Guizhou Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection and Development Project
Environmental Impact Assessment
Guiyang Hydropower Investigation Design & Research Institute
China Hydropower Engineering Consultation Group Corporation
September 18, 2008
Table of Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Project Background 1
1.2 Overview of EIA 1
2 EIA Preparation 3
2.1 EIA Classification 3
2.2 Basis for EIA Preparation 4
2.2.1 Laws and Regulations 4
2.2.2 Documents 5
2.2.3 Screening of World Bank’s Safeguard Policies 5
2.3 Applicable Standards 5
2.3.1 Environmental Standards 5
2.3.2 Standards for Pollutant Discharge 6
2.4 Assessment Scope 12
2.5 Assessment Methods 12
3 Project Description 13
3.1 Project Objective 13
3.2 Overview of the Project 13
3.2.1 Minority Cultural Heritage Protection in Villages 13
3.2.2 Ancient Town Protection 13
3.2.3 Natural Heritage Protection and Utilization 14
3.2.4 Heritage Protection and Tourism Service Facilities Construction in Gateway Cities 14
3.2.5 Technical Assistance 14
3.3 Description of Project 15
3.3.1 Location and Investment 15
3.3.2 Description of Facilities 19
3.3.3 Generic Design 19
3.3.4 Typical and Special Works 20
3.3.5 Construction Period 24
4 Policy and Legal Framework 25
4.1 Policy Framework 25
4.1.1 Overview of Guizhou Provicnial Tourism Development Master Plan 25
4.1.2 Relation with the Master Plan 25
4.1.3 Guizhou Rural Tourism Development Plan 2006 27
4.1.4 Guizhou Eleventh Five Year Socio-ecnomic Plan 27
4.1.5 Other Relevant Documents 28
4.2 Legal Framework 28
4.2.1 Cultural Heritage Protection 28
4.2.2 Environmental Assessment 30
4.2.3 Geological Relics Protection 30
4.2.4 Scenic Area Planning 32
4.3 Institutional Arrangement 33
5 Baseline Conditions 34
5.1 General 34
5.1.1 Geographic Location 34
5.1.2 Meteorological Condition 34
5.1.3 History 34
5.2 Socio-Economic Conditions 34
5.2.1 Demographics and Population 34
5.2.2 Ethnic Minorites 34
5.2.3 Economy and Poverty 35
5.3 Administrative Districts 35
5.4 Natural Resources 35
5.4.1 Biodiversity 35
5.4.2 Surface Water 36
5.5 Cultural and Natural Heritage Assets 36
5.5.1 World Natural Heritage 36
5.5.2 Other Areas of Global Significance 36
5.5.3 National Cultural and Natural Heritages 37
5.5.4 Other Cultural and Natural Heritages 37
5.6 Cultural and Natural Heritages in Project Area 38
5.6.1 Scenic Areas 38
5.6.2 Geo-Parks 40
5.6.3 Protected Cultural Relics Unit 42
5.6.4 Famous Historical and Cultural Town 43
5.6.5 Other Cultural Heritages 43
5.7 Environmental Management 46
5.7.1 Solid Waste Management 46
5.7.2 Wastewater Treatment 47
5.8 Environmental Baseline in Project Cities 47
5.8.1 Environmental Concerns 47
5.8.2 Environmental Monitoring Results 48
6 Environmental Impacts and Mitigation 52
6.1 Social Impacts and Benefits 52
6.1.1 Social Impacts at Strategic/Provincial Level 52
6.1.2 Specific Benefits of Components 55
6.1.3 Land Occupation and Resettlement 57
6.2 Risks of Adverse Impacts at Strategic and Provincial Level 57
6.2.1 Cultural Heritage Impacts and Mitigation 57
6.3 Specific Risks Likely in All Sites 59
6.3.1 Impacts on Eco-environment 59
6.3.2 Impact on Water Environment 62
6.3.3 Impact on Ambient Air and Mitigation 66
6.3.4 Impact on Acoustic Environment and Mitigation 67
6.3.5 Impact of Solid Waste and Mitigation 68
6.3.6 Landscape and Visual Impacts and Mitigation 69
6.4 Potential Impacts to Specific Sites and Mitigation 74
6.4.1 Risk of Overdevelopment in the National Scenic Areas 74
6.4.2 Guanlin National Geo-Park 74
6.4.3 Xingyi National Geo-Park 75
6.4.4 Wanfenglin National Scenic Area 75
6.4.5 Shamu River National Scenic Area 76
7 Heritage Conservation Plan 78
7.1 Conservation Plan for Classified Heritages 78
7.2 Specific Considerations and Recommendations 79
7.2.1 Inventory Development 79
7.2.2 Standards 79
7.2.3 Qualification 79
7.2.4 Monitoring 80
7.2.5 Public Awareness Promotion 80
7.2.6 Construction Planning 80
7.3 Institutional Arrangement 80
7.4 Suggestions on Conservation Plans 81
7.5 Reporting 81
8 Alternative Comparison 83
8.1 With and Without the Project Scenario 83
8.2 Location Alternatives 84
8.2.1 Jiuzhou Fortress Museum 84
8.3 EA Suggestions in Project Development Process 85
9 9 Public Consultation and Information Disclosure 90
9.1 Objective and Principle 90
9.2 First Round of Public Consultation 90
9.3 First Round Information Disclosure 91
9.4 The Second Round of Public Consultation 92
9.5 Second Round of Information Disclosure 93
9.6 Consultation Result Statistics 93
9.7 Results of Social Environment Assessment 97
9.8 Main Concerns and Public Opinions 97
10 Environment Management and Monitoring Plan 98
10.1 Environment Mitigation Measures 98
10.2 Institutional Arrangement 98
10.3 Training Plan 99
10.4 Environment Supervision Plan 105
10.5 Environmental Management Plan 106
10.6 Environment Monitoring Plan 113
10.7 Monitoring Reporting System 117
10.8 Environmental monitoring and acceptance report of sub-projects 117
10.9 Cost Estimate 118
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1 Introduction
1.1 Project Background
Guizhou Province is located in southwest China and is known for its large rural population and underdeveloped economy. Poverty reduction has thus become a priority of the province’s socioeconomic development strategy. The Guizhou Provincial Government has adopted policies to promote tourism development of the province’s natural and cultural heritage, for the ultimate economic benefit of the local people. The Provincial Government also recognizes the need to balance the economic benefits from tourism development with environmental protection and heritage conservation.
The proposed Guizhou Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection and Development Project will develop local resources of cultural and natural heritage in a sustainable manner. This will promote economic growth and create employment opportunities, and improve the living conditions of the local population.
1.2 Overview of EIA
In July 2007, the World Bank Project Office of Guizhou Province contracted the Guiyang Hydropower Investigation Design & Research Institute (GHIDI), a subdivision of the China Hydropower Engineering Consultation Group Corporation (CHECC), to undertake the Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA) for the proposed project.
Based on the requirements of the Environmental Impact Assessment Law of PRC, the Decree on Construction Project Environmental Protection (also known as State Council Decree No.253) and relevant World Bank safeguard policies, a full set of EIA documentation has been prepared. The Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) – the overall administrative agency for the project’s EIA evaluation – requires that an integrated environmental impact assessment report be prepared given the nature of the project, which contains a large number of components in rural areas. This document is prepared for the review and approval of the Guizhou Provincial EPB, and also for the clearance of the World Bank
The EIA will provide a solid ground to optimize project design and management so that the project environmental benefits can be maximized and the potential adverse impacts minimized.
This report follows the guidelines of the World Bank OP4.01 and the relevant technical EIA guidelines in China. The outline is summarized below:
Chapter 1, Introduction: describes the project background and gives a brief introduction of the report structure
Chapter 2, EA Preparation: presents applicable standards, scope of analysis, basis for EA and other technical criteria used in the EA process
Chapter 3, Project Description: provides information on project content for each of the components (including location maps where appropriate) to help understand the project. It includes the necessary details to assess project impact, including main project scales, quantity of engineering works, component costs budget and implementation schedule
Chapter 4, Policy and Legal Framework: presents a description and analysis of associated policies and legal and institutional context
Chapter 5, Baseline Conditions: briefly describes the environmental and social baseline information within the project areas.
Chapter 6, Environmental Impacts and Mitigation: is the main section of the report, which summarizes environmental impacts and mitigation measures. It presents a general matrix of the components that have similar impacts or specific impact analysis, and then offers mitigation suggestions for the components that may cause a significant impact
Chapter 7, Heritage Conservation Plan: presents a plan to conserve any heritage that would be affected by the project
Chapter 8, Alternative Analysis: presents alternative analysis by components, with comprehensive comparison for all feasible alternatives in terms of environmental, social, technical and financial considerations, including maps with captions where appropriate.
Chapter 9, Public Consultation and Information Disclosure: describes the public consultation process applied during the EA and summarizes details in tables (i.e. dates, places, approaches, number of participants, main issues expressed, and responses in EIA/design). The chapter also describes the mechanism applied for information disclosure.
Chapter 10, Environmental Management Plan: presents a set of serious programs and measures to be taken during project implementation, including (1) Environmental Management and Supervision for each component, (2) Summary of Mitigation Measures, (3) Institutional Capacity Building/Training Plan and (4) Monitoring Plan.
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2 EIA Preparation
2.1 EIA Classification
The proposed project will finance a number of small-scale developments of tourist attractions at many locations across Guizhou Province. Although the environmental impact caused by most project components is considered insignificant, several components are located within areas that are classified as either national level geo-parks or national level scenic areas; it is here where the project might cause significant impact due to the nature of these sites. These areas include 2 provincial scenic areas, 2 national scenic areas, 2 national geological parks, 1 national cultural relic protection unit, 1 provincial cultural relic protection unit and some minority cultural protection areas and regions (see Table 2.1-1) which are located in 2 municipalities and 2 prefectures respectively in Guizhou province (see Figure 2.1-1). According to Operational Policy 4.01 of the World Bank, this project falls into Category A for EA preparation, and thus a full set of EA documents are required to prepare given the features of the project.
Table 2.1-1 Summary of Affected Areas
Name of Component / Site Location / Sensitive Area / Classification Level / Date of Establishment / AdministrationOpinions /
Shamu river cultural and natural heritage protection / Shibing county, Qiandongnan prefecture / Wuyanghe national scenic area / National
(Huangping Jiuzhou Town is a National Cultural Relics Protection Unit) / 1998 / The Guizhou Provincial Construction Agency has already approved construction that will take place in these sensitive regions in principle with an official letter
Huangping Jiuzhou ancient town heritage protection / Jiuzhou town, Huangping county, Qiandongnan prefecture
Wanfenglin scenic area cultural and natural heritage protection / Xinyi county, Qianxinan prefecture / Malinghe canyon-Wanfeng lake national scenic area / National / 1994
Zhaoxing Dong cultural heritage protection / Zhaoxing town, Liping county, Qiandongnan prefecture / Liping Dong village national scenic area / National / 2004
Tianlong fortress cultural heritage protection / Tiantai mountain, Tianlong town, Pingba county, Anshun city / Tiantai mountain-Shila river provincial scenic area / Provincial / 2003
Longli ancient town heritage protection / Longli town, Jinping county, Qiandongnan prefecture. / Jinping Sanbanxi-Longli ancient town provincial scenic area / Provincial / 2001
Guanling national geological park heritage protection / Tan mountain, Xinpu village, Guanling county, Anshun city / Guanling national geological park / National / 2003 / The Guizhou Provincial Land Resource Agency has already approved construction that will take place in these sensitive regions in principle with an official letter
Xingyi national geological park and Dingxiao Guizhou dragon heritage protection / Dingxiao development district, Xingyi county, Qianxinan prefecture / Xingyi national geological park / National / 2004
Sanmentang cultural heritage protection / Sanmentang village, Tianzhu county, Qiandongnan prefecture / Sanmentang ancient buildings cultural relic protection unit / National / 2002 / The Guizhou Provincial Culture Agency has already approved construction that will take place in these sensitive regions in principle with an official letter
Danzai Shiqiao paper manufacture cultural heritage protection / Shiqiao, Nangao village, Danzai county, Qiandongnan prefecture / Shiqiao-white-paper-workshop cultural relic protection unit / Provincial / 2005
Figure 1.2-1 Location of the components in Guizhou
2.2 Basis for EIA Preparation
2.2.1 Laws and Regulations
During the preparation of environmental assessment, all relevant regulatory, policy, and administrative requirements – both at state and provincial levels – were followed, as were the World Bank’s ten safeguard policies. Major laws and regulations applied in the EA are as follows:
l Laws of Environmental Protection of the PRC of December 26, 1989
l Law of Air Pollution Control of the PRC of September 1, 2000
l Law of Water Pollution Control of the PRC of May 15, 1996
l Law of Environmental Noise Pollution Control of the PRC of March 1, 1997
l Law of Cultural Relics Protection of the PRC of October 28, 2002
l Management Regulations on Environmental Protection for Construction Projects of November 18, 1998
l Circulation on Strengthening EIA for Construction Projects Receiving International Financing of 1993
l Technical Specifications for Environmental Impact Assessment
l Regulations on Establishment of Geological Natural Reserve, 1987
l Regulations of Cultural Protection in Guizhou Province, 2005
l The Principles for Conservation of Heritage Sites in China
2.2.2 Documents
A number of documents include feasibility study reports for various project components, as well as expert and government officials’ opinions in the screening stage. The main documents that have been reviewed and used in the EA are:
l Guizhou Provincial Tourism Development Master Plan, World Tourism Organization, China National Tourism Administration and Guizhou Provincial Tourism Administration, 2002
l Guizhou Rural Tourism Development Plan, Guizhou Provincial Research and Communication Center for Cultural Tourism, 2006
l Guizhou Eleventh Five Year Socio-economic Plan
l Feasibility Study Reports for Each Component
l Master Plan for each component area
l Strategic Environmental Assessment Study, ERM
As the size of each component is very small, the Guizhou Provincial EPB requires that a consolidated EIA report be prepared for the project and that approval of the report be obtained.
2.2.3 Screening of World Bank’s Safeguard Policies
The World Bank requirements include Operational Policies (OP), Best Procedure (BP), Good Practice (GP) and Operational Directives (OD), as well as the Bank’s standard list of ten safeguard policies. These ten are: