Government of China

United Nations Development Programme

Project Revision

Primary partners:

State Forestry Administration, People’s Republic of China (SFA/PRC)

United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS)

Sichuan Province

Gansu Province

Jiangsu Province

Heilongjiang Province

Hunan Province

Project title:

Wetland Biodiversity Conservation and

Sustainable Use in China

(CPR/98/G32)

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS USED 4

Section 1. Brief Narrative 6

Part l Situation Analysis 6

Part ll Strategy 7

Part lll Management Arrangements 9

A. National Execution 9

B. Coordination Groups 10

C. GEF Wetlands Project Office 10

D. Field based project staff 11

E. Planning,, financial advances and reporting 11

F. Technical Oversight 12

G. Links with relevant agencies and civil society organizations 12

H. Capacity development according to demand 13

J. Adaptive management 13

K. Project duration 13

L. Sustainability 14

Part lV. Monitoring and Evaluation Plan and Budget 14

Part V. Legal Context 17

Section ll: Total Budget and Workplan 18

Section lll. Other agreements 1

Part l: Annual Work Plan 1

Signature Page 2

Appendix A1 GEF Project Brief (1998) 3

Appendix A2 Original Project Document (December 1999) 36

Appendix A3 Letter of Agreement between SFA and UNOPS 149

Appendix A4 Mid-term Evaluation Report (February 2003) 150

Appendix A5 Report of Tripartite Review (March 2003) 151

Appendix A6 Concept for Project Redesign (March 2003) 152

Appendix B1 Threats, planned responses and project outcomes 153

Appendix B2 Descriptions of project sites 154

Appendix B3 Project Logical Framework 155

Appendix B4 Institutional Responsibilities 156

Appendix B5 Tasks for project staff, consultants, subcontractors, civil society organizations, and the technical advisory group 157

Appendix B6 Partners in implementation 158

Appendix B7 Sustainability of project results 159

Appendix B8 Assumptions and risk analysis 160

Appendix B9 Standard GEF Monitoring and Evaluation Plan 161

Appendix B10 Maps showing project sites 162

Appendix B11 Full project budget 163

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS USED

A / Accountant
AA / Administrative Assistant
AO / Administrative Officer/Translator
BIO / Biodiversity Information Officer
ADB / Asian Development Bank
AFIP / Academy of Forest Inventory and Planning, State Forestry Administration
APR/PIR / UNDP Annual Project Report/ UNDP-GEF Project Implementation Review
AWP / Annual Work Plan
BBC / British Broadcasting Corporation
BL / Budget Line
CAS / Chinese Academy of Sciences
CCF / Country Cooperation Framework
CCICED / China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and
Development
CEPF / Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
CI / Conservation International
CP / Country Programme
CSO / Civil Society Organization
CTA / Chief Technical Adviser
DNPD / Deputy National Project Director
EA / Executing Agency
EEMPC / Environmental Education Media Project for China
EFCA / Ecological Function Conservation Area
EIA / Environmental Impact Assessment
EU / European Union
EPNRCC / Environment Protection and Natural Resources Conservation Committee
FFI / Fauna and Flora International
GEF / Global Environment Facility
GEFWPO / GEF Wetland Project Office
GIS / Geographical Information System
GOC / Government of China
HPWMLG / Heilongjiang Provincial Wetland Management Liaison Group
HQ / Headquarters
IR / Inception Report
IUCN / The World Conservation Union
IW / Project Inception Workshop
MLR / Ministry of Land Resources
MOA / Ministry of Agriculture
MOC / Ministry of Construction
MOC / Ministry of Commerce
MOF / Ministry of Finance
MTE / Mid-term Evaluation
MWR / Ministry of Water Resources
MYFF / Multi-Year Funding Framework
NDRC / National Development and Reform Commission
NEX / National Execution
NNR / National Nature Reserve
NOAA / U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NPD / National Project Director
NPC / National People's Congress
NR / Nature Reserve
OC / Outcome Coordinator
PAS / Protected area system
PIR / Project Implementation Review
PPC / Provincial Project Coordinator
PRC / People’s Republic of China
PSC / Project Steering Committee
SBAA / Standard Basic Assistance Agreement
SEPA / State Environmental Protection Agency
SFA / State Forestry Administration
SOA / State Ocean Administration
SRF / Strategic Results Framework
TA / Technical Assistance
TAG / Technical Advisory Group
TNC / The Nature Conservancy
TOR / Terms of Reference
TPR / Tripartite Review
TTR / Terminal Tripartite Review
UK / United Kingdom
UNDAF / United Nations Development Assistance Framework
UNDP / United Nations Development Programme
UNDP CO / United Nations Development Programme Country Office (China)
UNDP-GEF
RCU / United Nations Development Programme Global Environment Facility
Regional Coordination Unit (Kuala Lumpur)
UNEP / United Nations Environment Programme
UNESCO / United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNOPS / United Nations Office of Project Services
WCS / Wildlife Conservation Society (Formerly New York Zoological Society)
WI / Wetlands International
WMA / Wetlands Management Authority
WTO / World Trade Organization
WWF / World Wide Fund for Nature

Section 1. Brief Narrative

Part l Situation Analysis

The wetlands of China are components of hydrological systems that, when well managed, provide water in periods of shortage, important flood controls in periods of heavy rain or snowmelt, food for millions of people, and breeding and feeding habitat for many wild species. China’s great size and huge range in latitude and longitude are accompanied by a diverse geology, a long coastline, a large river network and about 2,300 lakes bigger than 100 ha in area. These provide diverse habitats for animal and plant species, including a high proportion (15% of the fish, for example, and 11% of the amphibians) that are endemic to China, and large numbers of migratory waterfowl and shorebirds that rely on Chinese wetlands for breeding, wintering or stopovers and would not survive without them. Of the world’s total of 166 species of ducks, 46, or 28% occur in China, and on a single census in April 2004 the counts of Swan Geese (Anser cygnoides) and Lesser White Fronted Geese (Anser albifrons)exceeded current estimates of their global and regional populations respectively. Ninety five percent of the world’s population of Siberian Cranes (Grus leucogeranus) winter in the Yangtze Valley.

China is particularly rich in wetlands yet is suffering water shortages in many areas. For several decades the values of wetlands and the biodiversity they support have been under-appreciated, and government policies have promoted drainage and conversion of wetlands for agriculture. Overuse of water, and siltation as a result of logging in the upper reaches of major rivers have added to the problems, and future agricultural production is now threatened in several areas. Coastal mudflats and mangroves have been converted to aquaculture or agriculture, biological resources have been overused, and dams, river diversions and embankments, and introductions of alien species, have adversely affected aquatic species and ecosystems, leading to the near extinction of several species and reduced ranges for many others.

The government of China now recognizes many past errors, and programmes are in place or planned to fill in drains, to rehydrate wetlands and to allow farmland to be returned to seasonally flooded polder or lake. Specific legislation on water resources, wildlife protection, pollution control, river basin management and environmental impact assessment provides a framework for regulation. However, there are ambiguities, wetland biodiversity is not always addressed specifically and the legislation is not always enforced. Many wetlands have been declared as nature reserves but reserve management authorities often lack jurisdiction inside the reserves and have little or no influence over threats that arise from development and other activities in the surrounding areas. The establishment of protected areas is a vital step in conservation but alone it has not halted species’ declines or neutralized the threats. . Wetlands in particular require an integrated approach to management in the wider landscape, involving all stakeholders with influences on or interests in the water, yet different agencies are undertaking uncoordinated and often contradictory programmes. A summary of threats to wetland biodiversity and their underlying causes is given in Appendix B1.

China has made important international and domestic commitments to protection of wetland biodiversity, including ratification of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance in 1992 and the subsequent designation of 21 sites with a total area of 2.5 million hectares for inclusion in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance. China ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1993, and the China Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan was approved by government in 1994. Although China has not yet acceded to the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species she intends to do so within the time span of the project.

Provincial wetland regulations, including restrictions on drainage of wetlands, have been brought into force in Heilongjiang and Gansu under the leadership of the provincial forestry bureaux. National wetland regulations are being developed by a multi-agency team under the leadership of the SFA and are scheduled to be completed and to come into force at the end of 2005.

An June 2004 State Council Circular emphasizes the importance of wetland conservation and lays out various actions and approaches to be taken to strengthen wetland management, including changes in legislation, policy and funding mechanisms, and establishment of a wetland conservation management system that is implemented by different agencies in an integrated and coordinated manner. This is an important step, establishing wetlands as one of the key considerations in development decision making.

Project History

The project brief (Appendix A1), approved by GEF Council in December 1998, was modified in the 1999 UNDP/GEF Project Document (Appendix A2). The project began in December 1999. Originally designed as a five year project it was extended to six years following a decision made at the first Tripartite Review meeting in 2001. Funding for the original project was provided by The Global Environment Facility (GEF) (US$ 11.7 m), Government of China (GOC) co-financing (US$ equivalent 20.3 m), and Australian Agency for International Development (Aus$3.4 million). Only a small part of the AusAID funds were spent, and AusAID withdrew their remaining funds in 2004 (see below under Section ll).

The mid-term evaluation (MTE), held in late 2002, concluded that the project was not producing the expected impacts, and identified several problems, including poor original design, management deficiencies, a narrow institutional (executing agency) focus that led to failure to tackle the underlying causes of loss of wetland function, and a flawed approach to subcontracting (see report in Appendix A 4). The MTE team advised that the project should either be stopped or “significant changes should be made to both the design of the project and how it is implemented”. The team proposed detailed changes in the work programme shifting the emphasis away from nature reserves to the wider, landscape level, and urged that project management be strengthened, linked more effectively with government programmes on wetlands and delegated as far as possible to the project sites and provinces A paper entitled Concept for Project Redesign (Appendix A6) based on the findings of the MTE, was accepted at the Tripartite Review (TPR) in March 2003 (see report, Appendix A5) and formed the basis for a substantial redesign of the project document.

The project will contribute to two outcomes in the UNDP Country Programme (Strategic Results Framework – SRF): (1) Environment and energy sustainability objectives integrated in macro-economic and sector policies, and (2) Improved national capacity to negotiate and implement global environmental commitments.

Part ll Strategy

The long term GOAL that the project is working towards, and which the government aims to achieve after the project ends, is:

To secure the conservation of globally significant wetland biodiversity in China.

The project falls under the second of the four GEF Strategic Priorities in Biodiversity:

Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Production Landscapes and Sectors

The project OBJECTIVE, to be achieved within the duration of the project, is:

To establish wetland biodiversity conservation as a routine consideration in national., provincial and local government decision making and action

In order to achieve this objective the project will work on improvements in the collection, analysis and use of data, the development, acceptance and use of wetland biodiversity conservation criteria for decision making and action in all sectors, and the involvement of the public in wetland biodiversity conservation through improving their access to information. The project will work at national level, at one province (Heilongjiang) and at four demonstration sites with high global biodiversity importance: the Sanjiang Plains of north-eastern Heilongjiang, the high altitude peat bogs of the Ruoergai Plateau spanning the Sichuan-Gansu border, Dongting Lake in the Yangtze river basin in Hunan, and the Yancheng coastal marshes and inter-tidal flats of Jiangsu (for map see Appendix B10; for descriptions see Appendix B2)

Wetland biodiversity conservation will be linked closely with the the protection of ecological services of wetlands and ways in which such services provide local, regional and national economic benefits. The emphasis will be on provision of sound technical advice, capacity development, through carefully targeted on-the-job training wherever possible, the improvement of data collection and management, and best practices in dissemination of results from demonstrations.

Work on policy framework and legislation at the centre in each of the major sectoral agencies with influences on wetlands will lay the foundation for development of good wetland governance in the field that will safeguard wetland biodiversity. There will be feedback from the field to the centre so that lessons learned in implementation of policy can be incorporated into decision making on the policy framework. The focus of the project will remain on wetland biodiversity, and advice on policy will consider the best options available, including fiscal incentives and payments for ecological services.

Apart from basic assumptions about the standards of project management and the recruitment of good experts, there are a number of more fundamental assumptions, including 1) that the knowledge and experience gained and disseminated during project implementation will be used to replicate throughout China the results achieved at the demonstration province and sites, 2) that relevant government agencies establish and maintain effective collaboration, and 3) that wetland biodiversity conservation remains a priority of the Government of China

The project and ultimately the achievement of the goal, require genuine involvement of the partners listed in Part lll below and in Appendix B6. These partners have already been consulted and in principle support the project but there is a risk that the participation will be superficial, perhaps only for training activities, and that changes in practices and approaches will not outlive the project. It is not necessarily in the short term interests of these individual agencies to work together closely, but it is certainly in both the short term and long term interests of China and the Chinese people as a whole that coordination be improved.