INTEGRATED SAFEGUARDS DATA SHEET CONCEPT STAGE Report No.: ISDSC310 Public Disclosure Copy Date ISDS Prepared/Updated: 23-Nov-2011 I. BASIC INFORMATION A. Basic Project Data Country: World Project ID: P113794 Project Name: Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Strategic Ecosystem Management GEF Project (P Task Team Leader: Tracy Hart Estimated Appraisal Date: 07-Feb-2012 Estimated Board Date: 24-Jul-2012 Managing Unit: MNSSD Lending Instrument: Specific Investment Loan Focal Area: International waters Sector: General agriculture, fishing and forestry sector (70%), Public administration- Agriculture, fishing and forestry (30%) Theme: Other environment and natural resources management (25%), Water resource management (25%), Environmental policies and institutions ( 24%), Participation and civic engagement (13%), Biodiversity (13%) Financing (In USD Million) Financing Source Amount BORROWER/RECIPIENT 8.00 Global Environment Facility (GEF) 3.00 Foreign Private Commercial Sources (identified) 2.00 Financing Gap 1.00 Total 13.00 Environmental Category: B - Partial Assessment Is this a Repeater project? No B. Global Environmental Objective(s) Public Disclosure Copy The proposed global environmental objective (GEO) is the protection of vital marine habitats and fish stocks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (RSGA) Large Marine Ecosystem (LME).The proposed project development objective (PDO) is to support transition from current practices to an ecosystem-based management (EBM) approach by demonstrating its added value through institutional enforcement as well as on the ground activities in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. C. Project Description The Proposed Project will comprise the following four components: Component 1: Strengthening the principles of marine managed areas. (GEF US $1,400,000; co-financing US $12,200,000) Component 1 will bring selected MMAs from an identified status to a statusof designated MMA which is operational and protected in practicality. For this purpose the component includes provision of training and demonstration effects necessary to implement, use and update marine areas management in each national implementing agency affiliated in the PERSGA network. This component also focuses on improving the capacity of project countries to share information and select marine protected/managed area models (MPAs/MMAs) based on their area(s) of comparative advantage. Component 1 is expected to be implemented through the following activities: # Implement master plans of selected MPAs that have been identified but not put in effect yet # including development of legal status for MPAs; # Identify potential MMAs and demonstrate alternative management models, such as: 1. Community based management of MPA; 2. Small scale environmentally friendly aquaculture; 3. Eco-tourism; 4. Other alternative livelihoods as relevant. # Build capacity of institutions and community stakeholders involved in MPAs # Develop a handbook for indicators of governance, ecological and socioeconomic performance of MMAs specific to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, i.e. in Arabic and with specific local examples. # Update management systems for the existing Marine Protected Areas Network through an assessment of habitats health and status; Component 2: Implementation of ecosystem based management approach to living marine resources (GEF US $700,000; co-financing US $16,000,000) Component 2 will provide the institutional, legal, and technical capacity underpinnings needed for communities to transition to an ecosystem-based management (EBM) approach for cultivating living marine resources. EBM approach will be piloted in selected areas, which will allow communities to gain an integrated view and to understand all uses of a coastal area, trade-offs in its development and costs and benefits to the community. Component 2 is expected to be implemented through the following three activities; Public Disclosure Copy # Development of institutional and a legal framework for ecosystem-based management (EBM) of marine living resources at the community level. # Implementation of relevant EBM demonstrations at community management levels based on national priorities. # Establishing a baseline for current uses and their impacts on the ecosystem; # Technical strengthening and improvement of technology and practices of relevant fisheries and aquaculture industries, related to community monitoring of species# life cycles to collect information that directly informs communities on fisheries activities. Component 3: Optimizing and integrating monitoring activities. (GEF US $650,000; co-financing US $3,400,000) Ecosystem-based management (EBM) is basically scientifically informed management. Moving from single-species capture to ecosystem management, including monitoring of ecosystem functioning and response to development, entails a need for significantly more sophisticated monitoring. Both EBM and MMA area pilots will be monitored during the project, which will enhance the capacity of PERSGA and the involved pilot member countries with their communities to do so. In addition to creating baselines from current monitoring activities this component will introduce environmental monitoring in the demonstration sites as well as in the MMAs to be brought into implementation. Component 3 is expe cted to be implemented through the following activities: # Collection of available data from current monitoring activities for enriching a regional database of environmental ecosystem variables; # Set up special environmental monitoring programs for MMAs and sites that will be developed as demonstration activities in the project. # Strengthen monitoring and assessment concerning land-based activities and their impacts on coastal ecosystems. Component 4: Project Management (GEF US $250,000; co-financing US $2,650,000) This component is expected to support the GEF project in terms of administration, including procurement and financial management. The project will be housed within PERSGA. The project will comply with GEF IW reporting, e.g. to post a GEF-IW compliant webpage, submit a GEF IW tracking tool at project start, Mid-Term Review, and project closure, post information with IW-LEARN as necessary and attend GEF IW Biennial Conferences. Steering Committee travel costs associated with this project are expected to be paid by the GEF project funding. Otherwise note that this component is co-funded 10:1 by PERSGA country contributions. D. Project location and salient physical characteristics relevant to the safeguard analysis (if known) The project as it is being defined during preparation is to transition to an ecosystem-based management system for living marine resources. This encourages income diversification and greater income equality. For those with large trawlers conducting single-fishery capture, this ecosystem- based management may threaten their livelihoods and their incomes from trawling. For those smaller-scale fisherman who currently fish with netting in open seas, creating and/or enforcing marine protected and/or managed areas may lead to a decrease in their living marine-based Public Disclosure Copy income as well. The creation of alternative livelihoods to supplement and/or shift away from a sole fishery based income may shift how income is earned between men and women in a household and/or in communities, changing power dynamics in community decision-making. The known physical location at this time is the entirety of the Red Sea Basin and Gulf of Aden, along it is expected that the project will narrow down to already-identified marine protected/managed areas, their buffer zones, and several coastal fishing communities in each of the PERSGA member countries. E. Borrowers Institutional Capacity for Safeguard Policies PERSGA does not employ safeguards specialists on staff. However, it has experience working with several partners, e.g. a preceding World Bank GEF project, as well as other UN projects, who have their own safeguard policies. PERSGA bring its own strengths of capacity building, stakeholder inclusion, and fostering institutional sustainability in to project design. This project will need to work with PERSGA to decide how best for PERSGA to incorporate Bank-specific safeguards design and implementation support into its own capacities, whether as consultants, PMU staff, or as full-time staff who incorporate such knowledge into his/her own work flow. F. Environmental and Social Safeguards Specialists on the Team Nina Bhatt (MNSSO) Nicolas Kotschoubey (MNSEN) Ioana Monica Dorhoi (MNSUR) II. SAFEGUARD POLICIES THAT MIGHT APPLY Safeguard Policies Triggered Yes No TBD Explanation Environmental Assessment OP/BP 4.01 ✖ The project will deliver mostly capacity building and policy support. Investments are only foreseen for supporting monitoring (e.g. monitoring technology) Natural Habitats OP/BP 4.04 ✖ The exact locations are still unknown but the MMAs and EBM areas will include sensitive coastal areas for living marine resources Forests OP/BP 4.36 ✖ Safeguard Policies Triggered Yes No TBD Explanation Pest Management OP 4.09 ✖ Physical Cultural Resources OP/BP 4.11 ✖ Public Disclosure Copy Indigenous Peoples OP/BP 4.10 ✖ Involuntary Resettlement OP/BP 4.12 ✖ OP4.12 may be triggered by the pilot sites and MMAs - for those with engaged in fishery, decisions taken by communities transitioning to ecosystem-based management may threaten their livelihoods and their incomes from trawling, Or with netting in open seas; creating and/or enforcing marine protected and/or managed areas may lead to a decrease in their living marine-based income as well. Safety of Dams OP/BP 4.37 ✖ Projects on International Waterways OP/BP ✖ 7.50 Projects in Disputed Areas OP/BP 7.60 ✖ III. SAFEGUARD PREPARATION PLAN A. Tentative target date for preparing the PAD Stage ISDS: 05-Dec-2011 B. Time frame for launching and completing the safeguard-related studies that may be needed. The specific studies and their timing1 should be specified in the PAD-stage ISDS: The project consists essentially in technical assistance and capacity building activities; however; considering the nature of the subject and the potential indirect safeguards implications this project is considered environmental category B according to the Bank environmental assessment policy OP 4.01. Because of the TA nature of the project the safeguards requirement would be applied in a flexible way, i.e. through an environmental assessment (and a Social Assessment) that could be done during project implementation and included as one of the output from this operation. IV. APPROVALS Signed and submitted by: Task Team Leader: Name: Tracy Hart Date: 28-Nov-2011 Approved By: Regional Safeguards Coordinator: Name: Hocine Chalal (RSA) Date: 30-Nov-2011 Public Disclosure Copy Comments: Sector Manager: Name: Hoonae Kim (SM) Date: 01-Dec-2011 Comments: approved 1 Reminder: The Bank's Disclosure Policy requires that safeguard-related documents be disclosed before appraisal (i) at the InfoShop and (ii) in country, at publicly accessible locations and in a form and language that are accessible to potentially affected persons.