503476 - GEF Mongolia Egin-Uur Watershed Conservation Initiative

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Environmental Review Summary

Project Number

503476

Date ERS Disclosed

Mar 27, 2003

Country

Mongolia

Region

East Asia and the Pacific

Environmental Category

B - Limited

Status

Completed

Sector

Other (For Non-Investment Projects)

Industry

Infrastructure

Department

Advisory Services

Project Description

The Conservation of the Eg-Uur Watershed project aims to establish a partnership among the local communities, government institutions and bodies, and tourism companies to collaboratively and proactively establish a natural resource management regime for the Eg-Uur Watershed Area (EUWA) in the north-western region of Mongolia. The financial sustainability and biodiversity conservation vehicle for the project is high-end, low impact catch and release flyfishing ecotourism. The underlying rationale of the project is to treat wildlife as a locally managed concessionable natural resource, rather than as a simple public good, thereby enabling the local communities to maximize the economic returns from its use. Revenues from ecotourism concessions will be used to fund a collaborative management system for the Eg-Uur and alternative livelihood development for the local communities. The Collaborative Management System (CMS), which will provide the necessary funding and management capacity, is based on a Public-Private Partnership model: the GEF-led financing enables the implementing organization, a Mongolian NGO called the Taimen Conservation Fund (TCF), to sustainably manage the conservation activities of the EUWA as a trustee on behalf of the local communities. The TCF has already been initiated by the Sponsors, Sweetwater Travel and Hovsgol Travel.

Environmental and Social

The sponsors have presented plans to address these impacts to ensure that the proposed project will, upon implementation of the specific measures agreed, comply with applicable host country laws and regulations and World Bank/IFC requirements. The information about how these potential impacts will be addressed by the sponsor is summarized in the paragraphs that follow.

Economic and physical displacement. The project will reduce the current, unsustainable harvests of fish and game in the watersheds, including the commercial harvesting of the taimen (Hucho taimen). The taimen is a salmonoid, and the Eg-Uur population is considered threatened. The project will reduce the sports fishing take by creating concession areas with mandatory catch and release fishing for most species. Currently, sports fishing enterprises along the river are unregulated, and catch and release is voluntary. The project will also support enforcement against commercial poachers from outside the watershed. The level of fishing and hunting by local communities will also be reduced to sustainable levels. Currently local people do fish and hunt for commerical sale. Use of fisheries resources in the area is recent as Buddhist beliefs prevented local residents from fishing. Fishing was introduced by Russians during the long period of cooperation between the two countries and following the destruction of the Buddhist monasteries in the area. The proposed EUW management plan will set aside specific areas along the river for use by local communities. Commercial hunting is also recent and reflects both the low socio-economic conditions of the area and the opening of an animal parts trade. At the same time that the project is bringing harvests to sustainable levels, it will develop and underwrite economic alternatives to replace lost income.

Indigenous groups. The local population is made up of the ubiquitous Mongol ethnic group.

Collaborative management. The project has resulted from consultation meetings in June of 2001 and June of 2002 in which representatives from local communities, bags, met with local and national government officials to develop the proposed collaborative management structure. The meeting was held at Lake Hogsval. A key feature of the collaborative management structure, the districts councils, is intended to provide continuing representative participation in the project by local inhabitants and resource users. The project will also bring together for the first time, distinct social groups from different watersheds into a single decision-making entity.

Law enforcement. The project will support training of local rangers. Though local government will continue to have responsibility for law enforcement, the project will aim to provide technical capacity and financial support on an as needed basis.Local government will continue to have responsibility for law enforcment. Law enforcement itself will be placed within a general framework of community development, public education, and local consultation. Project support will be dependent on the application of appropriate levels of response to resource and personal threats, due process and human rights standards. The project will assist in the installation of rules of engagement for enforcement action and will include those rules in the training of local rangers.

Regional and Cumulative Impacts. Currently, the watershed lacks a coherent management system. The proposed management structure, which includes district councils and a regional board, would provide a needed organizational structure for addressing regional and cumulative impacts. Funding from the TCF will provide financial resources and management for the effort, train council members in environmental laws and resource management, carry out ecosystem studies, and assist in the development of a Resource Management Plan. The foundation will also provide technical assistance for these activies. Thus, the project will address the key problems developing from regional and cumulative impacts.

Monitoring and evaluation. The project will carry out annual biological assessments of the key fish species in the watershed. Alternative livelihood projects will be monitored to ensure that they provide viable and sustainable incomes to those currently using fishing and hunting for outside income. All project activities will be evaluated annually for their contributions to the protection of biodiversity in the watershed.
Environmental and social management. The TCF will develop environmental and social policies that reflect World Bank/IFC policy and guidelines. These policies and guidelines will apply equally to the operations of the TCF, the concessionaires (as TCF will seek to ensure that the concessionaire requirements include environmental and social standards), and the activities of entities to which it provides funding. TCF will carry out an environmental and social due diligence of concessionaires and funding recipients to ensure that they can meet these policies and guidelines. Additionally, the TCF will monitor their activities to ensure compliance.

Conclusion & Monitoring

This Environmental Review Summary (ERS) is prepared and distributed in advance of the IFC Board of Directors' consideration of the proposed transaction. Its purpose is to enhance the transparency of IFC’s activities, and this document should not be construed as presuming the outcome of the Board of Director’s decision. Any documentation that is attached to this ERS has been prepared by the project sponsor or in conjunction with the project sponsor and authorization has been given for public release. IFC has reviewed this documentation and considers that it is of adequate quality to be released to the public but does not endorse the content. The following ERS is disclosed in accordance with IFC's Disclosure of Information Policy that went into effect September 1998.

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