Environmental and Social Management Framework for Remote Rural Communities
Development Project
Executive Summary
The Royal Government of Bhutan (RGoB) is implementing a multi-sector
Remote
Rural
Communities Development Project (RRCDP) through Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, local
Governments and Communities. The funding for the project is from the World
Bank (WB)’s
International Development Association (IDS)’s loan. The project areas are 26 Geogs of six Dzongkhags
of south-western and south-central Bhutan (Haa, Chukha, Samtse, Dagana, Trongsa and Wangdue).
The main objective of the RRCDP is to increase productivity of agricultural systems and enhance access
to community assets in remote rural areas through improvements in market access, irrigation, agricultural
technologies, and community infrastructures. The project has three components viz., Component ARural Infrastructure: This component consists of two major sub-components: (a) Rural Accessibility
and (b) Irrigation channels. The focus of this component is to connect the communities to larger roads,
regional markets and support the rehabilitation and construction of new irrigation infrastructures.
Component B - Community, Marketing and Productive Infrastructure: This component comprises
of two sub-components: (a) Establishing Community and Marketing Infrastructures, and (b) Improving
Productive Assets of existing Producer Groups. The sub-component (a) will support community
mobilization and capacity building followed by construction and rehabilitation of minor social and
community marketing infrastructure based on community needs identified through thorough
participatory process. The latter sub-component (b) will support targeted existing producer groups on
citrus, cardamom, dairy, poultry and community forest groups through supply of inputs and capacity
building. Component C - Project Management and Institutional Support: This component provides
the management oversight and monitoring and evaluation functions of the project. It comprises (a)
Technical and Financial Management; (b) Procurement, and (c) Environmental and Social Safeguards.
Environmental and Social Management Framework
Bhutan has well-preserved natural environment with 70.46% of the country under forest cover (DoFPS,
2011). The project Dzongkhags have forest coverage higher than or equal to the national average.
Agricultural land is limited. Agricultural practices in the project area are largely traditional, manual and
subsistence oriented. Local cultural and natural sites of different types are found commonly in and
around villages, settlements and along the travel routes but none either natural or historical are listed
nationally or internationally. Although the natural environment appears intact up till now, but are not
free from increasing pressure owing to the population growth and infrastructure development. Farmers
and grazers have continued to face human-wildlife conflicts such as crop and livestock depredation.
Environmental and social concerns of the project therefore, pertain to the infrastructure works including
farm roads and irrigation schemes. Thus there is requirement for stringent social and environment
safeguard framework guiding the project implementers so that such effects could either be avoided or
mitigated to cause the minimal effect as a result of the RRCDP.
The primary purpose of environmental and social management framework is to design and develop
Environmental and Social Management implementation framework, guidelines and procedures to make
project officials and other stakeholders understand its importance, and ensure compliance with RGoB
and WB’s environmental and social safeguard policies during various stages of project implementation.
Possible environmental issues under the project
The major source of environmental effects will be from infrastructure works, the impacts of which will
vary according to the infrastructure type, size, and location. Highly significant and/or irreversible adverse
environmental impacts are not expected because, 1) Small-scale demand-driven community
infrastructures will be dispersed widely in six different Dzongkhags, and 2) Project activities will not be
supported if it is located in protected and environmentally sensitive area. Further environment-friendly
techniques will be used in implementation of the sub-project and activities. The environmental issues
related to rural infrastructures construction works are:
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
Landslide and soil erosion
Loss and/or degradation of forest and vegetation
Health & safety, and sanitation issues and
Construction period disturbances
However, these impacts are readily manageable as mitigations for such impacts are in practice in Bhutan.
The activities under community, marketing and productive assets of this project are likely to be
environmentally neutral as the support intends to help farmers to increase productivity making use of
improved road access and irrigation. Besides, the project will be supporting Bhutan's environmentfriendly agriculture policy, such as organic farming, local high yielding crop variety, well-tested livestock
breeds, efficient use of NWFP, and sustainable land use practices. Further, use of low risk pesticide of
WHO Category II for seed protection and citrus disease control will be encouraged. Chemical pesticides
procurement, distribution and use are well controlled through a centralized system and are legally
governed by The Pesticides Act of Bhutan, 2000. Bhutan has reasonably sound environmental policies
and regulations. In the core zone of PA only conservation activities are permitted and other activities are
strictly controlled. Activity within 50m distance of a cultural site or sacred landscapes will require official
clearance from the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs. Bhutan environmental system requires all
development projects/ activities acquiring environmental clearance (EC) from National Environmental
Commission Secretariat (NECS) or Competent Authority (CA) unless an activity is exempted. A
proponent applies for EC in a standard format. The EC application needs to be backed up with
information on no objection certificates (NoCs) and Environmental Information (EI). The EI need to
include: potential adverse environment effects, compliance plan, a management plan, and environmental
and other benefits of the project. CA checks the EI, social clearance and NoCs, as part of environmental
screening and will lead to either issuance of an EC, instruct for further study (environmental assessmentEA) or rejection of the application based on the situations. Consultation with affected communities (for
social clearance) is expected to take place during the NoC and the EA process. The EC issuing agency is
responsible for monitoring the compliance. NECS and/or CA are mandated for compliance monitoring.
Possible social issues under the project
The infrastructure investments and community development schemes include both new constructions
and rehabilitation works of existing rural infrastructure and agricultural productivity improvement. These
investment and construction activities will have its share of social impacts. However, due to the size and
linear nature of these activities, the adverse impacts are rather limited. These impacts could include:
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Livelihood impacts as a result of land taking
Impacts on structures requiring relocation
Impacts on local public infrastructure, such as irrigation system
Loss of crops and trees
Loss of rural structures
Construction-related impacts, such as public health, dust and safety
Impacts on Vulnerable and disadvantaged groups
The project aims to improve livelihood for the targeted poor communities through improved access and
enhanced skills. In order to achieve this objective, it is important that the program design and
implementation follows a participatory and inclusive process to ensure that the most needy and
vulnerable households equally benefit from the project. Therefore, the following issues need to be
carefully considered in the planning and implementation process:
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Gender
Social inclusion
Vulnerable households
Community consultation and participation
The project will be implemented by multi-sectors such as Ministry of Agriculture and Forests (MoAF),
Dzongkhag Administrations, Geog Administrations, Chiwogs, Contractors, and Local Communities.
NECS, PPD (MoAF), and Dzongkhag Environmental Committees (DEC) have environmental and social
management roles and mandates. Dzongkhags’ and communities’ knowledge and insights of local
environment and social management are good, but their ability to prepare documents that is required by
the legislations and guidelines is very low. Contractors also lack capacity in preparing the construction site
environmental and social management plan. In order to overcome the capacity weaknesses identified
above, the project included following capacity strengthening measures: A need-based hiring of
environmental and social consultant to support PMT to provide tailored, targeted and need based
awareness, orientations and training, and monitoring compliance to ESMF during implementation. The
subproject specific environmental and social mitigation cost will be internalized within the subproject’s
detail project report (DPR).
RRCDP environmental and social assessment framework with guidelines and procedures have already
been developed and distributed to all project implementing partners. All project activities and subcomponents under RRCDP are required to screened through format and procedure prescribed there in.
Implementers need to adhere to the existing environmental standards through screening form developed
for the RRCDP and ensure that these activities are cleared for implementation prior to activity initiation.
Project Management Team
Remote Rural Development Project
A World Bank supported RGoB Rural Development Project
Ministry of Agriculture and Forests
Thimphu
Bhutan