Project Name
PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID)
APPRAISAL STAGE
Report No.: AB5752
Revitalization of the Protected Areas of Mongolia's Forested
Landscapes and Beyond
Region
Sector
Project ID
GEF Focal Area
Borrower(s)
EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC
General agriculture, fishing and forestry sector (100%)
P120593
Biodiversity
MONGOLIA
Implementing Agency
Ministry of Nature , Environment and Tourism
Government Building No. 3
Baga Toiruu 44
Ulanbaatar 11
Mongolia
Tel: (976-11) 312-269 Fax: (976-11) 321-401 monenv@mail.mn
Environment Category [ ] A [X] B [ ] C [ ] FI [ ] TBD (to be determined)
Date PID Prepared May 17, 2010
Date of Appraisal
Authorization
May 3, 2010
Date of Board Approval September 15, 2010
1.
Country and Sector Background
Country context
1.
Mongolia (1.567 million km 2 ) sits between Russia and China just to the east of
Kazakhstan. Its ecosystems include deserts, steppe grasslands, coniferous forests, high mountain tundra and saline and freshwater lakes. The topography ranges from flat and rolling hills to significant mountain ranges with elevation ranging from 560 m to 4,374 m. The country exhibits an extreme continental climate with marked differences in seasonal and diurnal temperatures, low rainfall, fragile soils, and short growing season.
2.
There has been a rapid rise in Mongolia’s population- from 758,000 in 1950 to at least
2.7 million by 2008
1
and the population is expected to continue to grow significantly for at least the next 30 years. The population growth rate is 1.7 percent per year, up from 1.2 percent in
2005. The fertility rate is now 2.6 children per woman and 50 percent of the population is less than 25 years old. Overall population density is about two people per km 2 , one of the lowest in the world. About 50 percent of the people live in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, whose population has risen by 11 percent over the last four years.
3.
There have been advances in life expectancy and education over the last two decades, with human development indices (Mongolia Human Development Report 2007) showing rises over
1 Official figure is 2.684 million, based on extrapolation from last national census in 2009. Actual figure probably near to three million (CIA, 2008; World Bank, 2008). Next census due in 2010

this period. University attendance is 200,000 and it is notable that 65 percent of the graduates of higher educational institutions are women. There is a growing wealth gap
2
and considerable poverty, especially in the cities and towns. 35 percent of the national population was below the poverty line
3
in 2007-8, up from 32.2 percent in 2006-7 (MSYB, 2008). The official unemployment rate is 2.8 percent which excludes unregistered unemployed.
4.
The Mongolian economy has traditionally been based on agriculture (mostly livestock herding, hunting and forestry) and even today the sector accounts for about a fifth of GDP.
However, with the development of mining sector - notably copper, uranium, coal and gold - the share of mining in GDP has more than tripled since the start of the decade, currently standing at close to 22 percent. The sector has also contributed up to a third of total government receipts in recent years and about 40 percent of exports. The signing of the Oyu Tolgoi (OT) investment agreement with Ivanhoe Mines/Rio Tinto Plc at the end of 2009 which will lead to the development of one of the world’s largest copper-gold mine deposits, means that Mongolia’s dependence on the mineral sector is expected to grow even larger.
5.
Mongolia’s economy was hit extremely hard by the global downturn, with real GDP contracting by 1.6 percent in 2009 after growth of 8.9 percent in 2008, as a result of the fall in commodity prices and instability of banking sector. Strong policy action by the government supported by programs with the IMF, the World Bank, the ADB and Japan has led to a rapid stabilization in the economic situation from mid-2009 onwards. An improvement in the external environment has also helped notably the recovery in commodity prices and strong growth in
China which absorbs the bulk of Mongolia’s exports. Meanwhile the OT agreement has fundamentally transformed the economic outlook: GDP growth for 2010 is projected to rebound to over 7 percent of GDP due to OT-related infrastructure spending and fiscal revenues will also be substantially boosted by the project. Accordingly it remains crucial that the government continue policy reforms started in 2009, including moving ahead with the adoption of the planned fiscal stability law which would help manage mining revenues in a sustainable manner and would minimize Dutch Disease risks.
6.
Politics are volatile, and many members of the public have become disillusioned with government and scathing of the widespread corruption
4
that they see and experience in their everyday lives. The June 2008 General Election was won by the Mongolian People’s
Revolutionary Party and after violent public demonstrations and a stand-off over disputed results the defeated Democratic Party agreed to join the government. In May 2009 the incumbent
President (MPRP) was defeated by the Democratic Party candidate and this has provided some balance of power.
Sector Background
7.
According to the Mongolian Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan (1993) there are six specific ecological zones: Desert (20% of the country); Desert-steppe (19%); Steppe (21%);
2 The mean consumption of the richest 20 percent is six times higher than that of the poorest 20 percent (MSYB,
2008)
3 MNT 86,300 (east) to 101,000 (UB) according to location
4
To put this in context, Mongolia ranks 120 th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index for 2009, down from 99 th out of 179 in 2007.

Forest steppe (26%); Boreal forest (8%); and Alpine (4%). The total surface area of all water bodies is estimated at more than 10,000km
2
, including freshwater and saline lakes, marshes, and peat lands, as well as 50,000 km of rivers. Forests and scrubland cover fifteen million ha (about
10%) of the country. The Altai-Sayan montane forests and the Daurian steppe are two WWF
Global 200 Ecoregions that are at least partially located within Mongolia. The global importance of many of these ecosystems is well recognized and two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, one
UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and 11 Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance sites have been designated. Additionally, 70 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) and five sites under the East
Asian Australasian Flyway Partnership for Migratory birds have been recognized in Mongolia.
8.
Mongolia has at least 136 species of mammals, 436 bird species, 8 amphibian species and
22 reptile species. At least 76 fish species have been recorded and it is expected many additional species exist, some yet unknown to science. More than 3,000 species of vascular plants, 927 lichens, 437 mosses, 875 fungi, and numerous algae species have been recorded. Mongolia hosts significant global populations of some globally Critically Endangered species such as the
Mongolian Saiga antelope ( Saiga tatarica mongolica ) (100% of global population), the Gobi bear ( Ursus arctos gobiensis ) (100%), Siberian crane ( Grus leucogeranus ), the Bactrian camel
( Camelus bactrianus ) (approximately 37%), and the re-introduced Przewalski's horse ( Equus ferus przewalskii ) (95%); as well as some globally endangered species like the Saker falcon
( Falco cherrug ), snow leopard ( Uncia uncia ) (approximately 12%), the long-eared jerboa
( Euchoreutes naso ), and the Mongolian three-toed jerboa ( Stylodipus sungorus ).
5
9.
The Mongolian Law on Special Protected Areas (1994) provides for the four categories of state special protected areas: Strictly Protected Areas (SPA), National Conservation Parks
(NP), Nature Reserves (NR), and Natural and Historical Monuments. Since 1990, environmental protection has been given a high priority by the Government and a total of 61 protected areas covering 21.75 million hectares, have been established to date
6
. Forty eight of them are managed by local Protected Area Administrations under the umbrella of the Protected Area Administration
Department of the Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism (MNET), and the others by aimag governments. The Mongolian Law also provides for “local protected areas”, only some of which have objectives related to biodiversity conservation or maintenance of ecological services.
The Law on Buffer Zones allows for areas adjacent to SPAs to be defined as buffer zones defined by MNET with local governments, to involve citizens in the protection of SPAs and
NPs, and the improvement of those citizens’ living conditions.
10.
Despite its low human population density, Mongolia’s biodiversity is under considerable threat from various forms of 1) unsustainable use by local communities such as the high, and generally increasing, numbers of domestic livestock, hunting, and unsustainable timber harvesting, from 2) unsustainable development practices such as mineral resource exploration and exploitation, urbanization and other developments, tourism, and 3) through climate change impacts. A recent report from WWF suggests that while 14% of Mongolia’s territory is under protected area status, only approximately 2% of the total territory of the country is under
5 See the National Red Lists – www.worldbank.org/nemo .
6 These categories appear to correspond with IUCN Categories I, II, III, and VI, respectively.

effective protection against these and other threats.
7
The populations of many wildlife species have dropped by about 90 percent over the last two decades
8
.
11.
Although there has been considerable progress in increasing the number of protected areas to support the government’s stated ambitious aim of having 30 percent of its territory within protected areas, performance on the ground has been slow. This is due to low government priority to the protected area system resulting in extremely low staffing levels, low staff morale, poor management planning, an apparent aversion to consultation with communities and other stakeholders on management plans and their implementation, low funding, and reports of widespread and officially-sanctioned illegal use of protected areas. This is exacerbated by the threats to the biodiversity and ecosystem as mentioned earlier and little interest in or indeed knowledge of conservation among the general public. There is insufficient protection, even on paper, to achieve the objectives of the protected area system. Management zones (such as
Limited Use Zone, Conservation Zone and Pristine Zone) have been defined by Ministerial decree as allowed under the Law on Special Protected Areas, but they have not always been demarcated on the ground. The SPA Pristine Zone and the NP Special Zone - loosely referred to as ‘core’ zones - are the only management zones which provide complete legal protection for biodiversity on paper. However, there are illegal uses of all zones. At least some people live inside all protected areas, some all year round, and some seasonally. There is heavy livestock grazing inside protected areas, including within many ‘core’ zones
9
, and protected area directors are frequently overruled in decisions on grazing by local government heads. In addition the core zones are generally small and often restricted to higher altitudes, so are not sufficiently representative of the habitats within the protected areas overall. There is hunting inside protected areas too; and there has been a demonstrated steep population decline of some species.
12.
Most protected areas do not have current management plans and even when they do exist they are generally not the subject of consultation with other important stakeholders. The objectives of the protected areas tend not to be articulated clearly and thus do not help to direct day-to-day management. Wider functions of protected areas such as watershed protection have not generally been emphasized as objectives.
13.
Protected areas are inadequately staffed which makes the patrolling oversight ineffective in terms of frequency and area coverage, including the nearby settlements and herders. Very few of the rangers have the power of arrest (only those with a university degree are permitted this privilege by the General Agency for Specialized Inspection [GASI]) and it is difficult for rangers to report people among whom they live with and rely upon for help in their everyday lives. The areas for which each ranger is responsible for are very large to effectively monitor. Salaries
(about 180,000 togrogs or US$135 per month) are very low, working conditions are poor: many work from their own gers , and if they work from a soum center the offices are usually cold in
7 Capacity and Financial Need Assessment of Protected Areas Located in the Altai Sayan Eco-Region of Mongolia.
WWF. 2007.
8 Wingard J. and Zahler, P. (2007). The Silent Steppe: The Illegal Wildlife Crisis in Mongolia. The World Bank,
Washington DC
9 Infractions of the Special Zones appear to be increasing, as pasture quality deteriorates and timber availability is reduced in the Tourism of National Parks and Limited Use Zones of Strictly Protected Areas.

winter and poorly equipped. Lack of support and field supervision from senior staff leads many rangers to lose enthusiasm and confidence, and thus to neglect their duties.
14.
The overall level of funding for Mongolian protected areas (2010 projected budget figures), at a mean of $0.05 per ha, is way below the accepted international levels for effective protection – and at the bottom end of actual levels
10
. Funding has been increasing, however. The annual MNET budget for recurrent management costs for protected areas rose overall by 30 percent from 2008 to 2010. In general, protected area administrations in charge of areas between
300,000 and 5,400,000 ha have recurrent budgets of between 0.02 and 0.12 $ per ha; whereas those with areas of 50,000 to 100,000 ha have budgets of between $0.34 and $0.55 per ha. There are two exceptions and they both lie near the nation’s capital. The 41,650 ha Bogd Khan Uul
Strictly Protected Area (BKU-SPA) has a 2010 budget of $3.23 per ha, way above the next highest in the small group ($0.55 per ha); and the large (523,000 ha) Khan Khentii National Park to the north has a 2010 budget of US $0.27 per ha, more than double the next highest in the large group.
15.
BKU-SPA lies just 10-15 minutes away from the center of Ulaanbaatar – the capital city - lies the forested 41,650 ha BKU-SPA which is also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. BKU has been afforded protected status since the 12th or 13th century as a sacred mountain. It was established as Mongolia’s first official protected area in 1778 and as such is believed to be the oldest protected area in the world. It supports populations of the globally Endangered Siberian
Marmot ( Marmota sibirica ). The biodiversity value of BKU could be increased with a possibility of establishing a corridor to link it with wetlands to the west and a more extensive forest area to the north-east. Those forests and the north of BKU serve as the source of Ulaanbaatar’s water supply. BKU is also important as an indicator for the impacts of climate change on forests as it is the southern-most outlier of the Siberian taiga forest. There are some buildings inside the SPA which pre-date its gazettement – such as the Presidential Palace, a hotel, military installations, the National Observatory, and a prison.
16.
BKU-SPA is managed by the Special Protected Areas Administration Department
(SPAA) under the Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism. As shown above, BKU-SPA is by far the best funded of all Mongolia’s protected areas. BKU-SPA is extremely well-staffed compared with many of Mongolia’s protected areas. This demonstrates the government’s commitment to this area. In addition to State funding, BKU-SPA also receives an annual contribution for management from the recently-developed ski resort on its northwest slopes.
17.
BKU has a high recreational value and is close to Ulaanbaatar, a city with 1.3-1.4 million people. It is a sacred site and it is common for citizens to throw drops of milk in the direction in the early morning out of respect; its summits are praying sites used frequently by high-ranking and common people alike. Nevertheless, many of the capital's inhabitants (especially those recently arrived from the outlying provinces) have never been to BKU-SPA and few visitors leave with any greater understanding of the importance of protected areas to the nation and the world. Interestingly, experience from outside Mongolia has found that conservation strategies
10 Mean current spending on protected area management in developing countries reported by Bruner et al, 2004 ranged from $0.05 to $3.00 per ha, while actual needs were estimated at $0.90 to $9.00 per ha.

commonly omit to give attention to awareness and education programs that focus on urban residents 11 , and that it might be better to invest in protected areas near population centers where the impacts of demonstrations of effective management are more likely to be noticed as such protected areas are more threatened due to the proximity of urban development. In this sense, there is an enormous opportunity to use BKU-SPA as a demonstration site for good PA management and through this to interest the urban public in all of Mongolia’s PAs and with the level of government’s commitment to BKU-SPA in terms of staffing and funding, this could be achieved without enormous increase in funding. The proposed project will be a specific testable initiative to influence government decision-making through use of an urban protected area. If done well it is expected that this will lead to an increase in engagement and concern on such a scale that pressure is successfully brought to bear on government to increase funding and management attention for all protected areas and to build up and support the SPAA to become both a professional and a respected organization.
18.
Despite the relatively high budget and the ease with which poor management can be seen and reported, serious actions in relation to the outer Limited Use Zone of BKU-SPA began about eight years ago; that is, parcels of land were allocated – generally to influential and high-ranking people (such as politicians and business leaders) and entities - in the lower parts of many of
BKU-SPA’s 21 valleys. This in itself is not illegal since a 2003 government regulation allowed tourism, research and training facilities. But some of those with land use permits built private houses, apartment complexes, a private school – all of which are illegal - especially in Zaisan and Nukht Valleys. This demonstrates that BKU-SPA is extremely highly valued, but the perception of corruption and the failure of law in the use of land is a matter of great concern among communities, civil society, the media, the current MNET management, the President’s
Office, the Parliamentary ‘Green Caucus’ etc. damages not just BKU-SPA but the whole protected area system. The proposed Project will not support activities in those small parts of the
SPA where there are issues of illegal development, although using the project to help resolve the problems was considered during identification. The reasons for removing the project from these issues are (a) the problems and arguments will take time and resources to address and neither are available in sufficient quantities under this project, (b) the contested and non-forested part of the
Zaisan, Nukht, and some other valleys have very little direct importance for conservation which is the focus of this project, (c) the government is already actively trying to resolve the difficult situation, and (d) involvement in these issues related to the high-value developments already built within the valleys are complex and would have raised important implementation challenges very difficult to prevent or mitigate. The project will, however, try to engage all those in and around the BKU-SPA in active support for, and engagement in, effective conservation of the undeveloped areas of the SPA.
2.
Objectives
11 eg Trzyna (ed) 2005 The Urban Imperative: urban outreach strategies for protected area agencies: how those responsible for protected areas can better serve people in large cities and build stronger urban constituencies for nature conservation. Proceedings of a workshop at the Vth IUCN World Parks Congress Durban, 2003. California
Institute of Public Affairs, Sacramento, California 168 pp

19.
The Project Development Objective is to increase public engagement in the management of BKU-SPA as a catalyst to increase government and private sector support to the national protected area system. The Global Environment Objective is to improve the government support to the national protected area system and thereby improve the conservation status of Mongolia’s globally-threatened species.
20.
The key project indicators would include

Establishment, and increasing membership, of a ‘Friends of BKU-SPA’ (below)

BKU-SPA Protected Area Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool
12
score increases from 49 at project Effectiveness to 80 by Close (Annex 18)

The annual State budget allocation to the national protected area system increases by more than the rate of inflation or GDP growth

Population of Endangered Siberian Marmots on BKU-SPA increases from 1750 at project effectiveness to 3000 at project close.
21.
To improve the management effectiveness of Mongolia’s protected area system and increase the state budget allocated to them in absolute and relative terms.
3.
Rationale for Bank Involvement
22.
The Interim Strategy Note for Mongolia CY2009-10 (April 2009) notes that although there has been overall progress, corruption and governance deterioration are growing concerns.
Perception-based governance indicators have deteriorated in recent years. Mongolian firms report that corruption pervades every sphere of business activity and that corruption has been highlighted as a primary cause of weak enforcement of environmental laws. Considering the similar problems that surround the BKU-SPA, a core theme of the project is to engage with the public about the BKU-SPA and the country’s protected area system building on the openness and honesty among them and thus to extend this effort to other protected areas. .
23.
It also notes that vulnerability is exacerbated by unsustainable exploitation of natural resources and climate change, and that two-thirds of Mongolia’s population is involved in activities linked with the environment and natural resources management. A series of World
Bank studies, financed largely by the Netherlands Government, has documented rapid and unsustainable exploitation of forests and biodiversity, as well as encroachment on unique natural and cultural sites. Degradation of grasslands and other natural resources important for economic activities (e.g., herding, tourism) and subsistence heightens vulnerability and can also reduce options for diversification. The grassy slopes of BKU-SPA, especially in the south, have traditionally been grazed by transient herders, and the Protected Area Administration permits herders to graze within the Limited Use Zone when good pastures are in poor supply, but this is managed poorly. The project will bring the grasslands of BKU-SPA under better management allowing vulnerable herders opportunity to graze during those difficult times.
12 http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/how_we_work/conservation/forests/publications/?137101/Tracking-progressin-protected-area-management

24.
T he new Country Assistance Strategy for Mongolia has been under development since the World Bank started a series of consultation meetings with all stakeholders: the
Parliament, the Government, CSOs, private sector, external partners and public in March 2007.
According to new CAS draft the following three pillars are considered as the likely main areas of focus of the World Bank program for the next period based on broad consultations with stakeholders in UB, other cities and aimags:
1.
Enhance the development impact of the mining economy
2.
Improve rural livelihoods and environment
3.
Make Ulaanbaatar a more livable city
In this context this project supports the latter two since it should improve protected areas across the country in general and especially the only protected area within the Ulaanbaatar Municipality which has lost much of its green space for recreation over the last decade.
25.
The proposed project fits neatly among a number of donor-financed projects that are either in their early stages or about to be implemented and which provide ‘associated cofinancing’. In particular JICA is at the final stages of planning the construction of a large
Freshwater and Conservation Center on the northern edge of BKU-SPA which however will not itself have general outreach related to BKU-SPA or the Mongolian PA network as priorities.
Also, construction is about to be completed of the Kuwait-Mongolia Research Center on the SE side of BKU-SPA and this will be used for research but which will have space for disseminating information and ideas about BKU-SPA and the broader protected area system. UNDP is about to begin a five-year GEF-funded project on Strengthening the Protected Area Network of Mongolia
(SPAN) but will not include anything on public information/involvement. UNDP is very supportive of the proposed project focusing on BKU-SPA and public engagement because they expect significant complementarities. GTZ has recently started a Climate Change and
Biodiversity Project (www.gtznaturecon.mn) two components of which are relevant to activities to be financed under the WB-GEF project: Decentralized Management of Natural Resources dealing with the institutional and legal framework for sustainable and gender-oriented management of natural resources in the context of climate change across the aimags/provinces of
Khangai and Khentii, and Environmental Communication and Environmental Education but this concerns biodiversity in a general sense rather than focusing on PAs and public engagement.
26.
Over the last decade the World Bank has worked closely with MNET on a wide range of environmental matters. These have included the preparation of the National Environmental
Action Plan 2000, various local language fieldguides, a GEF targeted research project on permafrost melt and biodiversity loss in Hovsgol National Park, a GEF Biodiversity Capacity
Assessment, the translation of the leading book on conservation biology, the reinforcement of the connections between Buddhism and environmental management, the strengthening of government’s environmental management capacity at national and local levels, the Mongolian
Forestry Sector Review. Similarly a two-phase $11 million Netherlands trust fund for environmental reform has supported a wide range of activities such as: wildlife surveys, analyses of the wildlife trade and illegal timber supply, helping to improve and socialize the amendments to the Law on Special Protected Areas, mapping forest cover, assessing the success of reforestation, researching the impacts of rehabilitated wells on wild ass, a major small grants project, the valuation of the forested watershed above Ulaanbaatar, a strategic environmental assessment of the Gobi region, a major assessment of air pollution, an HS/LSMS national survey on environment and NRM, a public expenditure review on environment, a database of EIAs, the

Mongolia biodiversity database including an online search tool, and much else. All these have given the World Bank a high profile in the environment sphere and have made it a trusted partner.
4.
Description
27.
The proposed project will take as its central approach the building up of public knowledge, concern and involvement to such an extent that the public – through CSOs, media, and presence - influence government priorities, and individual and corporate behavior and thereby have impacts on the profile and priority of protected areas and globally-significant biodiversity nationwide.
Three components are envisaged:
Component 1: Management of BKU-SPA
28.
Sub Component 1.1
Management Planning

Revision of BKU Management Plan and preparation of annual work plans: In order for BKU-SPA to be the desired high-profile site for visible and effective conservation in a manner that will increase attention to this and the rest of the protected area system, it is essential that the management plan and budget which guides its annual program should be well conceived and widely supported. To that end, the project will perform an initial review of the Management Plan, and recommendations will be provided for its revision, guided by the scores of the individual questions in METT. The draft revisions will be followed by an extensive consultation process with those living in and around BKU-SPA, local government, private sector partners etc. to improve implementation mechanisms.
The Project will also support, in cooperation with the parallel-financed GTZ Climate
Change and Biodiversity Project, the process to advise on the creation of buffer zones which would connect BKU-SPA to Gorkhi-Terelj National Park and the vast forests to the north to the Russian border, and the neglected wetlands formed by gravel digging to the SW which attract large numbers of birds but have few people living adjacent to them.
The buffer zones are seen as a key response to climate change, as a means to increase ecological connectivity. The review, revisions, and annual work plans will receive annual input. Finally, recommendations will be provided for the next five year Management Plan for 2014 to 2019 which will also be prepared in a consultative manner.
29.
Sub Component 1.2
Management Plan Implementation
Planning alone is of course inadequate to change perceptions and behavior, and so the project will support selected tasks from the annual work programs, such as:

Boundary Demarcation: A common complaint from communities, tourists and BKU-
SPA alike is the absence of clear markers for the outer boundary and the internal zone borders. This will be rectified, financed by government.

Community Co-Management: In order to promote harmonious relationship between the
SPA residents and the Administration and to foster participation, and because many of those living in BKU-SPA have indicated that they would like to be actively involved, a community co-management approach will be progressively adopted.


Patrolling: A balanced, systematic and evidence-based approach to law enforcement and monitoring will be implemented by supporting the adoption of ranger based data collection and MIST
13
. A freephone number will be procured and advertized to allow the public to report illegal acts to the BKU-SPA Administration. The government will procure cameras for all rangers to allow them to photograph infractions and evidence, and new winter clothing for the rangers to allow patrols to continue during the bitter winter.

Biodiversity monitoring: This will be conducted by the rangers with assistance from volunteers (below). The populations of Endangered Siberian Marmots will be counted in each of the 20 valleys as they have been for the last 20 years, and new initiatives will include camera trapping (operations financed by government), deer monitoring
(measured by fecal counts along defined transects), floral inventory and monitoring
(financed by government), and (in cooperation with GTZ) movement tracking of the larger mammal species away from and towards the SPA.

Capacity building for BKU staff: Project will provide routine in-service on-the-job training and tightly targeted courses included in schedules of SPA staff. A guest lecturer/seminar program will be provided for protected area staff. Individual initiative will be encouraged which will involve work planning through small grants for workrelated projects to be carried out as part of official duties. These trainings will cooperate with GTZ and not overlap with those provided through the UNDP-GEF SPAN project.
The government will arrange new trainings on fire fighting and procure new fire-fighting equipment.

Awareness raising: New centers for awareness raising are being established at the northern and southern edges of the SPA (financed by JICA and Emir of Kuwait respectively – see Annex 15) for which the project will provide a wide range of wellthought out, attractive and effective exhibition features concerning not just BKU-SPA but the whole of the national PA system. This will include verbatim accounts of former abundance of wildlife, budgets received, revenues generated, revenues returned, and development planning. Books and high quality maps will be produced and exhibited at both for sale. Moreover, the project will produce similar exhibits and activities with the
Mongolian Natural History Museum in the center of Ulaanbaatar (visited by the equivalent of 10 per cent of Ulaanbaatar’s population annually). A comprehensive public information program will be prepared to organize talks, films, dialogue, and seminars for
Ulaanbaatar residents. A mobile education unit will be formed to publicize the protected area system as a whole and BKU-SPA in particular, threats to their integrity, and their national and global importance. The project will use professional advertisers/social marketers in its activities and learn from the experience of Rare Pride campaigns in
Mongolia
14
. Radio programs and plays will be produced and broadcasted with protected area themes and events in the city. A striking and hard-hitting film on BKU-SPA will be produced in the context of the entire protected area system, its problems and possible solutions. The film will be commissioned (perhaps in partnership with a commercial company) and distributed widely with international as well as national broadcasting.
13 MIST is an easy to use spatial management information system which provides protected area managers with timely access to information for planning, decision-making and evaluation
14 http://rareplanet.org/en/campaigns


Friends of BKU-SPA: A fee-based membership scheme (‘Friends of BKU-SPA’) will be designed and mobilized
15
. It will serve as a focus of public interest in and concern for
BKU-SPA, and would include a ‘volunteer ranger’ system to accommodate offers of help already being made to the BKU-SPA Administration from members of the Ulaanbaatar public. It will also, together with the SPA Administration, maintain a well-linked website and listserver, hold trainings for local NGOs, visitor guides etc. (issuing certificates to those who pass a test), arrange visits for parties of school children, etc.

Visitor Experience Enhancement: As part of the overall strategy to encourage the use, appreciation and understanding of BKU-SPA, a comprehensive visitor trail system with information boards on various ecological or management topics will be designed and built using low-impact technologies with some trails made accessible for the disabled, with trail heads at a series of new car parks (to be financed by government) just off the road on the north of BKU-SPA, as well as at other major entry points for visitors. BKU-
SPA leadership will organize special events, inviting important decision makers whose work influences the management of the SPA.

NGO Support: The project will provide small grant support to help improve the capacity of local NGOs active in and around BKU-SPA in cases where that support would help achieve the project objective.

Awards: One or more annual awards will be given to rangers or other staff who have made exceptional contributions to BKU-SPA management. The selection will be decided by both the senior staff of the SPA, the SPAA, and the leadership of ‘Friends of Bogd
Khan Uul’.

Opinion/Awareness/Behavior Monitoring: A fully professional survey will be conducted three times (beginning, mid-term and close) based on objective sampling and statistically robust techniques to track changes in public knowledge, attitudes and behavior related to BKU-SPA.
Component 2: Mainstreaming of Protected Area Considerations into Economy-wide
Policies and Plans
30.
Increased awareness and better management in BKU-SPA will not on their own influence the wider issue of protected area management. Rather, the general public’s increased awareness and support should result in a growing membership of the ‘Friends of Bogd Khan Uul’ and they will be motivated to join web petitions, to post comments and complaints on the listserver/website, to write to or meet their members of parliament, and to support local protected area administrations. There are three additional audiences external to direct protected area management which this project will seek to influence and these are the focus of this component:
(a) sectoral ministries especially the Ministry of Finance, who actions and decisions influence the development impacts on BKU-SPA and other protected areas and their budgets, (b) members of parliament who have the final say on the allocation of the state budget and who can influence,
15 This will be modeled on successful schemes such as the Friends of the Saba Marine Park (Netherlands Antilles),
Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park (USA), and especially on those concerning protected areas adjacent to urban areas such as Friends of Nairobi National Park (with the largest rhino population of any park in Africa http://fonnap.wordpress.com/ ), and Friends of Richmond Park, the largest urban park in
Europe, a National Nature Reserve and a European Special Area of Conservation ( http://www.frp.org.uk/richmondpark ).

and (c) sections of the private sector whose enterprises can have potentially major positive and negative impacts on BKU-SPA and the rest of the national protected area system.
31.
Sub-component 2.1
Targeted Analysis and Information for Government and
Parliament

The Project will advise and work together with individuals and groups of three groups of decision makers: sectoral ministries, the Ulaanbaatar Municipality and members of parliament with tailor-made programs and materials. The Ministry of Finance will of course be an especially relevant audience. Presentations on protected area values in the landscape will be established for these public servants at special events staged in, for example, the dinosaur hall of the Natural History Museum or one of the two new centers on BKU. There will be links made to the management of the Tuul River Urban Park on the northern boundary of the BKU-SPA

Succinct and innovative briefs will be written regarding the various values and importance of protected areas in Mongolia and in other countries, Mongolian and other management experience, and the ways in which they can be better integrated into written and unwritten policy and practice. These briefs will be designed, illustrated and published for high-level policy and decision makers in cooperation with the SPAN project staff, and fuller, better supported accounts will be developed for technical staff involved in the formulation of policies and plans and donor funded projects and programs. The dissemination strategy will include briefings with Members of Parliament through various parliamentary standing committees and the Green Caucus. A series of seminars and video-conferences will be organized with high-profile speakers – local and international (when available) - facilitating exchange of experience between government programs, donor funded projects, academics, NGOs, and the private sector leading to better use of science in policy making with regard to protected areas. Although these briefs will be targeted for the above target audiences, they will also be available at the three visitor centers and on websites. Project and protected area staff will work together with technical staff and others consistently over long periods in relevant line ministries and selected aimag governors’ offices as part of national and regional planning processes to help ensure the incorporation of protected area considerations into economy-wide plans and programs.
32.
Sub-component 2.2
Targeted Analysis and Information for the Private Sector

To increase corporate responsibility towards BKU-SPA, the project will orchestrate various forms of outreach such as events and presentations to members of the private sector adjacent to BKU-SPA (such as the ski resort, ger camps, bottled water factory, hotels, apartment complex owners etc) on the potential positive and negative environmental and social impacts of those interests. The ski resort is already providing annual payments of about $16,000 to the BKU-SPA Administration for conservation management activities. To inform this process, the new searchable database of EIAs
16 will be used. A voluntary ‘code of conduct’ will be drafted and discussed with members of the private sector, and the final version will be disclosed to the public. A list of those companies which have committed to follow the code will be made available through the various public outreach activities and exhibitions to encourage use of those facilities.
16 http://geodata.mne-ngic.mn


Using the PA Forum (to be established under the SPAN project), the project will support the discussion, development and pilot implementation of tools and methodologies (such as ‘appropriate assessment’ 17
, dated photographic records, Google Earth, Management
Effectiveness Tracking Tool, permanent plots, etc.) by which to predict, monitor and measure the protected area impacts of planned and current development projects. This would be done in cooperation with professional staff in the Environmental Assessment
Review Department in MNET. This would allow adjustments in planned and current interventions to be made to benefit or reduce threats to protected areas.

There will also be high level representations to embassies and national governments regarding threats to protected areas from foreign private sector investment and business activity in order to raise awareness beyond the conservation community. Some companies such as Sky Resort ski center have already engaged with the BKU-SPA authority and stakeholder roundtables and information dissemination will be used to improve overall corporate responsibility towards BKU-SPA and other PAs in the areas of tourism, mining, hunting and plant collection etc. Some Mongolian NGOs have already enlisted the support of private companies in conservation campaigns and there is good potential for growth in this area.
Component 3: Overall Project Management
33.
The project management will require a full-time staff working at central level and this component will cover the costs of setting up and running the project facilities, staff team and administrative, financial and monitoring systems required for implementing the project. The project staff will also act as the Secretariat of a project steering committee.
5.
Financing
Source:
BORROWER/RECIPIENT
Global Environment Facility (GEF)
6.
Implementation
Total
($m.)
.2
1.73
1.93
17
“ Any plan or project not directly connected with or necessary to the management of the site but likely to have a significant effect thereon, either individually or in combination with other plans or projects, shall be subject to appropriate assessment of its implications for the site, in view of the site’s conservation objectives. In the light of the conclusions of the assessment of the implications for the site the competent national authorities shall agree to the plan or project only after having ascertained that it will not adversely affect the integrity of the site concerned and, if appropriate, after having obtained the opinion of the general public” http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/legislation/habitatsdirective/index_en.htm

34.
The outreach planned within the project will benefit from partnerships with two donorfinanced projects supporting MNET. A major JICA grant has been approved to construct a new
Freshwater Resources and Nature Conservation Center 18 in the Zaisan Valley in the north of
BKU-SPA. The costs cover the design and construction of facilities for training, public awareness, research and support services, and the procurement of equipment to be used in the building. MNET training and seminar activities (typically 100 each year) are typically held in hotels and other external sites. It does not cover the internal furniture or infrastructure. The overall goal is to develop human resources for conservation and will serve as a base for raising the awareness of Mongolian citizens and foreigners about conservation, carrying out research and surveys on related issues, and to support organizations in the field of conservation. The grant does not cover any contents or materials.
35.
The Kuwait-Mongolia Research Centre is a grant gift to Mongolia from the Emir of
Kuwait and comprises research laboratories, offices, exhibition space as well as separate but adjacent accommodation for 12 research staff. It is located in the Turgen Am Valley in the southeast part of the Limited Use Zone of BKU-SPA. The construction should be complete during the summer 2010. The Center is expected to cooperate with UB-based organizations to carry out forest and plant restoration activities. It will also set up research programs for the conservation of Mongolia’s natural ecological system resources, and for the conservation of rare, endangered animals, birds and plants and prevention of air, soil and water pollution. The grant covers the costs of constructing the building, providing the furniture and decoration, equipment, and the running costs for the first year
19
. It is expected that the researchers will be associated with a number of national institutions such as National University, and institutes of the Academy of Sciences. The assistance does not cover Kuwaiti technical assistance but there are close links with the Kuwaiti Research Centre (equivalent to an Academy of Sciences). The grant does not cover any materials or programs envisaged under the GEF project.
36.
The GTZ assistance to government includes a relatively new Climate Change and
Biodiversity Project (www.gtznaturecon.mn) two components of which are relevant to activities to be financed under the WB-GEF project: (a) Decentralized Management of Natural Resources dealing with the institutional and legal framework for sustainable and gender-oriented management of natural resources in the context of climate change across the aimags/provinces of Khangai and Khentii, and (b) Environmental Communication and Environmental Education which includes in its broader program attention to biodiversity, but not PAs or public engagement. Part of their first component concerns the need for corridors/buffer zones to increase ecological connectivity and the two projects will work cooperatively on the creation of buffer zones which would connect BKU-SPA to Gorkhi-Terelj National Park and the vast forests to the north to the Russian border, and the neglected wetlands formed by gravel digging to the SW which attract large numbers of birds but have few people living adjacent to them and is the first part of what GTZ hopes will be a corridor between BKU-SPA and Hustai National
Park and beyond. GTZ will also cooperate with this project in the monitoring of deer movements into and out of BKU-SPA, and on trainings.
18 The financing amounts and other details are not yet in the public domain.
19 The finance amounts are not in the public domain due to the nature of the gift.

37.
The project will work closely with team executing the imminent and complementary
UNDP-implemented the GEF financed Strengthening Protected Areas Network project which is intended to enhance effective management and sustainable financing of the protected area system in Mongolia as a whole. The objective of the project is to catalyze the management effectiveness and financial sustainability of Mongolia’s protected areas system. Three outcomes will contribute to this objective: (1) Strengthened National policy, legal and institutional frameworks for sustainable management and financing of the national PA system; (2)
Institutional and staff capacity and arrangements are in place to effectively manage and govern the national PA system; and (3) Sustainable financing mechanisms and innovative collaboration approaches demonstrated at 3 PA demonstration sites, increasing funds and effective strategies for PA management. It is expected that the demonstration of sustainable financing at site levels will be replicated throughout the PA system and the project will have a long lasting impacts on sustainable conservation outcomes. Additionally, the project will also contribute to better local livelihoods through increased resilience of ecosystems in PAs that underpin the livelihoods of several households living inside and around protected areas.
38.
The SPAA within MNET will be the executing agency for the project. The day-to-day management will be supported by the small PMU which has run the World Bank environment program of activities in MNET under the general guidance of the Vice Minister. This PMU will have a Project Coordinator and include an Administration/Procurement Officer and a Project
Assistant/Financial Management Officer. The project will support a technical team of number of short- and medium-term, international and national consultants with experience in the required areas, and these will be led by the Chief Technical Adviser reporting to the Director of SPAA on technical rather than process or administrative matters. As far as possible the team members will be physically accommodated within the BKU SPA and SPAA offices directly, not within the
PMU. The PMU will be responsible for all project procurement, contractual and financial arrangements including the preparation of terms of reference and other component-related work plans. The Project Coordinator will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the project, maintaining good relations with project stakeholders, and the project reporting. The Project
Coordinator will report to the Project Director (SPAA Department Director) who will (i) guide the program implementation process to ensure alignment with national and local statutory planning processes and policies, plans and strategies; (ii) ensure that activities are fully integrated between the other developmental initiatives in the area of BKU SPA; (iii) oversee the work being carried out by the PMU and the consultants, and monitor progress and approve reports; (iv) oversee the financial management and production of financial reports; and (v) monitor the effectiveness of project implementation.

39.
The project will be guided by a Steering Committee to be established by Ministerial
Order. It will be chaired by the MNET Vice Minister with members representing the District
Governors of the districts surrounding BKU SPA, the Ministry of Finance, the MNET
International Department, and WWF-Mongolia, with the Project Coordinator acting a Secretary to the Committee. The Steering Committee will meet every six months and be responsible for reviewing and endorsing work plans and reports, as well as communicating the project objectives, constraints and results to their own management and for facilitating co-ordination among the various government agencies as and when necessary.
40.
Project implementation will be coordinated closely with the PMU of the UNDP-GEF
SPAN project and the Department will ensure that the offices will be adjacent but they will function as separate entities. Efforts will be made to hold joint supervisions as and when possible. The project will also share the ad hoc Advisory Committee of NGOs and academic institutions to be established under the UNDP-GEF project to provide technical guidance and advice on specific issues.
7.
Sustainability
A.
and Replicability
41.
The project has been designed with sustainability as a core objective. As indicated above, the previous model in GEF projects in Mongolia of dealing with one remote protected area after another was not being effective. Instead, attention needs to be directed at the political, administrative and population heart of the country. The fundamental reasoning for the project is that until the Mongolian public is convinced that protected areas matter and that they can be managed effectively and with public benefit then sustainability would not be possible.
42.
Troublesome though the allocation of land parcels in the Limited Use Zone has been, the owners of the land use certificates are obliged to pay Land Use Fees to the State at triple the standard rate for being in the Limited Use Zone. According to the 2000 Law on Reinvestment of
Natural Resource use Fees for the Protection of the Environment and the Restoration of Natural
Resources the State should return 30 per cent to its source, thus providing a substantial sum to the BKU-SPA and other protected areas. In practice this is not done, but when, through the project, BKU-SPA and other protected areas can demonstrate relevance and effectiveness the argument for restoring the full 30 per cent will be stronger.
43.
Thus, sustainability is fundamental to the design of the project as it incorporates incentives, ownership, leadership, training, strengthening capacity and mechanisms. In the final analysis, however, the project’s long-term sustainability will also depend on the awareness and sensitivity by the Government – supported clearly by the public - of the value of protecting rather than steadily degrading its natural heritage.
8.
Lessons Learned from Past Operations in the Country/Sector

Focus in the center
44.
Many donor-funded projects have sought to improve protected area management in
Mongolia by working with individual protected area administrations in remote parts of the country, but overall results have been disappointing in terms of sustainability. Donor assistance has often provided running costs and training for the duration of the project, and government budgets have tended to be adjusted downwards so that protected areas given attention by donor projects have been allocated less funding by central government. A great deal of work has been done and project staffs in particular have benefited in terms of career development, but results have not been institutionalized. Training, for example, has been repeated by a series of donorfunded initiatives projects in the same areas, often with different emphases and nuances; and field equipment has been resupplied when it should have lasted longer. Many field conservation projects have worked hard to create incentives for local residents near or inside protected areas to change their behavior to favor biodiversity, but with limited success. Many of the pasture and forest user groups have become less active after their parent projects finished
20
, and there are fundamental problems in the law and its implementation which limit public confidence that government will not reclaim resources allocated to them.
45.
Thus, many of the problems facing individual protected areas over the country stem from problems at the parent institution in Ulaanbaatar, the SPAA in MNET, yet donor inputs have in the past been concentrated mainly on field projects, and until now have not addressed sufficiently the parent institution and the need for sustained and adequate funding from government. The UNDP/GEF/GoM’s Strengthening Protected Area Network project (SPAN) is about to start addressing the problems in SPAA, with a focus on policy and institutional framework, capacity building and new approaches to financing protected areas. This is vital work and long overdue. This new GEF-funded project also focuses on institutions and issues close to the political and population heart of the country.
Generate public support
46.
Mongolia’s low population density on the one hand limits the impact of humans on the land, but on the other hand limits the impact of standard law enforcement mechanisms. Without the cooperation of the general public there will be no effective protection, and unless there is public support for protected areas there will be no effective holding to account of government to carry out its statutory duties in protection.
20 Mau, G. and G. Chantsalikham (2006). Herder Group Evaluation – A Study of Herder Groups, their Present Status and Future Potential: Policy Options for the Government of Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar, November 2006 http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_p039/rmrs_p039_018_029.pdf

47.
There are public awareness programs in almost every biodiversity conservation project, and it is widely accepted that public involvement is essential to success in reaching conservation outcomes. It is hard, however, to find empirical evidence for this, but organizations active in the field attribute successes to active public involvement. The Panos Foundation has shown that effective information and communication processes are prerequisites for successful development, that “they are the lifeblood of good governance; an integral part of empowering and enabling a healthy, vibrant civil society.”
A recent evaluation of a variety of conservation initiatives in Kamchatka concluded that what was missing was an awareness and education program that focused on urban residents as well as on remote, impoverished communities. It also concluded that it might be better to invest in protected areas adjacent to population centers so that reasonably effective management and genuine demonstration impacts are possible, even if these PAs may be less important from a biodiversity perspective and more threatened due to the proximity of urban development. This is exactly what the proposed project aims to do.
Refine the approach
48.
Many people have romantic visions about the pristine wild places of Mongolia and her wildlife, and mainstream television programs and exhibitions often emphasize this; but there is a gap between those kinds of images and the reality. There is increasing attention in the media to conservation, but there is no dedicated information service for protected areas and no way for interested people to become more involved in the protected areas movement. None of the major conservation/environment NGOs in Mongolia is a membership organization and it is therefore difficult for interested, non-professional citizens to become involved.
49.
Public awareness activities have been included in the standard biodiversity and protected area project profile for years, and there was a dedicated UNDP project to improve public awareness of environment and biodiversity in the late 1990’s, under the GEF Tumen River
Program, and under the World Bank NEMO program. There is no doubt that people now know more about protected areas and biodiversity than they did although it has been hard to judge how knowledge and awareness translate into action because no effective attempt was made to track attitudes or behavior. There are enthusiasts, and societies dedicated to learning more, and what they are learning is that the reason for this state of affairs is that members of the general public and government officials have no incentives to conserve nature – indeed, it is clearly in many of their interests to act in a way that results in the loss of wild species and the degradation of wildlife habitats. As a result this proposed project it will be different; it will instead devote efforts to encouraging - and giving mechanisms for – public engagement, and will to measure this as well as changes in attitudes and behavior.
9.
Safeguard Policies (including public consultation)
Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project
Environmental Assessment ( OP / BP 4.01)
Natural Habitats ( OP / BP 4.04)
Pest Management ( OP 4.09
)
Indigenous Peoples ( OP / BP 4.10)
Physical Cultural Resources ( OP/BP 4.11
)
Yes
[ X]
[ X]
[ X]
[ ]
[ X]
No
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ X]
[ ]

Involuntary Resettlement ( OP / BP 4.12)
Forests ( OP / BP 4.36)
Safety of Dams ( OP / BP 4.37)
Projects on International Waterways ( OP / BP 7.50)
Projects in Disputed Areas ( OP / BP 7.60)
*
50.
Details are provided in Annex 10.
[ X]
[ X]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ X]
[ X]
[ X]
10.
List of Factual Technical Documents
51.
Bank Documents

Project Information Document Concept Stage

PIF Review

CEO Clearance

Focal Point Endorsement

ISDS Concept Stage
 Draft Project Implementation Plan

Procurement Capacity Assessment Report

Financial Management Assessment Report
 Detailed Cost Tables
52.
Project-Led Study Reports

Second Preparation Mission Aide Memoire (March 9-20)

Political Economy Study Report (Draft)

Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Report (Interim version)

Consultation Reports with Communities: Yarmag, Zaisan, Tuul

Legal Opinion on Resolution 26

Protected Areas and Corridors Report
53.
Relevant Background Reports

Marmot Population Study by BKU SPA

SSIA Inspection of BKU SPA
54.
Minutes of the Meetings

Minutes of the PCN Meeting held on January 26, 2010

Minutes of the Safeguard Review Meeting held on January 29, 2010

Minutes of February 18, 2010 meeting held for legal updates on BKU
*
By supporting the proposed project, the Bank does not intend to prejudice the final determination of the parties' claims on the disputed areas


Minutes of the Technical Meeting held on April 6, 2010

Minutes of QER held on May 6, 2010
55.
Others

UNESCO Paris to UNESCO Mongolia letter on state of BKU-SPA

MNET reply to Mr. Enkhbat MP on SPA

GTZ financial support letter

JICA financial support letter

Government financial support letter

11.
Contact point
Contact: Anthony J. Whitten
Title: Sr Biodiversity Spec.
Tel: (202) 458-2253
Fax:
Email: Twhitten@worldbank.org
12.
For more information contact:
The InfoShop
The World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20433
Telephone: (202) 458-4500
Fax: (202) 522-1500
Email: pic@worldbank.org
Web: http://www.worldbank.org/infoshop