PROJECT IDENTIFICATION FORM (PIF)
PROJECT TYPE: Full Sized Project
THE GEF TRUST FUND
Submission Date: 14 September 2007
Re-submission Date:
PART I: PROJECT IDENTIFICATION
INDICATIVE CALENDAR
GEFSEC PROJECT ID: 2435
Expected Dates
Milestones
GEF AGENCY PROJECT ID: 2902
Work Program (for FSP) November 2007
COUNTRY(IES): China
CEO
May 2008
PROJECT TITLE: Priority Institutional Strengthening and Capacity
Endorsement/Approval
Development to Implement the China Biodiversity Partnership and
GEF Agency Approval
June 2008
Framework for Action
Implementation Start
June 2008
GEF AGENCY(IES): UNDP
Mid-term Review
July 2011
OTHER EXECUTING PARTNERS: China State Environmental
Implementation
July 2014
Protection Administration, Ministry of Finance People’s Republic of
Completion
China
GEF FOCAL AREAS: Biodiversity
GEF-4 STRATEGIC PROGRAM(S): BD-SP2, BD-SP4, BD-SP5
NAME OF PARENT PROGRAM/UMBRELLA PROJECT: China Biodiversity Partnership and Framework
A. PROJECT FRAMEWORK
Project Objective: The development of the national policy and institutional framework for biodiversity conservation, bringing it
closer to international best practices.
Indicators for success
 Biodiversity conservation objectives incorporated into the Twelfth National Five Year Plan
 A strong cross-sectoral biodiversity coordination mechanism at the national policy making level
 China’s national strategy for biodiversity conservation is established with multi-stakeholder “buy in”
 Biodiversity conservation resources available from government and the private sector increased by 100% from 2006 baseline
 Biodiversity conservation mainstreamed into land zoning
TA,
Indicative GEF
Indicative CoProject
or
Expected Outcomes
Expected Outputs
Financing*
financing*
Total ($)
Components
STA*
($)
%
($)
%
*
1. Institutional
TA
Strengthened inter- A strong Partner Committee 470,000
14
2,800,000 86
3,270,000
mechanism for
sectoral coordination and its Secretariat; Common
biodiversity
mechanism at the
monitoring framework in use
conservation
central level for
by at least 6 partners;
partnership
biodiversity
Overall increases in Partners
conservation
Capacity Development
Scorecard1
2. Planning
TA
Strengthened
Revised NBSAP and 2
650,000
14
4,000,000 86
4,650,000
framework for
technical and
provincial BAPs;
biodiversity
regulatory
Capacity Development
conservation
environment and
Scorecard shows
M&E system for
improvement in planning
NBSAP
indicators.
implementation
3. Mainstreaming TA
Biodiversity
Biodiversity conservation
1,400,000 35
2,600,000
65 4,000,000
1
To be developed based on UNDP’s Capacity Development Group (CDG) Capacity Scorecard system.
PIF Template, August 9, 2007
1
of biodiversity
4. Enabling
framework for
market-based
payments for
environmental
services
conservation
mainstreamed into
national development
plans and
programmes
TA
5. Integration of TA
biodiversity
conservation into
climate change
adaptation
policies and plans
6. Project management
Total project costs
incorporated into EIA and
SEA procedures; NBSAP
utilised to develop sectoral
plans- particularly in the
Land Functional Zoning
Programme (LFZP); Pilot
Province implements BDfriendly LFZP
Improved knowledge Strengthened inter-agency 920,000
and systemic capacity coordination on PES;
on market-based PES national guideline
amongst policy
development;; Strengthened
makers and planners regulatory framework and
technical capacity for ecocompensation/PES
Decision-Makers
Biodiversity conservation
650,000
Nationally and in a incorporated into national
Selected Province
climate change adaptation
integrate biodiversity guidelines; National nature
conservation issues in conservation policies
climate change plans incorporate climate change
adaptation measures;
Sectoral plans in pilot
province incorporate
measures to adapt BD
conservation to climate
change impacts.
450,000
4,540,000
29
2,200,000
71
3,120,000
30
1,500,000
70
18
23
2,000,000 82
15,100,000 77
2,150,000
2,450,000
19,640,000
B. INDICATIVE FINANCING PLAN SUMMARY FOR THE PROJECT ($)
Project Preparation*
GEF Grant
Co-financing
Total
350,000*
500,000
850,000
Project
4,540,000
15,100,000
19,640,000
Agency Fee
454,000**
454,000**
Total
5,344,000
15,600,000
20,594,000
* PDF-B grant received from GEF-3
** This does not include 10% fee from PDF B Grant from GEF-3.
C. INDICATIVE CO-FINANCING FOR THE PROJECT BY SOURCE ($), IF AVAILABLE
Co-financing Source
Cash
Total co-financing
8,100,000
In-kind
7,000,000
Total
15,100,000
D. GEF RESOURCES REQUESTED BY FOCAL AREA(S), AGENCY (IES) SHARE AND COUNTRY(IES)*
Not applicable
PART II: PROJECT JUSTIFICATION
A. THE ISSUE, SOLUTIONS AND THE EXPECTED GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS:
1.
China has great ecosystems diversity – from its forests (over 340 types), wetlands, deserts, and agrobiodiverse landscapes to its coastal and marine ecosystems. The country straddles 3 WWF Ecoregions, and 4
global conservation hotspots identified by Conservation International. China has inscribed 10 natural World
2
PIF Template, August 9, 2007
Heritage Sites2 and 30 Ramsar Sites. Its 33,000 higher plant species constitute over 11 percent of global plant
species. It also hosts 3,862 fish species, 1,244 bird, 581 mammal, 376 reptile and 284 amphibian species. Over
10 percent of global marine species are found in China (20,000 plus marine species have been recorded). Up to
60 percent of the higher plant species in China are endemic, as are 667 of the vertebrates species found in the
country. Globally, China ranks first in bamboo species diversity, 3rd in overall plant diversity and 7th in
amphibian species diversity. The global significance of China’s biodiversity by the fact that the endowment
includes over 2900 globally threatened species3. Despite China’s efforts to protect biodiversity, biodiversity
remains under severe threat, primarily through overuse of species with commercial and/or subsistence value;
unsustainable land management leading to habitat degradation and clearance; and anthropogenic climate
change. The underlying causes of these threats include weak policy, legal and institutional frameworks for
conservation from national to local levels; poor institutional capacities and knowledge to conserve biodiversity
across production landscapes and poor integration of conservation needs and solutions into national sectoral
development plans and strategies.
2.
In this context, the Normative Solution for spearheading biodiversity conservation has been defined as “a
holistic national biodiversity framework, comprising supporting policies and capacitated institutions able to
drive and adapt biodiversity conservation within the national development agenda, and providing a quality
control mechanism for decentralised conservation efforts justified on the basis of subsidiarity.” Key barriers to
attain the Normative Solution include low national capacity to influence biodiversity-impacting sectors
(government and private), so that they accommodate conservation objectives; low capacity to coordinate
ongoing and planned biodiversity conservation initiatives; weaknesses in the policy framework and systems to
monitor progress; poor resource generation mechanisms and limited success in codifying and disseminating
lessons learnt. Past conservation support from international funding bodies, including the GEF, has been on
addressing spatial conservation priorities at the sub-national level, rather than addressing the systemic and
institutional capacity needs evident at the national level. It is realized that this approach is not delivering the
desired results, and is neither cost effective nor sustainable. This project has been developed under the China
Biodiversity Partnership and Framework for Action to address these key barriers so that other conservation
projects can focus on sector- or site-specific issues without being hindered by systemic national-level barriers.
3.
This project will support the implementation of CBPF. It will establish an effective biodiversity
conservation planning framework from the national to provincial levels. It will strengthen the State
Environment Protection Administration’s capacity to coordinate a critical mass of international and national
stakeholder action relevant to China’s biodiversity conservation. The project will establish mechanisms to
facilitate interactions between these stakeholders and the central government policy-makers to develop, test and
scale-up innovative approaches. The project will also establish a common framework to monitor CBPF’s
progress and to assess its achievements (including all projects developed under it) with regard to impacts onthe-ground. CBPF will strengthen resource mobilization potential by promoting market based Payment for
Ecosystem Services. The transparency and accountability created through CBPF is expected to ensure
additional resources allocation from partners and from other relevant work – such as climate change adaptation.
As in other parts of the world, climate change in China is predicted to shift the geographical distribution of
major forest types northward; increase the frequencies and intensities of forest fires and insect and disease
outbreaks; accelerate drying of inland lakes and reduce the extent of coastal wetlands. Climate change is already
causing rapid losses in glaciers and of permafrost in China’s high altitude ecosystems.4 Therefore, this project
will ensure the integration of biodiversity conservation issues within the planned national climate change
adaptation guidelines and demonstrate how to do this in the sectoral policies/plans in a province as a
demonstration.
4.
The project will generate several direct and indirect global environmental benefits. The project’s
influence on the climate change agenda will abet long-term conservation of biodiversity that is vulnerable to
climate change –including species such as the giant panda and the Yunnan snub-nose monkey. This project’s
influence on land zoning frameworks is expected to greatly promote conservation outside protected areas and
secure additional global biodiversity benefits. By strengthening the impacts and sustainability of conservation
2
Of the ten natural UNESCO World Heritage Sites, four of them are mixed cultural/natural.
IUCN 2006. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 12 July 2007.
4 http://en.ndrc.gov.cn/newsrelease/P020070604561191006823.pdf
3
PIF Template, August 9, 2007
3
investments in China – such as the rest of the biodiversity GEF RAF allocation for China and the 30 million
US$ European Union–China Biodiversity Programme working in 19 biodiversity-related field projects in
biodiversity-rich landscapes in Western China, the project will have even greater global conservation dividends.
B. CONSISTENCY OF THE PROJECT WITH NATIONAL PRIORITIES/PLANS :
5.
The CBPF constitutes China’s primary investment strategy for biodiversity conservation. It is consistent
with China’s 11th Five-Year National Socio-economic Development Plan (2006-2010) which specifies
“developing the recycling economy, protecting the environment and speeding up the construction of a resourcesaving and environment-friendly society” as one of its core strategies. This project is aligned with this agenda.
C. CONSISTENCY OF THE PROJECT WITH GEF STRATEGIES AND FIT WITH STRATEGIC PROGRAMS:
6.
The CBPF has been designed as an “Umbrella Programme” to support biodiversity conservation efforts in
China. This programmatic approach is highly relevant in the context of China, given its huge ecological and
socio-cultural heterogeneity, the complexity of conservation issues, and the great number of organizations
working on these issues. This Umbrella Programme is explicitly designed to contribute, in varying degrees, to
all four of the GEF’s Strategic Objectives for Biodiversity. This project’s primary role is to engender the
removal of national barriers to improved environmental governance in the arena of biodiversity conservation.
The project falls most directly within Strategic Objective 2 and Strategic Program 4, while component 4
addresses barriers to the establishment of biodiversity markets, which will contribute to Strategic Program 5.
D. OUTLINE THE COORDINATION WITH OTHER RELATED INITIATIVES:
7. The CBPF has been formulated by, and will be implemented through a multi-agency, multi-stakeholder
Partnership, which includes key Government line ministries, GEF Agencies, and international conservation
NGOs, and bilateral and multilateral partners5. All proposed GEF investments to be implemented by the World
Bank and ADB as well as UNDP will fall under CBPF. This is an opportune moment to spearhead this
initiative, as there is an increased awareness amongst policy makers on the linkages between the environment,
poverty reduction, economic growth and social stability in China, especially in light of recent natural disasters
(particularly floods). There is also an increased interest from all stakeholders to generate real conservation
impacts by optimising synergies between their works. A CBPF Steering Committee and a Partner Coordination
Group are being established, involving the GEF and its Implementing Agencies and key partners. The structure
and roles of these are described in the CBPF Programme Document being submitted concurrently with this PIF.
E. DESCRIBE THE INCREMENTAL REASONING OF THE PROJECT :
8. Under a business-as-usual scenario, biodiversity conservation in China will continue to be hindered by a
range of critical barriers, including inadequate coordination and collaboration between different biodiversity
programmes and the absence of mechanisms to mainstream conservation into national economic and sectoral
planning. GEF biodiversity investments in China will also continue to face systemic policy barriers nationally,
which individual sectoral or sub-national projects cannot effectively address. The alternative scenario planned
under the CBPF leverages GEF financing to catalyse a strategic national programme to mainstream biodiversity
conservation priorities into a range of national development planning processes, across the protected area
system as well as in different production sectors and landscapes. Under the baseline, natural resource
management in China will focus on maximising the provision of ecological products and services, without
effectively addressing the conservation of globally significant biodiversity. GEF investments in China would
continue to be programmed as individual projects addressing specific spatial or sectoral issues, with limited
overall impact. The proposed alternative ensures that present and future GEF investments in China achieve
greater catalytic impact and reach, and help to institutionalise the programming of GEF investments within the
Government development framework. The longer-term global environmental benefits, through the China
Biodiversity Partnership and Framework (CBPF) are projected as follows:
 at least 10% of the total hectares of each major habitat type, as indicated on global priority lists, is covered by
protected areas and 20% managed as EFCA.
 At least 30% of protected areas linked by managed corridors.
5
Membership currently consists of 18 institutions; GEF Agencies represented include the World Bank, ADB, UNDP and UNEP.
PIF Template, August 9, 2007
4
 Population stabilization of number of key species threatened by hunting , including globally threatened
species
 40% increase in globally threatened species’ habitats covered by the nature reserve system
 25% increase of tropical rain forest and monsoon rain forest protected under nature reserves in Hainan and
Yunnan provinces (which are globally important habitats harbouring several globally important species)
These achievements will not be possible without the institutional strengthening and capacity development to
implement the CBPF this project is proposing to undertake.
F. RISKS
Risks
Disconnect between national policy
and local implementation
Rating
Medium
Dispersed responsibilities for
biodiversity conservation across
many government agencies at all
levels
Poor buy in by other line Ministries
and agencies to mainstreaming
biodiversity conservation
Medium
Market –based PES do not develop
despite the development of
regulations and guidelines
Medium
Medium
Mitigation Measures
The project focus is largely on national policy and institutional
strengthening, but work on some components will involve subnational activities– such as BAP formulation, and integration of
biodiversity concerns into the Land Functional Zoning
Programme and climate change adaptation plans. Other partners’
programmes/ projects under the CBPF are expected to replicate
the lessons from this project across China.
It is expected that the multi-stakeholder coordination process of
the project will help clarify overlaps and gaps in responsibilities
and contribute to a longer-term institutional rearrangement and/
or realignment of responsibilities.
The programme formulation was done through a participatory
process to ensure buy-in from all key sectoral agencies. The
project will help to strengthen the high-level cross-sectoral
biodiversity coordination mechanism, which will ensure stronger
high-level political support. All international partners will also be
involved in ensuring that such support is achieved. However,
overcoming institutional rigidities will be a particularly important
challenge for this project. The strong involvement of the Ministry
of Finance in this project is also expected to help obtain “buy in”
from other government agencies.
There are currently several attempts to promote Market-Based
PES in China. However, considerable work will be required to
assess the sustainability and wide replicability of such approaches
nationally. This project will not test any PES but will help to
develop guidelines at this stage.
G. DESCRIBE, IF POSSIBLE, THE EXPECTED COST-EFFECTIVENESS OF THE PROJECT:
9.
The project proposes to leverage a relatively small GEF investment, together with significant Government
co-financing, to ensure that national and international conservation investments over the coming decade achieve
greater impact. GEF resources are being targeted at key catalytic opportunities such as mainstreaming
biodiversity conservation into the national land-use and economic planning processes and unlocking the
potential of payments for ecological services, while procedural aspects such as Secretariat operations, revision
of strategy documents and guidelines, etc. are largely co-financed by Government agencies. The project will
bring about significant improvement of institutional coordination and will reduce duplication in actions to
reduce diffusion of efforts. The project will also provide a hitherto absent framework for knowledge distillation
and dissemination across projects and sectors, ensuring that good practices are codified and applied, rather than
relearned. These actions are expected to enhance the overall cost effectiveness of conservation interventions.
H. JUSTIFY THE GEF AGENCY COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE
10. UNDP in China is extremely well positioned to implement this project – it has a team of dedicated
professionals working on environmental issues and has played a significant role in donor coordination for
5
PIF Template, August 9, 2007
biodiversity conservation, and has considerable experience on promoting multi agency partnerships.
PART III: APPROVAL/ENDORSEMENT BY GEF OPERATIONAL FOCAL POINTS AND GEF AGENCIES
A. RECORD OF ENDORSEMENT OF GEF OPERATIONAL FOCAL POINT (S) ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT
Mr. Wu Jinkang, GEF Operational Focal
Point, Ministry of Finance, P.R. China
Date:August 24, 2007
B. GEF AGENCY(IES) CERTIFICATION
This request has been prepared in accordance with GEF policies and procedures and meets the GEF
criteria for project identification and preparation.
John Hough
UNDP/GEF Officer-in-Charge
Date: September 14, 2007)
Sameer Karki
Project Contact Person
Tel. and Email:sameer.karki@undp.org
++662 288 2729
6
PIF Template, August 9, 2007