INTEGRATED SAFEGUARDS DATA SHEET CONCEPT STAGE Public Disclosure Copy Report No.: ISDSC1445 Date ISDS Prepared/Updated: 22-Oct-2012 I. BASIC INFORMATION A. Basic Project Data Country: Tajikistan Project ID: P122694 Project Name: Environmental Land Management and Rural Livelihoods (P122694) Task Team Angela G. Armstrong Leader: Estimated 07-Dec-2012 Estimated 28-Mar-2013 Appraisal Date: Board Date: Managing Unit: ECSEN Lending Specific Investment Loan Instrument: Focal Area: Land degradation Sector: General agriculture, fishing and forestry sector (65%), General water, sanitation and flood protection sector (15%), Public administ ration- Agriculture, fishing and forestry (12%), Public administration- Water, sanitation and flood protection (8%) Theme: Other rural development (30%), Other environment and natural resources management (30%), Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise support (15%), Environmental policies and institutions (15%), Participation and civic Public Disclosure Copy engagement (10%) Financing (In USD Million) Financing Source Amount BORROWER/RECIPIENT 0.00 Global Environment Facility (GEF) 5.40 Local Communities 1.78 Strategic Climate Fund Grant 9.45 Total 16.63 Environmental B - Partial Assessment Category: Is this a No Repeater project? B. Global Environmental Objective(s) The overall Project Development Objective (PDO) and Global Environmental Objective (GEO) is to enable rural people to increase their productive assets in ways that improve natural resource management and resilience to climate change in selected climate vulnerable sites. C. Project Description Public Disclosure Copy Scope. The proposed project would comprise three components implemented over five years: (1) Rural Production and Land Resource Management Investments; (2) Knowledge Management; and (3) Project Management. The design incorporates lessons from previous and on-going projects in the sector, notably the Bank- and GEF-financed Agriculture and Watershed Management Project (CAWMP, 2005-2012), but also successful approaches supported by other donors in the field. Component 1. Rural Production and Land Resource Management Investments. The purpose of this component is to provide funding at the community level that would allow rural people to adopt innovative and appropriate practices that reduce land degradation and increase resilience to climate change. Sub-Component 1.1. Village-based sustainable rural production and land resource management in selected climate vulnerable sites. At the village-level, the project would finance rural productivity investments in three categories: (i) farm production (activities that improve field and horticultural crop productivity and diversity, livestock production efficiency, agro-processing and market access); (ii) land resource management (activities that improve water conservation; soil fertility; pasture management, sustainable sloping lands cultivation, including orchards, woodlots, shelter-belts); and (iii) small-scale rural production infrastructure (activities that improve irrigation/drainage systems, minor transport infrastructure, renewable energy, energy efficiency measures). These activities would be selected based on their potential to reduce land degradation, improve livelihoods and increase resilience to the impacts of climate change. Sub-Component 1.2. Community Sustainable Pasture Management. This sub-component would finance the development of sustainable participatory pasture and livestock management plans in selected jamoats. The participatory plan would define: (i) measures to improve pasture productivity, Public Disclosure Copy such as rotational grazing, protecting areas for regeneration, pasture rehabilitation, improving access to remote pastures, and needs for supplementary fodder production; (ii) grazing utilization levels; (iii) animal health requirements such as vaccinations; (iv) investment needs; and (v) implementation targets and indicators. Investments could include: (i) infrastructure to access and use remote pastures, such as spot road improvements, stock watering points, shelters, and milk cooling equipment; (ii) machinery to produce and harvest fodder; (iii) rehabilitation measures for degraded areas such as fencing, weed and shrub control, and re-seeding; (iv) inputs for supplementary fodder production such as seeds; (v) animal health measures; and (vi) breed improvement through artificial insemination. Sub-Component 1.3. On-Farm Water Management. This sub-component aims to introduce sustainable on-farm water management practices in irrigated cropland, particularly in lowland districts. The sub-component would support farmers to introduce, test and demonstrate practices that could contribute to improving on-farm water management and efficiency, maintain soil quality and reduce land degradation, and increase resilience to climate change. Investments could include: (i) provision of equipment for drip irrigation and land-leveling; (ii) cleaning drainage systems to alleviate waterlogging and for salinity control; (iii) provision of seedlings for planting shelter belts, protecting canals and as an intercrop; (iv) materials for conservation agriculture; and (v) seeds of improved varieties tolerant to drought, pests, diseases, and soil salinity.. Component 2: Knowledge Management and Institutional Support. This component will provide facilitation services and technical support for rural populations to plan, implement and manage rural investments. The component would comprise the following activities: Public Disclosure Copy Sub-Component 2.1. Facilitation support and technical advice for mobilization, participatory planning, and implementation of development plans at the village and/or jamoat level. Sub-Component 2.2. A comprehensive training, dissemination and networking program would be instituted to improve skills and knowledge in key topics such as environmental assessment, monitoring and control, and information management; integrated land, water and grazing management including pasture management approaches; sustainable land management and curtailing land degradation; integrated pest management (IPM); pollution control; and climate change adaptation. Sub-Component 2.3. Analysis, research and impact evaluation will include analyses of topics such as soil quality and extent of land degradation, grazing management and livestock production, market development and access to markets, potential incentive policies for environmental measures, sustainable land management practices and changes in productivity and environmental conditions resulting from technological change to provide guidance for the design of rural investments and supporting sustainability of the project’s impacts. Component 3: Project Management. This component will finance the operating costs of a Project Management Unit (PMU), which will undertake project management functions for both Components 1 and 2. The PMU will provide project management support in the following areas: procurement, financial management, project coordination, reporting, and monitoring and evaluation. D. Project location and salient physical characteristics relevant to the safeguard analysis (if known) Project sites would comprise districts in three different agro-ecological zones - uplands, hill lands Public Disclosure Copy and lowlands – as recommended by the PPCR Component A5 Phase 1 Agriculture and Sustainable Land Management Report. Districts and site selection would take into account: (i) degree of climate and other environmental vulnerability; (ii) degree of farmland restructuring (secure land tenure is an important aspect of sustainability); (iii) representation of upland, middle hills and lowland areas and contiguous sites where possible to facilitate resource management approaches (watershed, river basin); (iv) donor complementarity (to help ensure support not provided by ELMARL, e.g., in market development, and thus make use of parallel co-financing from agencies such as DFID/GIZ), as well as avoidance of overlap; and (v) relative potential for the project to sustainably increase food security and agricultural growth, and successful environmental management (i.e., ensuring that project targets can be met – number of households benefiting and area under effective land and agricultural practices). Care would also be taken to coordinate with and not to duplicate efforts of other projects and donors, including the Bank's PAMP 2 project, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Asian Development Bank (ADB). E. Borrowers Institutional Capacity for Safeguard Policies No safeguard issues arose under CAWMP. A dedicated Implementation Group (IG) within the Committee on Environmental Protection (CEP) will undertake primary responsibility for addressing the environmental and social aspects of the project. The IG will ensure that related safeguard measures (such as Environment Management Plans) are effectively implemented. The CEP is responsible for naturalresource management and climate change policy, as well environmental awareness raising and environmental monitoring. As such, safeguards implementation Public Disclosure Copy activities, such as environmental reviews and environmental management activities, will draw upon the capacity of the Committee which has experience with environmental assessments, environmental management and legal and regulatory requirements. Additional capacity is expected to be obtained to support environmental management aspects including training, data analysis, and if needed for environmental assessment to prepare documentation such as EMPs and/or EMP check lists. F. Environmental and Social Safeguards Specialists on the Team Nandita Jain (ECSEN) German Stanislavovich Kust (ECSEN) II. SAFEGUARD POLICIES THAT MIGHT APPLY Safeguard Policies Triggered? Explanation (Optional) Environmental Assessment OP/ Yes No major adverse environmental impacts are BP 4.01 anticipated under the proposed project, and subprojects financed through the provision of grants to farmers will be screened to ensure that they do not result in adverse impacts on the environment. Subproject proposals will identify potential environmental impacts of activities, and include mitigation measures for any likely negative impacts. Subproject agreements will specify conditions, including environmental compliance, for release of tranche payments to farmers. Public Disclosure Copy For this project, an update of the CAWMP Environmental Management Framework, which was also Category B, will be prepared covering Component 1 activities. This update will take into account the expanded scope of the project, as well as other findings and lessons learned from CAWMP. The updated EMF will continue to provide details on subproject preparation and approvals, and will set out responsibilities for environmental monitoring by project partners that include beneficiaries, facilitating organizations, IG and relevant line ministries. Findings and lessons learned from CAWMP 1. A workable four-stage environmental monitoring system in CAWMP : � Assessment of environmental risks at the stage of preparing/formulating subprojects and selection of alternative proposals. � Selection of environmentally effective proposals and rejection of environmentally Public Disclosure Copy ineligible (according to a check list specific for each category of rural investments). � Evaluation of environmental efficiency indicators during subprojects' implementation (at least twice: mid-term and at completion), with updating of activities if necessary. � Assessment of the environmental outcomes by the types of subprojects. 2. CAWMP’s initial and complicated environmental monitoring system, including indicators, was revised at the mid-term review, and shifted from the less effective approach of “preventing negative environmental impact� to a more successful and clear message to local people of “promotion of environmental benefits,� which implicitly covered the environmental risks assessment issues by using matrices of environmentally eligible and ineligible types of activities, participatory environmental analysis and management trainings (including conceptual modeling of threats, impacts and relationships, ranking of threats, mapping of agro-ecosystem functions, local environmental assessment). The project operational manual will provide better and more Public Disclosure Copy consistent guidance, e.g., appraisal tools and minimum planning requirements, than was done for CAWMP on environmental planning and monitoring aspects. Additionally, ELMARL will have an orientation phase to help ensure project goals, approaches and activities are made clear to project stakeholders 3. CAWMP had limited success in collaboration with the government agencies and field officers responsible for environmental monitoring and control primarily due to inadequate PMU capacity. With the CEP responsible for project management, its field staff will be more engaged in the environmental management aspects of field activities. 4. Potential facilitating organizations operating in Tajikistan have acquired better environmental management and monitoring skills and capacities over the past five years which have been tested in Tajik conditions, e.g., the Aga Khan Foundation, UNDP, and others. This more experienced and larger pool of skills Public Disclosure Copy is potentially available to ELMARL. Natural Habitats OP/BP 4.04 Yes Project impacts on natural habitats are expected to be generally positive. Investments to reduce grazing pressures around settlements through increased access to remote summer pastures may affect the biodiversity values of these areas. The OP will be triggered to take into account that risks associated with access to summer pastures may involve adverse impacts on biodiversity. The EMF will include procedures for screening the risks of proposed subprojects and identifying measures to mitigate, as well as enhance biodiversity values. Rapid ecological baselines and assessments of potentially affected areas will be conducted as needed on a case-by-case basis. Adverse impacts did not occur in CAWMP and therefore are unlikely, if at all, to arise in this project. The project will include capacity-building activities to assist local institutions, NGOs and beneficiaries to engage in adaptive management of natural habitats. Forests OP/BP 4.36 No The project would not involve significant conversion or degradation of critical natural forest areas or related critical natural habitats, Public Disclosure Copy nor finance commercial harvesting operations. Project investments will include planting of small woodlots and orchards by local families and community groups on degraded lands. Pest Management OP 4.09 Yes The project will support more systematic adoption of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) as elements of rural production investments. However, investments financed by the project could lead to agricultural intensification and increased production of high-value crops, which can trigger an increased use of agrochemicals, including pesticides. Experience with other projects (e.g., CAWMP, LRCSP) showed that a complicated and comprehensive separate Pest Management Plan (PMP) was too ambitious to implement as a result of low skills and knowledge among local farmers. As result, for this project a more effective approach to reducing the application of harmful pesticides will focus increasing knowledge with field trainings on demonstration Public Disclosure Copy plots selected from the practices of innovative and effective farmers. The EMF will include a special section on pest management-related environmental risks. The main elements of this section will be: (i) promotion of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and safe and rational pesticide use as elements of rural production investments to be supported by advisory and capacity-building elements of the project; and (ii) preparation of a limited, positive list of pesticides and biological methods of pest control, which would be eligible for financing for rural investments. Physical Cultural Resources OP/ No BP 4.11 Indigenous Peoples OP/BP 4.10 No Involuntary Resettlement OP/BP No The project will not fund any activities that may 4.12 result in land acquisition, involuntary resettlement and livelihood displacement. Under component 1, subprojects financed through grants to farmers will be screened to ensure they will not result in the involuntary resettlement of any third parties. This will be done using a checklist in the Project Operational Manual. Public Disclosure Copy Community rangeland management plans may restrict access for regeneration, but as temporary measures that will increase grazing resources in the long-term. The OP is not considered to be triggered since such restrictions would be community-driven. The Project Operational Manual will provide guidelines for parties to negotiate mutually agreeable arrangements in cases where conflicts may arise from pastoral activities. Safety of Dams OP/BP 4.37 No The project does not include any investments for infrastructure that would depend upon the continued safety of upstream dams. Projects on International No Waterways OP/BP 7.50 Projects in Disputed Areas OP/BP No 7.60 III. SAFEGUARD PREPARATION PLAN 1 Reminder: The Bank's Disclosure Policy requires that safeguard-related documents be disclosed before appraisal (i) at the InfoShop and (ii) in country, at publicly accessible locations and in a form and language that are accessible to potentially affected persons. A. Tentative target date for preparing the PAD Stage ISDS: 20-Nov-2012 B. Time frame for launching and completing the safeguard-related studies that may be needed. The specific studies and their timing1 should be specified in the PAD-stage ISDS: Public Disclosure Copy No safeguards-related studies have been identified. IV. APPROVALS Task Team Leader: Name: Angela G. Armstrong Approved By: Regional Safeguards Name: Agnes I. Kiss (RSA) Date: 22-Oct-2012 Coordinator: Sector Manager: Name: Elisabeth Huybens (SM) Date: 23-Oct-2012 Public Disclosure Copy