method to track typical ethnic respected? minority households regularly. (c) Which specific 39 (d) The sampling ratio shall not measures have the local be less than 20% of the affected PMOs taken according population, in which the to the MEGDP? How proportion of ethnic minority effective are these households shall not be less than measures? 50% of all sample households; to (d) How do the ethnic collect relevant information, minorities and minority complete the impact form and groups evaluate these compare with the existing EMDP measures? data, a socioeconomic survey (e) How does the main and a resettlement survey shall population evaluate be conducted. these measures? (e) In addition to written (f) Is a MEGDP M&E materials, photos, videos, audio mechanism in place? records and physical objects shall Does it work? also be collected to establish a database of public participation and results. 40 10. INFORMATION DISCLOSURE In order that the affected ethnic minorities learn more about the Project, and its positive and negative impacts on them, further support the Project, and participate in the Project, attention should be paid to information disclosure during the whole process of project implementation. The main parties responsible for information disclosure are the project owner and local governments, and information disclosed includes basic project information, necessity and urgency of the Project, affected groups at the construction and operation stages, and ways for stakeholders to participate in project construction, design and implementation, good environmental awareness and behavior, and environmental data at the operation stage. The methods of information disclosure: 1) Use the language that can be accepted by local minorities to make the publicity brochures of the project, and give them out to relevant minority groups; 2) Use publicity cars, publicity column and other facilities to increase the publicity strength of the project; 3) Local media that include TV stations, newspaper offices and the Internet should coordinate with wider publicity, to strive to make wider stakeholders to understand and support the project; 4) In sites that minorities such as Zhuang, Yao and so on are often in, such as community centers, town bazaars and so on, carry out the information disclosure, but must respect the willing and needs of the minority groups. At the same time, in order to ensure the realization and lasting of the project objectives, it is needed to further improve the public environment health consciousness of the whole people, and it is necessary to have environment health education to the public. The education can be organized and carried out by relevant departments of the government, and to cooperate with organizations including the publicity department, Education Bureau, Environment Protection Bureau, Broadcasting and TV Bureau, newspapers, community / village committees and township government to assist, to carry out the publicity of the aspects of environment protection, ecological protection, organic food, green agricultural product producing, water resource protection, relevant national and provincial environmental indexes, environmental laws and regulations and so on. The full report of this EMDF was disclosed at different levels as per requested by the Bank and the related national regulations. At the provincial level, EMDF was disclosed for 15 days from November 3 to November 18, 2016 at the homepage of Guangdong Agricultural Non-point Source Pollution Control Project (http://www.gdmy.org) managed by the provincial project management office. At the township level, hard copies of the EMDF were disclosed in the official bulletin boards of the township government in the concerned townships. At the community level, the text of the EMDF was disclosed in the bulletin boards of the village committees of all the project concerned communities. Disclosure at the township and community levels was organized during the time from November 10 – November 25, 2016. 41 Annex A: Structure of EMDP 1. The making of the minority planning should be flexible and practical, and the detailing degree of it depends on the specific projects and the nature and influences of the projects that need to be processed. 2. According to the requirements, an EMDP includes the following elements: (a) The information outlined of the (a) and (b) of the second paragraph in Annex A; (b) Summary of social assessment; (c) Summary of the free, prior and informed consultation at the preparation stage in the ethnic minority communities (Annex A). The consultation should gain wide community support for the project; (d) Framework documents that ensure the free, prior and informed consultation to be carried out with the impacted communities; (e) An action plan with measures that will ensure the ethnic minorities to gain the social and economic benefits that adapt to their culture. If necessary, these measures should include ones of improving the capacity of the project implementing agencies; (f) After confirming of the potential negative influences on local ethnic minorities, in order to avoid, furthest relieve and remit these influences or compensate them, make appropriate action planning; (g) The cost estimation and financing planning of EMDP; (h) System that fit for the project to process grievances and complains from the ethnic minority communities due to the project implementation. When designing the grievance mechanism, the borrower of the loan should consider whether it possesses the judicial ways and common mechanism among minorities inside to deal with disputes; (i) The M&E, assessment and indicator system that fit for the implementation of EMDP of the project, the M&E system should include the due arrangements for the free, prior and informed consultation with the impacted communities / people. 42