Agency’s Project ID: P088964
GEFSEC Project ID: P087318
Country: People’s Republic of China
Project Title: Guangxi Integrated Forestry Development and Biodiversity Conservation Project
GEF Agency: World Bank
Other Executing Agency(ies): Guangxi Forestry Bureau
Duration: 6 years
GEF Focal Area: Biological Diversity
GEF Operational Program: OP3 Forest Ecosystems
GEF Strategic Priority: BD-1 Catalyzing Sustainability of Protected Areas (primary); BD-2 Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Production Landscapes and Sectors (secondary)
Pipeline Entry Date: December 21, 2004
Estimated Starting Date: September 2006
Project Executive Summary
GEF Council Submission
Contribution to Key Indicators of the Business Plan: Improved management of five clusters of protected areas totaling about 65,000 hectares. This would contribute to the sustainability of the overall protected area network by (a) improving management of a poorly represented (karst) habitat type; and (b) strengthening capacity at provincial network level by using project PAs as training centers to replicate good practice and capacity to other PA sites. Through intra-provincial training the project will also contribute to SP4 Dissemination of Good Practice.
Record of endorsement on behalf of the Government(s):
Mr. Wang Bing / Date: September 27, 2004GEF Operational Focal Point of China
Ministry of Finance
Financing Plan (US$)
GEF Project/Component
Project / 5,250,000
PDF A / --
PDF B / 350,000
PDF C / ---
Sub-Total GEF
/ 5,600,000Co-financing*
GEF IA – World Bank / 100,000,000Government / 99,330,000
Bilateral / ---
NGOs / ---
Others / ---
Sub-Total Co-financing: / 199,330,000
Total Project Financing: / 204,930,000
Financing for Associated Activities If Any:
Leveraged Resources If Any:
*Details provided under the Financial Modality and Cost Effectiveness section
This proposal has been prepared in accordance with GEF policies and procedures and meets the standards of the GEF Project Review Criteria for work program inclusion.Steve Gorman
WB GEF Executive Coordinator
IA/ExA Coordinator / Project Contact Person
Robin Broadfield
EAP GEF Regional Coordinator
Date: May 1, 2006 / Tel. 202-473-4355
Email:
1. Project Summary
(a) Project Rationale, Objectives, Outcomes, Outputs, and Activities
Rationale
China, the most populated and largest developing country, has long been a forest-poor country. The Government has done a remarkable job in increasing forest cover, mainly through an extensive plantations program, from 13 percent in 1980s to 18.2 percent today. However, the country’s forest hectare per capita ratio of 0.13 is still significantly below the world average of 0.6 and the increasing gap between timber supply and demand is a key constraint to sustainable forestry development. Currently, annual timber consumption outpaces supply by approximately 80 million cubic meters. Furthermore, most natural forest habitats have been reduced to small and isolated fragments. This is a significant threat to biodiversity, much of which is of global importance. While the launch by the Government of China (GoC) of the Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP) in 1998 was environmentally beneficial to China, it further widened the gap between timber supply and demand. This and other factors have also led to a significant increase in the import of timber and wood products from neighboring countries, contributing to unsustainable exploitation of those natural forests and threatening their biodiversity.
To implement the shift from harvesting natural forests to plantations, in 2002, the State Forestry Administration (SFA) designated four areas of the country as key timber production bases/areas to promote forest plantation establishment. Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR) is one of the areas designated because of its near perfect agro-ecological conditions for producing large quantities of timber. However, GZAR has a wood shortage; the annual timber consumption in the Region is approximately 7.8 million cubic meters, which is more than the annual production, which totals only 5 million cubic meters. The growing demands for timber in Guangxi has also increased the pressure on Guangxi’s natural ecosystems and threatened its unique biodiversity, including one of the largest and most important representatives of karst ecosystem in the world. GZAR is also ranked as one of the top three provinces (Yuannan and Sichuan being the others) in terms of endangered flora and fauna. It contains two Centres of Plant Diversity and two Endemic Bird Areas identified by WWF, IUCN, and BirdLife International. Inadequate protection from illegal logging and unsustainable use of non-timber forest products have led to loss of natural forests, critical to watershed protection, and extirpation of globally important biodiversity such as the eastern black-crested gibbon (Nomascus nasutus) and tiger (Panthera tigris). These developments, coupled with weak management of its nature reserves, have made the effective development, management and protection of forest resources and their biodiversity into a very high priority of the GZAR Government.
While GZAR government has taken positive steps towards sustainable forest management, it faces many challenges. For instance, to develop the wood producing sector, the GZAR is relying on its provincial and country level Forest Farms (FF) and a combination of private sector partnerships/concessions (APP, Stora Enzo, etc.). While the FFs are the primary vehicle for implementing the public sector’s forestry policy, they have been constrained by financial weakness, structural shortcomings, and low levels of technology. Similarly, although GZAR is an important region for protection of the Pearl River Watershed and karst biodiversity, the province lacks sufficient resources, technical and institutional capacity, and effective models for the protection of the ecological forests and forest nature reserves set aside to protect valuable biodiversity. The government has also managed the three forest types of production, protection and conservation forests separately, thus missing opportunities to enhance long term sustainability of the sector as a whole. This project, which would focus on a single-province, will be the first in China to promote an integrative and comprehensive approach to sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation at the provincial level by supporting related technical and institutional, improvements of all the three forest categories - production forests; ecological forests; and forest nature reserves set aside to protect biodiversity. In so doing it will address all the key drivers of biodiversity loss, which is the core goal of the China/GEF Partnership Program for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity. Hence it will make a major strategic contribution to the development and to the evolution of that program.
Objectives
The overall project development objective is to significantly improve the effectiveness of forest management and institutional arrangements in timber production, watershed protection and nature reserves management in Guangxi Province and demonstrate this integrated approach to forest management. This objective would be achieved by supporting complementary and mutually supportive management improvements in each of the three main forest categories - production, protection (ecological), and conservation. Specifically, the project would support (a) expanding and strengthening forest resources development through the establishment of timber plantations and the development of mechanisms that would better link timber production, marketing, and processing to take pressure off natural forests; (b) improvement of the existing provincial ecological forest protection program by better linking ecological benefits with social benefits, including a carbon sequestration and trade pilot program; (c) strengthening the management of selected nature reserves established to protect globally important ecosystems and biodiversity and identifying opportunities for enhancing biodiversity outside of protected areas (e.g., in the forest protection program); and (d) supporting stakeholders in the forestry sector in GZAR through the development of a forestry strategy, guidelines and policies, and applied research needed for sustainable forest resources management, as well as for an effective project monitoring and evaluation system.
The global environmental objective is to better conserve globally significant biodiversity of GZAR by ensuring effective in-situ protection of threatened and globally important forest habitats and rare and endemic species. This objective will be achieved by: (a) supporting the development and implementation of management plans for selected globally significant, high priority nature reserves; (b) promoting enhanced biodiversity management in critical watershed forest areas near to these high priority nature reserves; (c) assisting with the implementation of comprehensive biodiversity surveys of selected karst cave systems to document and demonstrate their conservation significance and to promote their conservation; (d) strengthening the relationship between nature reserves and local human communities to mobilize community support for conservation; (e) providing in-service training to nature reserve staff and provincial staff to improve their performance; and (f) strengthening the capacity of institutions to manage natural forests and nature reserves sustainably.
Outcomes
The outcomes of the Project would include: (i) Improved effectiveness of forest management and institutional arrangements in timber production, watershed protection and nature reserves management by establishing technically and institutionally viable models in the GZAR; and (ii) improved and strengthened overall management of biodiversity in GZAR.
Outputs
The Project has four components: Expanding Timber Plantations; Increasing Ecological Forest Cover; Improving Management of Nature Reserves; and Enhancing Institutional and Management Capacity. The main outputs of these four components would be:
a) Expanding Timber Plantations: 200,000 ha of timber plantations established and a number of high quality nurseries established and/or improved.
b) Increasing Ecological Forest Cover: 118,000 hectares of watershed protection land under improved protection of which 4,000 ha established and implemented to pilot biocarbon trading.
c) Improving Management of Nature Reserves: five nature reserves totaling 65,000 hectares implementing, evaluating, adjusting and monitoring the conservation benefits of technically-sound, cost-effective management plans that involve local communities.
d) Enhancing Institutional and Management Capacity: Development of a GZAR forestry strategy; provincial biodiversity conservation officials promoting the conservation of biodiversity, particularly karst biodiversity, outside the provincial nature reserves; strengthened provincial conservation guidelines and regulations; and enhanced skills and knowledge of staff of GZAR Forestry Bureau, County Forest Bureau, forest farms, and nature reserve management entities, as well as communities/households, with regard to sustainable forest management and conservation.
Activities
Project costs total about US$204.58 million over six years and the financing plan includes a proposed GEF grant of US$ 5.25 million. Project activities comprise:
Component 1: Expanding Timber Plantations (total cost 171.10 million)
This component would finance: (a) the establishment of approximately 200,000 ha of fast-growing, high-yield timber plantations; and (b) the expansion and improvement of existing nurseries to produce high quality planting materials through the introduction of superior genetic materials and management technologies.
Component 2: Increasing Ecological Forest Cover (total cost US$ 18.67 million)
The component would finance the establishment of approximately 18,000 ha of multiple-use forests, including the development of a BioCarbon fund pilot plantation. This pilot would demonstrate technical and methodological approaches to carbon sequestration and test the carbon trade process. The component would also support government’s program of rehabilitating 100,000 ha of natural vegetation on Guangxi’s karst hills by protecting these areas. On about one-third of these closed forests, enrichment planting of mixed native species would be carried out. A large number of these sites are located in close proximity to the project’s nature reserves and therefore provides opportunities for closer linkages and integration between the management of these two forest types and the conservation of biodiversity within them.
Component 3: Improving Management of Nature Reserves (total cost US$ 7.02 million with a GEF grant contribution of $4.81 million)
The aim of this component is to enhance management of existing, globally-significant nature reserves; increase management capacity and knowledge of biodiversity resources, particularly in the little known and relatively rare limestone ecosystems; and strengthen cooperation between local communities and nature reserve staff to address mutual areas of interest and thereby promote biodiversity conservation. Specifically, the component would finance (a) development and implementation of management plans for five globally significant, high priority nature reserves for conservation and demonstration purposes, including staff training and capacity building; (b) targeted biodiversity survey and research to increase knowledge particularly of karst biodiversity to improve management practices across broader landscape (e.g., enhancing biodiversity management within watershed areas; and identifying biological corridors) and zoning within the nature reserves; (c) activities which will strengthen collaboration between nature reserves and local communities; and (d) development and implementation of a simple participatory monitoring and evaluation system building on the experiences of previous GEF-financed biodiversity projects in China. In addition, dissemination and replication of experience and lessons will be actively promoted within Guangxi province, with neighboring provinces, and nationally through the China Biodiversity Partnership Program
Component 4: Enhancing Forest Institutional and Management Capacity (total cost US$ 5.06 million, GEF grant contribution of US$0.44 million)
The GoC and GZAR government are strongly committed to sustainable forest management. The aim of this component is to contribute towards this goal by financing activities that would (a) strengthen the capacity of the provincial forestry bureau to develop and implement a comprehensive, sustainable provincial forest sector development and protection strategy (for production, ecological forests and nature reserves) and support priority policy studies, policy guidelines, and appropriate regulatory revisions; (b) assist with the implementation of applied research programs to generate operationally usable technologies to improve commercial forestry development, ecological forest protection, and biodiversity conservation; (c) disseminate research results, technical guidelines, and lessons learned to GFB staff and beneficiaries; and (d) establish a simple project monitoring and evaluation system to monitor project performance, achievement of the project objectives and assess the project’s environmental and socio-economic impacts.
(b) Key Indicators, Assumptions, and Risks (From Results Framework)
Key Indicators
The key indicators for the outcome of the Project are: (i) Relative productivity of timber plantations under project areas compared to non-project areas measured by annual timber volume growth per hectare; (ii) Percent of increase in vegetation cover in targeted watersheds; (iii) number of Forest Farm employees off the payroll; and (iv) Management effectiveness of five targeted nature reserves are improved, and additional high biodiversity value areas are set aside. All indicators are further elaborated in the Results Framework (Annex B).