PROGRAMME OBJECTIVES
10. Global Environment Objective. The objectives of
the Programme are to reverse current environmental degradation
trends and to promote sustainable use of natural resources, including
soil, water, forest cover and biodiversity. Another key objective
is to create the conditions for environmental considerations and
biodiversity conservation to become an integral part of macroeconomic
and sectoral management of the country. The programme would be
the second phase of implementation of the NEAP. The global environment
objective of the Second Environment Programme Support Project
is to curb the loss of globally significant biodiversity by slowing
current environmental degradation trends, promoting the sustainable
use of natural resources, and creating the conditions for environmental
considerations to become an integral part of macroeconomic and
sectoral management of the country.
11. Anticipated Global Environmental Benefits. EP2, and
particularly the GEF supported components, will help conserve
Madagascar's unique biological diversity. Madagascar has higher
numbers of endemic species, more higher-order endemism and more
genetic information per unit area than perhaps anywhere on earth.
This fact more than any other pushes Madagascar to the top of
the global conservation priority list. A hectare of forest lost
in Madagascar has a greater negative impact on global biodiversity
than a hectare of forest lost virtually anywhere else on the planet.
12. GEF Operational Programmes. Given the national scope
of the EP2 and the range of ecological conditions in the country,
the GEF project covers all four groups of focal ecosystems identified
in the GEF Operational Strategy for Biodiversity. Due to the
global biodiversity importance and extent of forest ecosystems
in Madagascar the GEF project has a particular emphasis on these.
Its second emphasis is on the relatively little known biodiversity
of the coastal and marine systems. The GEF project will also
address the unique semi-arid ecosystems of south-west Madagascar
and, in that Madagascar's mountains are forest covered, Madagascar's
mountain ecosystems. The activities to be carried out under the
GEF project cover the full range of activities for both in-situ
conservation and sustainable use that are suggested in the GEF
Operational Strategy including protected areas, land use and resource
management regimes, policy and institutional strengthening, stakeholder
involvement, and inventory where the nature of biodiversity is
currently unknown.
13. Specific GEF Project Objectives. The GEF funding
will support a well-defined subset of activities within the overall
EP2. Specifically the GEF objective is to extend the EP2 programme
to ensure that the root causes of the loss of globally important
biodiversity are fully addressed. To meet this objective, GEF
will support activities which contribute clearly to reducing the
loss, and improving the sustainable use, of globally significant
biodiversity, and which are beyond the resources of Government
and other donors. These will fall under the following categories:
(i) management of multiple-use forest ecosystems; (ii) management
of protected areas including ecoutourism; (iii) management of
the coastal and marine environment; (iv) regional programming
and local resource management; (v) formulation and communication
of environmental policies, strategies and instruments; and (vi)
biodiversity inventory and training in biodiversity management.
PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION
14. Although the environment cannot be considered as a sector,
the Second Environment Programme is part of a new generation of
environmental investment operations that follow an integrated
sector approach. This approach, which aims at improving the environmental
impact of public expenditures, has the following main characteristics:
- It covers all or most priority activities related to the environment
- It is prepared by local stakeholders
- It is supported by all donors active in the environment in
the country
- It minimizes reliance on international long-term consultants
- It involves common implementation arrangements (e.g. budgeting,
monitoring and evaluation)
15. The programme will essentially pursue, improve, and
expand the priority activities that were initiated under EP1 by
incorporating the lessons learned and adding selected new components,
many of which are specifically targetted at strengthening biodiversity
conservation. It emphasizes decentralization and local management
of natural resources, particularly forests, as well as mechanisms
to promote synergy - both between EP2 activities and more generally
with other development programmes. The programme has three components:
field operations; strategic activities; and support activities
(See Annex G), as follows:
16. Field operations fall into two categories:
(a) Specialized sub-sector activities, corresponding
to about two thirds of programme cost, would be geared towards
improved management of natural resources, including soil, water,
forest and biodiversity, and would include:
- Sustainable soil and water management; US$ 43.5
million: Following the model developed under the EP1, ANAE would
continue its decentralization process, expand its regional coverage
and implement about 4,000 soil-conservation micro-projects under
EP2. The focus would be on demand-driven, low-cost and locally
adapted intervention that can contribute to spontaneous adoption
of improved practices by other farmers (multiplier effect). In
addition, specific watershed management operations would be developed,
either in cases were major investments need to be protected (e.g.
Ankarafantsika and the Marovoay Plain) or on a small scale pilot
basis(continuation of the work undertaken with FAO support on
four watersheds in the Antananarivo Region). No GEF funds will
be allocated to this component.
- Multiple-use Forest Ecosystem Management (ESFUM); US$
29.9 million: New forestry policies have been formulated under
the EP1, through a decentralized and highly participatory consultation
process. The resulting strategy is to make local communities responsible
for the management of natural resources. Under EP2, a number of
gazetted forests and community forests would be put under sustainable
management. The process would include the following steps: (i)
completion of the national ecological forestry inventory, zoning,
and identification of new protected areas (300,000 ha); (ii) completion
of on-going pilot forest management schemes (180,000 ha); (iii)
participatory formulation of management plans, involving neighboring
communities and the Forest Service (400,000 ha); and (iv) implementation
phase, i.e. management of the forest for multiple use, in accordance
with the management plan (150,000 ha under EP2, continuation under
EP3). In order to ease pressure on the natural forest, the programme
would also encourage farmers and private enterprises to plant
more trees, through land use planning and technical advice. Implementing
such a programme would also require reorganization and policy
reformulation as well as significant capacity building of the
Forestry Service (DEF).
- In this framework, GEF funding of US$ 5 million will support
the expansion of current government programmes to empower sustainable
community management of bio-diversity rich forests outside the
existing park and reserve system. Specifically, GEF will contribute
to: (i) System wide planning and the identification and zoning
of new protected areas, on the basis of the results of on-going
inventory work; this will help ensure the appropriate definition
of forest functions as either primarily production, watershed
protection, or biodiversity protection. This will be achieved
through long-term technical assistance in biology and land use
planning and short-term technical assistance in the identification
of new protected areas. (ii) Planning and implementation
of sustainable community-based forestry management schemes in
regions of key biodiversity importance (Annex B). (iii) Training
of forest service staff and other human resources development,
to meet the challenge of incorporating biodiversity concerns into
community forest management. Government human resources to work
with communities will be strengthened, based on a review of human
resources needs. And (iv) Development of sustainable use and
harvesting regimes for non timber forestry products, including
ecotourism and marketing of NTFPs, to give communities greater
incentives to conserve standing forest.
- National Parks and Ecotourism (CAPE); US$ 43.1 million:
In continuation of the work already developed under EP1, the objectives
during the EP2 would be to: (i) complete the establishment of
the network of protected areas (38 areas, 21 of which are already
well advanced under EP1), through survey work, proper delimitation
and legal action; (ii) provide infrastructure, equipment and staff
to ensure effective conservation; (iii) promote ecotourism development;
(iv) carry out applied conservation research programmes in order
to establish and monitor proper ecological indicators; (v) promote
environmental awareness and strengthen environmental education.
The network would be made of eleven National Parks or Integral
National Reserves, and twenty eight other protected areas, for
a total of 1.4 million hectares. The ICDP approach would be progressively
replaced by the generic regional support mechanisms presented
below. ANGAP would progressively take over direct management of
the network from ICDPs operators. This would require a change
in the formal mandate of ANGAP, together with internal ANGAP policies.
- Under CAPE, GEF funding of US$ 7.8 million will support management
planning, equipment and operations at a number of parks and reserves
which harbour globally significant biodiversity and which would
otherwise receive no management because of resource scarcity and
low ecotourism potential. Other donors will support transfer
of field management to ANGAP for all 11 level-A areas and the
establishment of management at 4 of the 19 level-B and 5 of the
8 level-C reserves. GEF will support management plans for the
remaining 15 level-B areas and 3 of the 8 level-C areas (See Annex
A), through: (i) Management plans for 8 currently unmanaged
or partially managed protected areas. Model management plans
will be prepared, based on a review of existing management plans
for areas under similar pressure; (ii) Management Assistance.
Equipment, infrastructure, human resources development and technical
support will be supplied for the implementation of management
plans in 19 protected areas; (iii) Operating and Administrative
Costs. (iv) Analytical work to support policy reform on
tourism taxation: the government currently has no policy on
tourism concessions that would allow concession revenues from
tourism services near protected areas to return for protected
area operating costs (it has been proposed that tourism services
within a certain distance radius of a protected area would be
subject to concession fees which would return to the protected
area to help defray management costs).
- Marine and coastal environment; US$ 6.6 million: work
would proceed in parallel at three levels: (i) national level:
formulation of coastal zone management policies, legal framework
and master plan; (ii) formulation of action plans at regional
level; and (iii) design and implementation of management plans
at local level, initially in the Nosy Be and Toliara areas. The
activities would be coordinated by a steering committee (ECOMAR)
and managed by a small unit within ONE. GEF funding of US$ 2 million
will support a field inventory of coral reef ecosystems, concentrating
on the rich reefs of the western and southern coasts, the identification
of critical sites, the establishment of local level management
at additional sites (the most threatened, highest diversity ones),
and the formulation of recommendations for a new generation of
marine parks in Madagascar.
- Urban Environment; (cost included in other
components - no GEF funding required): the urban environment activities
included in the programme are presented here for clarity, but
are actually included under other components described below.
The activities would include: (i) the integration of environmental
concerns into urban development policies, including the updating
of the Urban Code; (ii) support to urban management activities
by communities and local Governments. A Steering Committee would
be established to pilot urban-related activities; its secretariat
would be within ONE
- Generic mechanisms at regional and local level
(AGIR) to support regionalization of programming and
local management of natural resources, through the following three
components:
- Support to local natural resource management and land tenure
security (GELOSE); US$ 9.3 million from non-GEF sources: institutional
support to local NR management would include setting-up the appropriate
legal and regulatory framework, training environmental mediators,
and capacity building of the land-tenure administration (Direction
des Domaines). Transfer of methodology and procedures to direct
sub-sector components would be through actual transfer of management
right at the level of 100-200 village communities.
- Support to regional programming and spatial analysis (AGERAS);
US$ 4.3 million, of which US$ 3.0 million would be provided by
GEF: six small regional technical units would be established to
provide support to EP2 Regional Programming Committees (RPCs),
in the form of visiting experts and full-time secretariat, for
programme management, for technical analytical work (e.g. watershed
management, ecological corridors, urban environment problems)
and for the formulation of local environmental strategies and
sub-projects for financing by the Regional Fund presented below.
AGIR essentially establishes a new mode of addressing the root
causes of biodiversity loss in Madagascar, which grew out of the
GEF participatory design. There is a major transition barrier
to implementing the AGIR approach, in that no institutional infrastructure
currently exists for this approach. The large potential benefits
in biodiversity conservation justify GEF's involvement. The GEF
will mainly provide support to establish the regional programming
systems (overcoming transition barriers), together with the associated
training, and cover information related expenses, namely field
surveys, analytical work, programming for the regional conservation
fund, setting-up regional information systems to simplify storage
and retrieval of biodiversity and other information, and awareness
campaigns on the regional conservation process. Currently a pilot
programme is being tested with UNDP funding.
- Regional Fund for Environmental Management (FORAGE);
US$ 3.5 million, with no GEF funding: such a fund would offer
a mechanism to finance environment management activities on a
demand-driven basis; sub-projects sponsored by local governments
or private organizations would have to fall within the priorities
of the RPCs, and to match pre-defined eligibility criteria. Some
of the activities that were initially proposed as sub-sector components
(i.e. watershed management, urban environment) would fall under
the generic mechanism of the Fund. The designated funding represents
a pilot level to which a number of bilateral donors will contribute
additional funds once the mechanism is proven.
17. Strategic activities; US$ 4.3 million, of which US$
1 million from GEF: would include two components: (i) review and
strengthening of environmental policies, strategies and instruments
(sector policies, urban environment policy, transversal strategies
such as prevention and mitigation of natural catastrophes, planning
tools, economic instruments) and (ii) making environmental impact
assessment operational by setting up environment units at the
level of all sector ministries. GEF will support the review of
opportunities for increasing financial returns to Madagascar through
the export and sale of NTFPs.
18. Support activities; US$ 11.5 million, of which GEF
would contribute US$ 2 million: this set would include five components:
research, communication-education-training, geographic instruments,
environmental information system, and programme coordination and
management, including monitoring and evaluation. As part of this
component, GEF will support a comprehensive assessment of biodiversity
outside existing protected areas to determine real biodiversity
values. Results will inform the process of protected area management
phasing under CAPE, zoning of classified forests under ESFUM,
and prioritizing regional conservation problems under Regional
Programming and Local Management. GEF will also support applied
research and training activities related to biodiversity management.
Rationale for GEF Financing
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