Page 1 Xining Flood and Watershed Management Project P101829 Ethnic Minority Development Plan Xining Municipal Project Management Office West China Development Research Center Ethnic Minority Study Center of China Central University of Nationalities (The Minzu University of China) February 2009 IPP350 Page 2 1 Table of Contents Executive Summary..................................................................................................1 1. Project Overview...................................................................................................3 1.1 Project Description ........................................................................................................3 1.2 Relevance of the Project to the Local Ethnic Minorities............................................4 1.3 The Necessity to Trigger EMDP ...................................................................................5 2. The Legal and Institutional Framework...............................................................6 2.1 Corresponding Chinese Laws and Regulations...........................................................6 2.2 Regulations and Systems by Project Area....................................................................6 2.3 Updated Policies and Measures....................................................................................7 2.4 Summary.........................................................................................................................7 3. Baseline Survey of Ethnic Minorities ...................................................................8 3.1 Population and Distribution of the Ethnic Minorities................................................8 3.2 History, Culture and Livelihood of Ethnic Minorities..............................................10 3.2.1 The Tibetan............................................................................................................................10 3.2.2 The Hui..................................................................................................................................18 3.3 Ethnic Relations in the Project Area..........................................................................23 4. Overall Social Assessment...................................................................................25 5. The Free, Prior & Informed Consultation..........................................................27 5.1 Result in the preparation phase of the project..........................................................27 5.2 Consultation Framework: During the Construction................................................39 6. The potential impact & Rights Protection...........................................................40 6.1 The potential impact of this project............................................................................40 6.1.1 The Local people’s Understanding of the Positive and Negative Effects..............................40 6.1.2 Potential Positive and Negative Effects.................................................................................40 6.2 Plan and Measures to Guarantee and improve the rights and interests of Local Ethnic Minorities ...............................................................................................................41 6.2.1 Cultural adaptability of this project.......................................................................................41 6.2.2 Participation and Planned Actions.........................................................................................42 6.3 Measures to Reduce Potential Negative Effects ........................................................44 6.3.1 Measures to check negative effects & benefit anylysis 3...................................................44 6.3.2 Action plan for reducing the adverse effects..........................................................................45 6.4 Case Study: EMDP for a Community........................................................................47 Page 3 2 6.4.1 Background in Erma village..................................................................................................47 6.4.2 Perceptions of Tibetan Villagers on Their Development.......................................................48 6.4.2.1 Ethnic consciousness and Cultural Characteristics............................................48 6.4.2.2 Perceptions of Tibetan Villagers on Their Development....................................48 6.4.2.3 Activities and Impacts of Project and Demands of Villagers.............................49 6.4.2.4 EMDP and the Benefit Analysis............................................................................52 6.5 The financing plan in EMDP ......................................................................................55 6.5.1 Principles...............................................................................................................................55 6.5.2 The Ratio for Each Party.......................................................................................................56 6.5.3 Funds calculation in EMDP...................................................................................................56 7 Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E).....................................................................58 7.1 Responsible M&E Agencies.........................................................................................58 7.2 Indicator System of M&E ...........................................................................................58 7.2.1 The focuses of M&E..............................................................................................................58 7.2.2 M&E Baseline information....................................................................................................59 7.3 Appeal Mechanism.......................................................................................................59 7.4 M&E Cycle and Information Publicity......................................................................60 Page 4 1 Executive Summary Based on field research, the SA taskforce confirms that the local ethnic minorities in the Project Area are in the category of World Bank Policies (especially the OP4.10), and thus the borrower should trig an EMDP, together with the following conclusions: (1) The local terrain and climate trigger torrents easily and local residents remember the severe consequences clearly. The local ecological environment is fragile and some urban surface runoff is seriously polluted. Therefore, this project is timely and necessary. (2) The plan and design of the project proposed by the Xining City Government based on local situation and previous experiences are practical. Similar projects have been implemented and relevant measures were taken with good results. The project office has paid adequate attention to mobilize the local residents for ensuring their right of being informed. (3) Most of the local residents support this project and express their enthusiasm and desire to participate in it, in order to remove the threat of torrents, flood and soil erosion. They are eager to improve their environment and restore ecological balance. (4) There are some ethnic Hui, Tibetan and Tu minorities as local residents. The Hui & Tibetans are directly affected by the project. They distribute in 21 communities and concentrated in 8. Such project items as the check dam, sediment dam, retaining wall, terracing (changing slope to terraced land) etc. will effectively reduce soil erosion and remove the threat of flash floods from the minority communities. Forestation and forest rehabilitation in seedling growing period (the first 3 years) will require livelihood activities such as restricted grazing is the major negative influence to the local ethnic minorities. However, such items as livestock sheds transformation, breeding development, methane-generating pit, solar cooker and rural road improvement and other activities proposed by local minority communities according to their life experience will not only alleviate the negative impact of the project, but also will improve the living and working condition of the local residents. Over 94% of the locals support the project (5) The current ethnic minority policies and regulations in China are consistent with those of the World Bank. Both provide legal guarantee for EMDP and no new policy is needed. (6) The ethnic relations in the project area is harmonious and there is a good foundation to carry out EMDP. Government and local resident communities in the project area have the capacity and enthusiasm to carry out the project and implement the EMDP. (7) The project has no direct adverse effects on women, children, the old & the poor. The Project and EMDP to protect local ecological environment and improve infrastructures in the local communities is favorable for livelihood improvement of all the local residents. Page 5 2 The EMDP developed by the borrower has 7 points stated in the following seven chapters: Chapter 1: A brief introduction of the project which includes project component items and its relevance with ethnic minorities, and thus the necessity to trigger an EMDP. There are Tibetan, Hui, Mongolian, Tu, and others live in the project area. Tibetans and the Hui have compact communities and thus in line with the WB’s definition of ‘ethnic minority’. Although there is no land requisition, house demolition or resettlement in the minority communities according to the plan, the large area forestation and forest rehabilitation will affect livestock raising of the local rural residents. Therefore, there must be some appropriate measures to ensure that the local ethnic can benefit from the project to satisfy the ethnic policies of China and that of the WB. Chapter 2: A brief introduction and analysis of the legal and institutional framework of EMDP and its assessment on the existing Chinese laws and regulations, WB’s relevant policies, etc. Chapter3: A summary of the baseline information of ethnic minorities in the project area, including their population size and distribution pattern, the history, culture and livelihood features of local Tibetans and the Hui, and the local ethnic relations. Chapter 4: Summarizing the SA report with the conclusion that the project will not trigger problems such as ethnic relations, religious and cultural sensitivity, and the rights and interests of local ethnic minorities should be promoted. . Chapter 5: Providing an arrangement on the free, prior, pre-knowledge & unlimited consultations during the all the project stages. Chapter 6: Analyzing the potential impact of project and suggesting measures to cope with them. It reveals the potential negative or positive impact foresaw by the community residents, the actual impacts, the action list to ensure that the community residents having access to the relevant decision-making process, the case introduction and analysis to check the adverse impact, and the fund raising mechanism for the EMDP. Chapter 7: Specific arrangements for monitoring and assessment of the project and its EMDP, including the body, the stakeholder, the index system, the cycle and information open for supervising and assessment; the complaining system for community residents, etc. Page 6 3 1. Project Overview 1.1 Project Description The Xining Flood Control and Watershed Management Project (hereinafter the Project) is a World Bank loaning project based on the previous achievements of Xining City in flood and water pollution control and city beautification programs with the following aims: upgrading flood control and drainage capacity of the city, improving the ecological status of the Huangshui River basin and safeguarding the lives and properties of local people. The Project is a comprehensive one, covering 4 districts and 3 counties of Xining City and involving 3 valleys, 1 River and 28 gullies in the ecological improvement activities. As a result of discussion between the Xining PMO and the World Bank preparation mission, the project would consist of such three components as flood control and management, small watershed management and sewerage collection. The Flood control and management would fund dike strengthening and river and gully improvement (river improvement totals 53.763 km in length and gully improvement totals 35.006 km), wetland improvement, river bank tree-planting and flood forecasting and warning system (in support of the development flood forecasting, warning and emergency alarming system of Xining City, including the institutional strengthening for the Flood Prevention and Drought Control Office of Xining city ). The Small watershed management component would fund 4 kinds of activities, i.e., slope cultivated land improvement, silt retention structures, gully improvement structures and auxiliary measures, involving 17 small watershed of 3 counties and covering a total area of 284.94 km 2 , of which eroded area amounts to 250.98km 2 , or 88.1% of the total. The Wastewater collection component will fund the following items: 1) construction of sewerage interception and collection works along rivers in Xining city; 2)improvement of storm water drainage system in Xiaoqiao district of Xining City and construction of 11km of sewage interception and collection works along the urban section of Beichun and Dongxia rivers in Datong County; 3) improvement of drainage and sewerage interception works of Huangzhong County; 4) rehabilitation and extension of drainage system of Qiaotou township of Datong County. In Addition, to ensure the goals, the Project will also develop the following items: 1) Project Management, performed by the PMO and its expert panel, such as preliminary and final design of the Project; preparation of tendering documents; construction monitoring and quality control; supervising and evaluation; development of MIS; financial management, etc.; 2) Implementation of RAP; 3) Environmental Management, i.e. implementation of EMP. Page 7 4 The static investment of the Project amounts to 1.103 billion RMB, including World Bank loan of ? million RMB and counterpart funds of Xining City totaling ? million RMB, in the ratio of ?:?. The three counties counterpart funds include the inputs of local labors, the affluent and well-of households investment in their livelihood improvement projects such as livestock sheds building, raising, methane- generating pits and solar stoves etc. The Huangshui River is the biggest branch of the Yellow River at its upper stream and its basin is the most densely populated and economically developed area in the Qinghai Province. Xining City is the political, economic, cultural & traffic center of Qinghai Province. The project is of great significance to reduce pollution in the upstream of the Yellow River, to enhance flood control capacity of Xining City, to improve the ecological situation and the living environment in the river basin, to protect life and property of residents for the development of the whole Province. The project area refers to the areas where the project is implemented. The economic, social conditions and planned engineering measures in the project area, production and livelihood features of the local communities and the residents, as well as their needs relating to project activities is listed in the attached tables 2-5. 1.2 Relevance of the Project to the Local Ethnic Minorities Xining city lies in the Huangshui Valley in the north-eastern corner of the Qinghai Province, where the agricultural and animal husbandry have co-existed since the ancient time. Xining City has been the political and economic center to govern the western frontier area and manage land reclamation by the Chinese central governments since the Han Dynasty. Several thousand years of development has turned the area into a multi-ethnic area, with Tibetan as the native and Han, Tu, Hui, and Mongolian as immigrants of different times. At the end of 2006, the population of Xining City totaled 2.1273 million, accounting for 38.84% of the total population of the province, and population of Tibetan, Mongolian, Manzu, Sarah and other 37 ethnic minorities amounts to 543385, accounting for over 1/4 of the City’s total. Xining City has 5 districts (eastern, middle, western, northern and southern districts) and 3 counties: Datong, Huangzhong, Huangyuan.counties, with 50 townships (27 urban ones and 23 rural, 6 of them are ethnic townships). One of the 3 counties, Datong, is a Hui and Tu Autonomous County. Datong itself has 3 Tibetan townships (Dongxia, Shuobei and Liangjiao). The small watersheds in Datong, Huangyuan and Huangzhong , where eco-mprovement activities are to be implemented, some ethnic minorities are involved (see Attachment Table 3). Altogether, 21 communities have native ethnic minority people and 8 communities with ethnic minority dominance (See Table 3 of Section 2.3.1 and Table 4 of Section 2.3.2 of this report. The Tibetan communities in the project area are Dongxia, Liangjiao, and Qiaotou townships in Datong County, Chengguan, Bohang townships in Huangyuan County, and Lushaer town in Huangzhong County, Although statistics shows some Tu, Salar and Mongolian and other ethnic population, they are mainly urban residents, a few are rural population due to job and marriage, etc. Therefore, the EMDP in this project is mainly for Hui and Tibetan people. Page 8 5 1.3 The Necessity to Trigger EMDP There are seven Hui Muslim villages in Datong and one Tibetan village in the project area. In the other 14 communities of Datong and Huangzhou, there are Hui and Tibetans lived in mixture. . These Hui and Tibetan have developed symbiosis with the localities. The Hui live around the mosques and the Tibetans, Buddhist Monasteries. These people are defined as ethnic minority people by Chinese government and also comply with the def inition of ‘ethnic minority’ by the World Bank’s. The project activities in the above mentioned areas will include implementation of ecological and engineering measures like forestation, check dam terrace construction aiming at reducing soil erosion. These measures will protect the lives, property and ensure sustainable development of the local people by protecting against and mitigating flood disasters. On the other hand, they will inevitably impact on production and living of the local people in certain areas, for instance, for implementation of forestation activities, the grazing activity should be restricted during seedling growing season in forestation area (normally this will take 3 years), and, as a result, the traditional grazing and animal raising approach will be controlled to some extent. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate and implement the EMDP to strengthen the leading role of the Project in stimulating the economic and social development of ethnic minorities and minimizing possible adverse impacts of the Project, so as to fully realize the objective of protecting and enhancing rights of the ethnic minorities as required in the policies of both Chinese Government and the World Bank. Baseline situation of ethnic minorities in the project area would be known clearly in Chapter 3. Page 9 6 2. The Legal and Institutional Framework 2.1 Corresponding Chinese Laws and Regulations China is a unitary multiethnic country. Chinese government is obliged to pay special attention to ensure equal rights and interests of ethnic minorities in political and legal lives. I t respects minority groups’ will of maintaining and inheriting their traditional cultures and has taken many measures to help them speed up economic and social development as well as protecting their cultures. It spares no effort to ensure the right of ethnic minorities of using their languages and writings in political and social lives, including in lawsuits, elementary education, etc, and safeguards freedom of religious beliefs of all citizens including ethnic minorities. The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Regional National Autonomy and Regulations on Religious Affairs have stated clearly of this. On the rights and obligations of stakeholders in the project implementation, there is complete set of existing laws and regulations by the governments and departments at all levels in the regulating process. For instances, T he Law of People’s Republic of China on Tendering and Bidding (January 1, 2000) can govern project formulation and tendering and bidding. There is also a set of laws and regulations to regulate land acquisition and house demolition in the Project, including the Law of P. R. C. on Land Management (August 28, 2004), Law of the P. R. C. on Land Contract in Rural Areas (March 1, 2003), Property Law of the P. R. C. (March 16, 2007); On environmental safety and ecological protection, the governing laws and regulations include the Environmental Protection Law of the P. R .C. (December 26, 1989) , Law on Environmental Impact Assessment in P. R. C (September 1, 2003), Forest Law of the P. R. C. (1998) , Law of the P. R. C. on Water and Soil Conservation (1991), Law of the P. R. C. on Prevention and Control of Water Pollution (May 15, 1996). There are also Detailed Rules for Implementing the Law of P. R. C. on Prevention and Control of Water Pollution (March 24,2000), Law of the P. R. C. on Protection of Cultural Relics(October 28, 2002), Detailed Rules for Implementing the Law of P. R. C. on Protection of Cultural Relics (May 1992), Rules on Returning Farmland to Forests (January 20, 2003) ,etc . 2.2 Regulations and Systems by Project Area The Qinghai Province, Xining City and government at all levels in the project area have made policies and regulations according to the national laws and regulations and in light of the local situation. Datong Hui and Tu Autonomic County has issued Page 10 7 autonomic regulations in 1990. Other special policies and regulations issued by government include Some Policies and Measures to Further Strength Work on Energy-saving and Emission Reduction issued by Qinghai provincial people's government (July 19, 2007), Management Methods for Water and Soil Conservation in Xining City (August 27, 2001), Methods to Prevent and Control Environment Pollution in Residential Area of Xining City (July 1, 2001), Management Regulations on Housing Removal in Xining City (September 20, 2002), and Planning and Management Regulations on Xining City (July 24, 1998), etc. 2.3 Updated Policies and Measures The Chinese central government stresses that the developed areas should help the developing areas, and the Han should help ethnic minorities. The central government has implemented the poverty alleviation and west China development strategies separately in1980s and 1990s. To reverse the trend of increasing deterioration of ecological environment, the central government has been making great efforts to implement programs including ‘returning farmland to forest and grassland’ in west China because it is the ecological shelter of the whole country. In recent years, the national government has been vigorously improving the social security situation of urban and rural residents, for example implementing the basic living substance allowance for low-income groups and promoting new type of cooperative medical care system in rural areas to solve the problem of getting timely medical services; and implementing the policy of transfer payment from the central government to national level poor counties, eight provinces (including Qinghai) and autonomous regions with bigger proportion of ethnic minority peoples. Other than that, the national government has implanted the policy of whole village promotion to help the poor get rid of poverty. Meanwhile, the government is trying to speed up construction of rural material and spiritual civilization through implementing new socialist countryside construction program. Decision on Several Serious Issues Concerning Reform and Development Promoting in Rural Areas passed by the Third Session of 17 th Central Committee of CPC has stated clearly about how to stabilize land management and contract for a long time, how to ensure the profits of peasants in land management, how to improve technology training of peasants and how to readjust structure of rural industry. 2.4 Summary The current laws of the Chinese central and local government have considered sufficiently and stated clearly on how to ensure basic rights of citizens, on how to maintain political and legal equality as well as promote economic development and cultural prosperity of ethnic minorities and on how to ensure the right of ethnic minorities of using their languages and characters and freedom of religious beliefs. These laws and systems are completely consistent with the spirit of World Bank Safeguard Policy, especially Policies for Ethnic Minority (OP4.10). Page 11 8 3. Baseline Survey of Ethnic Minorities 3.1 Population and Distribution of the Ethnic Minorities According to statistics, population and distribution of ethnic minorities are shown in the following table (for more details see attachment Table 3): Table1: Population and Distribution of Ethnic Minorities in Xining City in 2000,2006 Tibetan Hui Tu Sala Mongolian Other ethnic minorities District County 2000 2006 2000 2006 2000 2006 2000 2006 2000 2006 2000 2006 Eastern District 7733 8732 88233 99314 2219 2504 2160 2736 1017 1186 3311 3575 Central District 3576 3940 10395 11417 993 1095 470 584 760 857 1498 1659 Western District 7751 8854 14775 16793 1953 2235 820 1032 1133 1347 1785 2064 Northern District 2581 2857 11124 12288 928 1036 347 429 729 834 2454 2731 Subtotal of Urban Areas 21641 24383 124527 139812 6093 6870 3797 4781 3639 4224 9048 10029 Datong County 29160 30436 125161 130264 43810 45947 162 225 4611 4960 949 992 Huangyuan County 13565 14283 2259 2369 397 415 81 97 1815 1981 62 55 Huangzhong County 38899 40876 74913 78392 1288 1362 29 48 427 438 144 146 Total Xining City 103265 109978 326860 350837 51588 54594 4069 5151 10492 11603 10203 11222 Note No. 1 In 2000, total population of the city was 1.7334 million, including 0.5 million of ethnic minorities; In 2006, the total population of Xining City was 2.1273 million, including 0.5434 million of ethnic minorities. Note No. 2 In 2006, proportions of the ethnic minorities to the total population were: 23.06% in the urban areas, 47.20% in Datong county, 13.86% in Huangyuan county; 24.92% in Huangzhong county. Source: Statistical Yearbook of Xining City (2007) by Xining Statistics bureau. As for the project area, the project involves Northern, Western, Central and the new Southern Districts of Xining City, 16 townships/neighborhood offices, 53 administrative villages and about 200 villager groups of the three counties including Datong, Huangyuan and Huangzhong. Included in the project area, there are 2,127 households of Tibetan Hui and Tu ethnic minorities, totally 11,673 people, and the per capita net income of rural residents in 2007 was about 3,158 RMB.. In the urban areas of Xining City, a total of 7 gullies, namely, Huoshao, Baojia, Daya, Dujia, Diaogou, Dacao and Xigou, will benefit from the Project. In the project area of the Northern District, there are 9 administrative villages of 2 townships (Dabaozi and Ershilipu) and 1 Page 12 9 neighborhood office (Xiaoqiao), including 7 administrative villages in Dabazi Township; in the Western District, 4 administrative villages of Pengjiazhai Township and Nanchuanxilu neighborhood office; in the Central District, 2 administrative villages of Nanchuandonglu neighborhood office; and in the New Southern District, 4 administrative villages of Zongzhai Township. Totally, there are 7,429 urban households, 30885 people are involved in the Project, 28,232 of the people are agricultural population and 1,058 people are ethnic minorities (796 Hui, 37 Tibetan, 16 Tu and 209 other ethnic minorities). Except the Hui who have formed compact communities, other ethnic minorities, including Tibetan are just residents by intermarriages. In Datong County, the project is to cover 6 gullies (Dongxia, Huji, Miaogou, Maojia, Qiaoer and Dameidong), involving 53 natural villages of 14 administrative villages in 3 township (Dongxia, Qiaotou and Liangjao). The households are 4,288 and the total population is 18,607, of which 9,434 are ethnic minorities (7,886 Hui, 1391 Tibetan, 88 Tu and 69 other ethnic minorities). Of the 14 administrative villages, 5 are Hui compact communities; 5 are mixed communities consisting less than 50 Tibetans. Most Tibetans in the Datong project area are concentrated in 3 villages: Erma 749 Tibetans, Yuandunzi 224 and Liujiazhuang 240. In Huangyuan County, the project covers 4 gullies (Bohang, Lasa, Quanerwan and Heladagou), involving 61 natural villages of 9 administrative villages in 4 townships (Chengguan, Bohang, Heping and Shengzhong). The number of households is 2,155 and number of people is 8,721, of which 877 are ethnic minorities (Tibetan, 417, Hui 355, and other nationalities 5). Of the 9 administrative villages, 7 have Tibetan residents, 5 have over 40 Tibetans, while Husitong and Nalong administrative villages have more Tibetans (134 and 80, respectively); and 3 have a few Hui residents. In Huangzhong County, 3 gullies (Huoshao, Fengtai, Lushaer) are to be improved under the Project, involving 54 villager groups of 11 villages in 2 townships (Lushaer and Xibao ) and 2,453 households, totally 10,030 people, of which 1,636 are ethnic minorities (1,578 Hui and 58 Tibetan). Of the 11 administrative villages, 3 have Tibetan residents, including Angzang village of Lushaer Township. It has 42 Tibetans. The Hui residents mainly gather in the Qingquan1 and Qingquan2 villages of Lushaer Township (Attachment Table 3 presents their distribution in the project area). The Hui and Tibetans are relatively concentrated in areas or watersheds to be impacted by the Project. The Tibetans mainly live in the Dongxia River basin in the Dongxia Township, Datong County, Bohang Gully of Huangyuan County and Huoshao Gully of Huangzhong County. The Hui mainly live in Qiaoergou, Yuanshuer, Dameidong and Xiaomeidong gullies of Liangjiao Township and Qiaotou Township in Datong County, Lasa gully of Chengguan Township in Huangyuan County, and Huoshao Gully of Lushaer Township in Huangzhong County. The Hui in the Datong County form the most obvious compact communities surrounding the village mosque. The Hui in Huangzhong and Huangyuan Counties live in mixture with the Han. There is no pure Tibetans community in the Project Area. However, Tibetans in the Erma village of Dongxia Township, Datong County account for 80% of the villager. 1 There are also small numbers of native Tibetans 1 Shuobei township in Datong county is an ethnic minority township with Tibetans as the main body. In this township, Datong village is where the Tibetans are relatively more concentrated, with Tibetan population accounting for about 90% of the village total. On January 8, 2008, accompanied by leaders of Datong county PMO and other relevant departments at county and township levels, the SA Taskforce and the World Bank expert conducted a brief survey to this village. However, the whole Shuobei township including Daitong village is not Page 13 10 found in Yuandunzi and Liuiiazhuang villages, all adjacent to Erma. Tibetan households in the Husidong and Nalongxi villages of Bohang Township of Huangyuan County live in mixture with the local Han people (because most of them are relatives to each other). In terms of urban and rural distribution, the Hui mainly locates in the joint part of urban and rural areas, or along transportation roads, while Tibetans are mostly on the higher mountainous areas, relatively far from the urban areas and key transportation roads, where they can have access to the highland pastures. 3.2 History, Culture and Livelihood of Ethnic Minorities 3.2.1 The Tibetan According to historical records, the ancient Tibetans lived on banks of the middle reaches of the Yarlungtsangpo River 2000 years ago, before Qin and Han dynasties. They multiplied and expanded gradually and absorbed many other groups and claimed the whole Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Today, nearly half of Tibetans live in Tibet, China. The rest half live in 10 Tibetan Prefectures and 2 counties of other provinces: Yushu, Hainan, Huangnan, Haibei, Guoluo and Haixi prefectures in Qinghai, Gannan prefecture and Tianzhu County in Gansu, Ganzi, Aba prefectures and Muli county in Sichuan, Diqing prefecture in Yunnan. Tibet plus the 10 prefecture and 2 counties constitute the cultural Tibet in China. There are also some Tibetans live in countries of Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim, India, Pakistan, Europe and America. According to the 5 th national population census of China, 2000, the total Tibetans population in China is 5.416 million, with an increase of 822.9 thousand than the 4 th national population census in 1990, or 17.92%, with an average annual growth rate of 1.60%. The life expectancy of the population was 66. The urban Tibetan population accounted for 12.83%, with an increase of 5.76% compared with that before 1990, while rural population accounted for 87.17%. Of the Tibetans elder than 15 years old, 47.55% was illiterate, including 35.14% males and 59.66% females. Compared with that in 1990, the illiteracy rate dropped by 21.85%. Of the population of and above 6 years old, 48.44% received education at and above primary school level, 13.27% received education at and above junior middle school level, 5.55% at and above high school level and 1.35% at university (4 years) or three-year advanced education level. The average duration of education was 3.52 years. Of the population at the age of 15 years old and above, 81.53% participated in labor contribution, 80.87% was in employment and 0.81% was unemployed. Of the employed population, 86.41% was engaged in the primary sector, 2.66% in the secondary sector and 10.93% in the tertiary sector. As for occupations of the population, 86.74% was engaged in the rural manual labor, 8.11% in the mental labor and 5.16% in the urban manual labor. Tibetans in the projects area live at the fringe of cultural Tibet and thus in a mixed or scattered way. At the end of 2006, the total Tibetan population in Xining within the scope of the project area and will not be involved or impacted by the Project. Page 14 11 City was 110 thousand, 5.17% of the city's total and 20.24%t of the city's ethnic minority population. In Xining City, urban Tibetans accounts for 25% of the local Tibetans and rural Tibetans accounts for 75%. The SA taskforce confirms that the total number of Tibetans in the project area and will be directly impacted by the project measures is 1,866, mostly concentrated in the Dongxia River basin of Datong County, where 4 villages each has 100 or more Tibetans. The total number of Tibetans in these villages is 1391, 75% of the Tibetans in the project area. The rest Tibetans in the project area are distributed in the following places: Huangyuan County 417 in 5 administrative villages, each has over 50, Huangzhong County 58, mostly in the Angzang Village of Lushaer Township. Detailed Distribution of Tibetans in the project area is demonstrated in the following table. T able 2: Distribution of Tibetans in the Project Area County Datong County Huangyuan County Huangzhon g Township Dongxia Qiaotou Bohang Heping Shengzhong Lushaer communit y Yuandu nzi Liujiazh uang Erma Shangmiao Maojiago u Bohan g Nalong Husidong Quanerwan Hela Angzang N umber of residents 1240 883 936 1510 1510 1050 1900 960 412 729 867 Number of Tibetans 229 246 761 94 40 51 80 134 73 53 42 Tibetans in the project area mainly live on farming. Their main crops include wheat and potatoes, and cash crops are rape seeds and peas, etc. Some Tibetans living in the hilly areas plant highland barley as staple crop. They basically rely on themselves in term of staple food. Animal husbandry is mainly for transportation, draft power, meat for festivals and cash income. The domestic animals include cattle, horses, Tibetan sheep, pig, etc. Some households keep cows since 1990s. Some individual households renting grassland for large-scale animal raising. After 2000, due to impacts on animal raising by implementing the program of turning cultivated land back to forest or grassland and increasing forest rehabilitation area, some households ceased animal raising, or shifted to seasonal pen-raising. Gathering herbal medicine and wild fungus are also a traditional economic activity in summer or autumn for the Tibetans, but it accounts for very small proportion of the household income. In recent 20 years, like the majority of farmers, the strong and capable Tibetans have chosen to work in the urban areas and regarded it an important source to increase their household income. Mostly of them go working in the Qinghai Province, especially in animal-raising areas such as Guoluo and Yushu Prefectures, where they work as builders of houses, fences, etc., or as miners. Table 5 illustrates their livelihood structure and economic conditions. In the project area, the local Tibetan traditional houses are mostly brick bungalows, identical with those of the Hui and Han, with a courtyard of quadrangle style. The main room is in the center, where Buddhist statues are worshipped. Rooms on the right are for living and bedroom of the elders and superiors, those on the left are bedrooms for the younger people. In the yard, the left house is for the young or storage and the right ones for the animals and fuel wood storage. Some yard have Page 15 12 fragrance burners as a identity, together with the shrine of Buddha in the central room of the main house. All Tibetan households have walking-tractors for transport, plowing and so on. Some Tibetan villages have been provided with tap water, and those villages without tap water have hand-driven wells, so drinking water supply for people and animals are guaranteed. It is relatively difficult to work on some of steep slopes of hills, so trolleys, horse-driven carts or oxcarts are needed to transport fertilizers and to plow the soil. Crops harvested need manual handling, and animals are used to pull the roller or grind to thresh grain on the ground in autumn. The staple food of Tibetans is mainly wheat flour, some Tibetan living high- altitude area also have the roasted barley and buttered tea, while some other Tibetans in better conditions buy rice as one kind of their staple food. They drink brick tea themselves and also use it to treat guests. They have diet taboos which keep them away from eating dead animals or meat of horse, donkey, mule or dog. They mainly use lump coal or honeycomb-like briquette in daily cooking and for heating in winter, with cow dung as supplement, they also use sticks, dry leaves and crop straws to make fire. Nearly every village has electricity, television and telephone connections, and some young people are also using mobile phones. Electricity is used in grain processing. Tibetans in the project area no longer use Tibetan and most of them do not understand it, so they communicate in Chinese among themselves and with others. It was learned in the interviews that they have switched to Chinese for about five or six generations, even the living elders seldom heard their parents speaking their Tibetan when they were kids. But some Tibetans living around the Guanghui Monastery in Dongxia township of Datong County still roughly understand Tibetan language, but they mainly use Chinese in their daily life. Daitong primary school in Shuobei Township are implementing bilingual language teaching program in recent years for rebuilding Tibetan language and Tibetan language teachers are invited from the pastoral areas to give 2 classes per week to the students. However, due to lack of environment, children easily forget what they have learned in the class. The effect is not satisfactory and the language teachers have a sense of frustration. But the ethnic leaders and the school still pay great attention to the language program. Communities around the Guanghui Monastery and Daitong village are not in the project area. The Tibetans costumes are still reserved and people would wear them during the festivals, weddings or funeral ceremonies. There is no difference in dressing between the Tibetans and the local Han people at ordinary time . The Tibetans don’t celebrate ethnic holidays and their major holidays are the Spring, Dragon Boat and Mid-Autumn Festivals, and they celebrate these festivals with approximately the same ways as the local Han neighbors, only that they maintain Tibetan Buddhism religion and custom of enshrining Buddha figures. Every household offers sacrifice to figure of Buddha, but they do not have the Buddha niche or hang golden flags. Tibetans in Dongxia township enshrine the living Buddha in Guanghui Monastery, and would go burn joss sticks on lunar January 15 th , lunar June 15 th and the first day of the Lunar New Year, when they get their heads touched by the Living Buddha as a blessing and lucky knots. Families with the elder would kowtow in front of the Buddha figure in Page 16 13 their own house on the first and 15 th of every month, some families would also offer food as sacrifice. Following are the notes of interviews the group conducted in Erma village of Dongxia township in Datong County, and in the Kumbum Monastery in Huangzhong County. [Individual Case] Discussion with Villagers and Village Leaders of Erma Village (Interview held and recorded by Lamaocuo and Jia Zhongyi at 4 pm to 6 pm on January 8, 2008, in Upper Erma village.) Erma village is 2.5 km to the northwest of seat of Dongxia township government of Datong County, It is adjacent to Yamenzhuang village in the southeast, Liujiazhuang village to the southwest, Hualin township in the west, and Huangbaiya gully in the north, and Xinghuazhuang village in the northeast. The village covers an area of 8.21km 2 , with an average elevation of around 2,700m and a population of 936 in 211 households, of which more than 180 are Tibetan households and the rest are Han and several Tu households. The word ‘Erma’ means ‘upland’. Erma administrative village includes three natural villages, namely, Upper Erma, Lower Erma and Zancang gully. According to legend, the area of Erma administrative village used to be the territoriality of Guanghui Monastery in Qing Dynasty, while Zancang gully was the grassland of the Monastery, and the Upper and Lower Erma were its farm. Currently, there are two gullies in the village, one is Zancang gully (4 km long) and another is Erma gully (5 km long). A. Production and Living Conditions Erma village has 2,170 mu of arable land (dry land), planted mainly with wheat, oats, rape seeds, potatoes and so on. Included in the total arable land, good land, or class- 1 land totals 700 mu and class-2 land is about 550 mu, and the rest is of poor quality. The good land can yield around 200 kg/mu of wheat, while the poor land can yield only 100 kg/mu of wheat. Grain production is basically enough for the villagers’ own consumption, and the villagers have adequate food and clothing. There are more than 600 heads of livestock (sheep, cattle, horses, mules, etc), mainly raised in pens. In summer, the villagers gather all their livestock and jointly hire labors to herd it in the summer rangeland of the village. Arable lands have been contracted to households, while the barren hills are still collectively owned by all villagers. The villagers mainly depend on working outside for their cash income, about 140 people are working outside all year round and they stay in places including Beijing, Shandong, Shaanxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, as well as places in Qinghai province, mostly doing jobs of running restaurant, repairing electronic apparatuses, bricklaying, portage and house painting, etc. Their monthly average income is around 1400-1500 RMB for men and around 600 RMB for women. Infrastructure in the village is poor, dirt road and extremely humble clinic are what the villagers have. The meeting room for the Communist Party members and office of the village committee were connected to power line in February 2007 with the financial support of the County Organizational Department (10,000 RMB). Women have to go to the Dongxia township hospital ( 2.5 km from the village) to give birth to children. For the hospitalized, 50% of the medical care expenses can be reimbursed by the new rural cooperative medical care fund. Page 17 14 B. Customs The housing pattern in Erma village basically follows the Han style and the villagers use Chinese in communication. But they maintain some features of Tibetan for wedding and funeral, and still have Buddhism as their religion. a. Wedding and Funeral The locals marry mainly within their township, they also look for mates in the neighboring places such as Xianghua, Hualin and Diaogou etc, using the approaches of free courtship or using matchmaker’s help. In Erma village, 50% of the villagers are married to own ethnic group people. They have no restrictions on nationality in selecting a mate for marriage, even marriage to The Hui who believe in Muslim is acceptable. For example, the second daughter-in-law of the leader of No 2 villager group of Erma village is a Muslim. There are some differences between the marriage ceremony of Tibetan and Han people in Erma Village, the most obvious difference is that Han people tease the new couple but Tibetans don’t. Marriage banquet of Tibetan and Han is almost the same. The Tibetans in Erma village divide funerals into two kinds, ‘weeping funeral’ and ‘happy funeral’. The so-called ‘weeping funeral’ is for the situation when the deceased would have worries even after death since the younger ones are still not married or without a job for living, while ‘happy funeral’ is for the situation that the deceased would not have worries about the younger ones in the family since they all got married. In the event of ‘weeping funeral’, the villagers would go to offer condolences and present a basin of wheat to the household in mourning; while, in the event of ‘happy funeral’, they would condole and present 12 big steamed bread to the concerned household. The way family members wear mourning clothes is that the male does not wear the hat, but wears a white fur-lined coat; female reverses her braid cover and attach a small strip of white cloth to her hat. For the deceased, inhumation would be used and tombstone set up, and the mourning household would also ask Buddhist priest to recite comfort scriptures. b. Religion Tibetans in Erma village believe in Tibetan Buddhism and the famous Guanghui Monastery is 2.5 km to the village. During festivals, especially from lunar January 1 st through to 15 th or on lunar April 15 th , the elders of each family would go to kowtow in Guanghui Monastery for Buddha to bless the entire family. They would also go to Obo on the mountain top to pray for safety. Moreover, they usually do ‘Wei-sang’ activity at home. Besides, to express respect to Buddha, The Tibetans here, especially the elders do not change clothes during periods from lunar January 1 st to 15 th and from lunar April 1 st to April 15 th . C. Local Knowledge There are some long-established traditional methods for soil and water conservation in Erma village. One is to plant black thorn (a kind of plant): insert the black thorn into woven bags filled with soil, and pile the bags layer upon layer to protect against flood; another is to dig iris lactea (Malian by local people) with its roots and plant it in rows on the slope of mountain, forming a biological dam; the third is to weave wires into wire cages and put stones into the cages and place the stone cages on the river banks. In recent years, the government has adopted the Page 18 15 measure of constructing check dams to reduce erosion in the gullies due to mountainous floods during rainy seasons, which turns to be with good effectiveness. [Case] The Kumbum Monastery Discussion (Discussion held and recorded by Zhang Haiyang, at 9:30-11:00, January 10, 2008; in Kumbum Monastery VIP reception room) Zhang Haiyang (hereinafter Zhang, leader of the Taskforce): Auspiciousness to all super masters and leaders: Xining Water Affairs Bureau will borrow a loan from the World Bank to support the Huangshui River basin flood control and soil erosion improvement project. Three small watersheds in the Huangzhong County are included in the project area: Huoshao gully, Fengtai gully and Lushaer gully. Two activities are planned for Lushaer gully: one is dredging and strengthening of 1.9 km of culvert of Jiaomu gully, another is dredging and strengthening of Zhaojiaogou gully. If we look at the layout design drawing, the Kumbum Monastery is quite close to construction site of Jiaomu gully, with a beeline distance of about 800 meters. The distance appears even shorter if viewing from top of the nearly hill. The Kumbum Monastery is a world-famous Tibetan Buddhist holy site. In line with the World Bank’s safeguard policies on aboriginals and local social and cultural protection, we need to conduct this field survey. The purpose of discussion today is to listen to ideas of every Living Buddha and lama on how you think the project will affect Kumbum Monastery, what methods can be used to reduce the negative impacts of the Project. Let us clarify two things: the first is about language we use in the discussion. I don’t know whether you, the superior masters can understand if we speak in Mandarin, is it necessary to have a translator? The second, although we will not ask particularly sensitive questions today, in accordance with the norms of our work, we still need to ask you, superior masters, whether there is someone present here who would have interceptive influences on you in your expressing your views so that obviation is necessary here. Here, we want to express our thanks to all you superior masters for your receiving us seculars and giving a chance to listen to your views. Chanre Gyantsan (Deputy Director of Kumbum Monastery Management Committee): We are pleased to attend this discussion for advices on the project and want to thank the Water Affairs Bureau for such consideration. I want to explain several things first. Firstly, living Buddha Zongkang, director of Kumbum Monastery management committee would like to host you in person today and said this is a very auspicious fate. But he has an important meeting today, so he specially commissioned me to welcome you and share with you our views. He also asked us to fully cooperate with this survey, telling us to present you Hada with our sincerity and appreciation. Secondly, about the language to be used today, though all Living Buddha here are Tibetan, but they have been carrying forward the Tibetan Buddhism in this Han- Tibetan junction place for many years and thus can understand Mandarin and the local dialect, they can also well express themselves using Mandarin and local dialect. If we use Tibetan, you will have to need a translator, so we’d better use Mandarin when we are talking about the unreligious circs. Page 19 16 Thirdly, about the issue of obviation, we all feel that the topics for discussion today are not sensitive. It is because of coordination of all concerned parties that we are now having the discussion meeting. As long as he who is present here can stay and listen carefully, he will surly be of some help in the communication, and this is for the good of implementation in the future. Therefore, we don’t need anyone here to evade. Buddhism never keeps away from the people. Fourthly, I want to give you a brief introduction to Kumbum Monastery. Kumbum Monastery has three major functions in China today: first, world-class religious sites, second, world-famous tourist spots and the third is the national key heritage conservation unit. We will also apply for denomination of world cultural heritage. Today we are grateful that you come to solicit our opinions and attach importance of views and customs of the local people and our Monastery. But I want to put it clear that this is a project to improve the city environment and there is no conflict between the project and the existence and development of our Monasterye, that is, the project produces only positive impacts, without negative ones. Our Monastery is recognized as Monastery of peace at the national level, we put great emphasis on establishing good relations with the local. Now the local want to implement construction activities, we shall give them active support. Kumbum Monastery is thought highly by the whole community in this regard Zhang: Thank you for your encouraging remark. Now we understand that you have given a clear and positive response on behalf of the Monastery monks. However, as the team to conduct social assessment and prepare the EMDP, we still would like to know from you what specifically positive effects the project has and what the potential adverse effects of the project. Chanre Gyantsan (Deputy Director of Kumbum Monastery Management Committee): What the project will improve is the flood drainage and sewage channel in the east of Monastery which is shared by the county seat and Lushaer township. This will help to improve the surrounding environment of the Monastery, as well as the city environment. In other words, this project is of great benefit to Kumbum Monastery. As for the negative impacts on our Monastery, we have established formal protected area and monitoring area for the Monastery. The boundary of the protected area is the road outside the wall of Monastery, along which the Buddhist believers walk around the Monastery, and the boundary to the east is at the foot of the mountain. The monitoring area ranges from the road to the top ridges of mountains, and, in the east, the boundary is at 50m to the Forestry Station Bridge. The outside area of the ridges is beyond our monitoring area. Since the construction site of the project is 500m away from our monitoring area, so the project will not have negative impact on the Monastery. The two living Buddha can confirm this (Living Buddha Mengjia nodded, while Living Buddha Shage was then outside talking with a visitor). Zhang: We understand that the World Bank's safeguard policies cover not only protection of the physical aspects of the Monastery, but also aspects of folk customs and spiritual requirements. We know that Tibetans believe that there is Mountain God on the top of Page 20 17 the mountain and Dragon God at the bottom of the waterways. Now the Water Affair Bureau is more likely to use machinery to implement this project, which may cause disturbances to these gods. What are the approaches to eliminate such effects? Shall we invite the Lama Masters to do a comfort ceremony before the start of the project? Living Buddha Mengjia had an understanding smile about it Chanre Gyantsan (Deputy Director of Kumbum Monastery Management Committee): Well, since the project is not within the scope of the Monastery ’s monitoring area, the Monastery is not on the position to raise this requirement. However, if this is implemented by the construction team, both the Monastery monks and Tibetan believers will certainly be happy about that.. Shager ( Living Buddha): There is no conflict between the project and Tibetan customs. The Monastery emphasizes Feng Shui, and the location of the construction site is certainly a big part of Feng Shui. The gully is a natural formation, now the project will improve the gully to conserve water and soil and protect against floods, this is good to both people and God. What the Monastery does should also submit to people's wishes. What all people think is good, the Monastery would think it good too. From the perspective of the Monastery, city environmental improvement and tree planting will get the overall environment upgraded, this is also very important to the Monastery. I myself am the member of Standing Committee of the County Political Consulting Committee, I know the county’s arrangement for the project. Our Monastery also has cooperation with the county. I remember that the streetlight system and transformation of the dilapidated buildings of Monastery were also included by the county into the proposal submitted to the World Bank. We are also in close relationship with the County Water affairs Bureau, in fact, two water source improvement projects of the Monastery, one at a cost of 1 million, the other 880 thousand, were both funded by the Water Affairs Bureau, so we are already old friends with the Mr. Li’s bureau.. Zhang: Thank you, Living Buddha and Masters. The negative impact of the project is comparatively clear now. The next question is on construction timing. Is there any special requirement from the Monastery on construction time? For example, at what time the project should not implement groundbreaking activity? Shage( Living Buddha): There is not special requirement on construction time. The key is that there is some distance from the construction time to the Monastery, so it is not sensitive. Zhang: I still have a small question, that is, the distribution of Tibetans around Monastery. We know that before the democratic reform, there were farms around and attached to the Monastery, so there should be a lot of Tibetans living around the Monastery in order for auspiciousness. But we now see more Muslim shops around Kumbum Monastery. How to understand and explain this? Does this relate to Ma family’s rule in Qinghai before the liberation ? Page 21 18 Shage ( Living Buddha): You are right at the point that there should be more Tibetans living in surrounding areas of the Monastery. Generally, the surrounding areas of the Tibetan Buddhism Monastery are inhabited by Tibetan people who provide service to the Monastery and are called ‘Monastery people’. The Kumbum Monastery lies in the boundary area of Han, Hui, and Tibetan people. The Hui are more active in running business, so they came closer to the Monastery. The Kumbum Monastery used to have six Tibetan tribes as ‘Monastery people’ to provide service for the Monastery. But Huangzhong County was a multi-ethnic area long ago, and many Tibetans can not be separated from their livestock and grassland, so they scatter in a large scope and are far from the agricultural area. Zhang Wanjiang (Vice Director of the County United Front Department): Let me add something. There are 13 ethnic groups in this county and the total population is around 250 thousand. Han people take up the biggest proportion of the total population, being 130 thousand in total. Hui is the second biggest ethnic group, with nearly 80 thousand people. Tibetan comes third, with a total population of around 40 thousand. For Lushaer township, Hui totals more than 8 thousand people, while Tibetans and monks in Kumbum Monastery total nearly 3 thousand. Zhang: Thank you, Mr. Zhang. Thank you, living Buddha and superior masters. These are the important issues we want to discuss with you. We’ll refer to statistics to check the data. Today, the key issue is to understand the impacts of projects on the Monastery. Living Buddha and Lama, if you have any additional ideas, please feel free to call us. Once again, thank you very much. 3.2.2 The Hui The Hui is basically composed of Persian and Arabic businessmen, who came and stayed in China and were known as “fan off” during the Tang and Song Dynasties, and the Central Asian peoples who had converted into the Islamic faith, together with Persians, Arabians moved into China massively during the period of Mongolian army westward expedition at the beginning of the 13th century, and also assimilated Han, Mongolian, Uygur and other ethnic group people through intermarriage and was thus formed after a long amalgamation process. The Hui spreads all over China and relatively concentrates in Ningxia, Gansu, Henan, Hebei, Qinghai, Shandong, Yunnan, Xinjiang provinces/regions, characterized by ‘scattering in large scope but gathering in small community’ in terms of their distribution. The Hui mainly use Chinese language, but still retain some Arabic and Persian vocabularies in their religious or daily life.. According to the fifth national population census in 2000, the total Hui ethnic population was 9.8168 million., Life expectancy of the population was 73.36 years old. Of the population at age of above 15, the illiterate population ratio is 17.77%, if compared with that of 1990, the illiteracy rate dropped by 15.34%. Of the population of and above 6 years old, 81.67% received education at and above primary school level, 44.88% received education at and above junior middle school level, 15.89% Page 22 19 received education at and above high school or technical secondary school level, and 4.08% at university (4 years) or three-year advanced education level. The average duration of education was 6.89 years. Of the population at the age of 15 years old and above, 73.76% participated in labor contribution, 69.7% was in employment and 5.50% was unemployed. Of the employed population, 59.59% was engaged in the primary sector, 14.29% in the secondary sector and 26.12% in the tertiary sector. As for occupations of the population, 59.59% was engaged in the rural manual labor, 12.39% in the mental labor and 28.02% in the urban manual labor. The Hui entered Hehuang (the Yellow River and the Huangshui Valley) district in the Yuan Dynasty, and kept increasing due to the immigration policies of Ming and Qing dynasties. At the end of 2006, The Hui totaled 350,837 in Xining City, accounting for 16.49% of the total city population. The Hui is the most populous ethnic minority in Xining City, its urbanization degree is equivalent to the national average. The Hui in the city and townships are mostly engaged in catering business, handicraft industry, fur processing industry, commerce and trade activities, while the rural The Hui are mostly engaged in agricultural production and concurrently animal raising. The Hui in Qinghai province have the common characteristics of being skillful in mutton business, fur processing and catering industries. Therefore, they become the most active ethnic group in the trade markets in Qinghai. The Hui is distributed broadly in the project area. In addition to the Hui communities in the urban project area, there are Muslim communities in the small watersheds including Dameidong gully, Xiaomeidong gully, Qiaoergou gully of Qiaotou township and Liangjiao township in Datong County; Quanerwan and Lhasa gully of Chengguan township in Huangyuan County; Jiaomu gully of Lushaer township in Huangzhong County. Within the project area, there are altogether 9,819 The Hui, including 7,886 in Datong County, accounting for 80% and concentrating in 5 Muslim villages; 1,578 in Huangzhong County, concentrating in Qingquanyi and Qingquaner villages of Lushaer township; 171 in Huangyuan County, mainly concentrating in Guanghua and Wanfeng administrative villages of Chengguan town, as shown in the following Table 3. Table 3: Distribution of The Hui in the Communities within the Project Area The traditional livelihoods of rural Hui as local residents are mainly planting, and some households concurrently raise livestock and do business. The crops they plant are mainly wheat, potatoes, and their cash crops include mainly rape seeds and peas. County Datong County Huangyuan County Huangzhong County township Qiaotou Town Liangjiao Township Chengguan Township Lushaer Township community Yuanshuer Village Meidongou Village Baiya Village Sonlin Village Qiaoegou Village Guanhua Village Wangfen Village Tongxing Village Qingquan No.1 Village Qingquan No.1 Village Population in the Project Area 2040 1326 1273 1162 2046 1263 1337 811 1016 910 Incl. Population of The Hui 2040 1326 1373 1162 2046 64 87 20 986 592 Page 23 20 Most households can be basically self-reliant in term of grain food supply. However, some households without sufficient arable land do not have enough grain rations and need to buy. The livestock they raise includes mainly horses, yellow cattle and Tibetan sheep, some households also raise cows. Horses and yellow cattle are mainly kept for animal power, while sheep are sold for cash. Because of implementation of program returning farmland to forests and grasslands and reduction of grazing grassland, only a few households are still raising sheep, some households even ceased raising draught animals. Most of the Hui families increase their income by running business and restaurant, trading cattle and sheep, slaughtering animals and other traditional sidelines, in addition to raising animals. The Hui in Datong County mostly work on mining to increase their revenue. In recent years, some young people also go outside the province doing business or working as labor. The livelihood structure and economic conditions of The Hui in the project area are detailed in Table 5. Although the Hui are living together with Han people in the communities, they usually live surrounding the mosques in the communities. The houses of Hui are basically identical with those of the Han’s, being of quadrangle courtyard style and made of bricks and tiles, of which the main room is in the northern one and trees and flowers are planted in the courtyard. Generally, the communities in which the Hui are living all have access to road, electricity, television and tap water. Most households have walking tractors to plow the soil, transport fertilizers and harvest crops, they also use the tractors as vehicles for daily uses. The young people generally use motorcycles. The costume of male Muslim is slightly the same with the local Han people, but adults generally wear the white flat-topped, brimless ‘top hat’, while the elderly often keep beard. The religious staff and the elderly wear ‘quasi-white’(long coat) and ‘Tessdaer’(head wrap) when they go to the mosque for worship. Female aging above 9 or 12 years should wear headbands when going out, and the girls often wear green headbands, the middle-aged wear cyan ones, and the elderly white. The Hui mainly living on wheaten food, they have quite a lot strict diet taboos. For example, it is banned to use turbid water (water that is stagnant or filthy due to trample by human or animals) for drinking or washing food stuff; tobacco and alcohol are banned, even use of them to entertain the guests is not allowed; meat of pig, horse, mule, donkey or dog, meat from dead animals, blood of animals, horse milk, Koumiss are all banned; if slaughtering cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, rabbits, camels, etc, imam or the honest elderly must be invited to do slaughter in line with relevant rules. Meat from animals slaughtered by those who are not Muslim or dishonest ones is regarded not clean; pigeon meat is also banned, etc. The Hui in the project area have reverent belief in Islamism, which has two sects of New Sect and Old Sect. Mostly the two sects gather in Mosque to have worships together, but some individual communities built Mosques separately for the new and old sects of muslins. Generally, a community has a Mosque Administrative Committee to manage the possession of Mosque and organize religious activities. Major festivals of The Hui are the Bairam, Corban and Mawlid al-Nabi (festival to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed). The Hui adopt inhumation for the dead ones. Usually, a community has a public cemetery, or a family is a unit to establish a concentrate burying area. They neither Page 24 21 believe in Feng Shui, nor select specific date or time for burying. The corpse would be buried head to the north and feet to the south, but without coffin. The following is a recorded interview with a Hui community. [Individual Case] Yuanshuer Village of Qiaotou Town, Datong County (Information provided by Ma Deao, accountant of the village committee; interview held by: Lu ShunRMB, Tuo Yanqing. Time: Jan 9, 2008) 1. Population and Ethnic Group In the village, there are 488 households, with a total population of 2040, all being The Hui. Of the total population, male totals 1,016, female totals 1,024 and labors 1,286 ( including labors working outside of 798). 2. Resources and Production The village has 1,587.66 mu of arable land, and the area involving in the program of returning farmland to forest is 492.4 mu. Crop yield: wheat 115 kg/mu, and rape seeds: 110kg/mu. 3. Income and Expenditures The income of village collective is 30,000 RMB annually. People enjoying the minimal living guarantee allowance are 116 in total. Totally 446 farmers participate in the program of New Rural Cooperative Medical Care. The average annual cost of primary, secondary and high school students is separately 100 RMB, 400 RMB and 1500 RMB. Generally, expenditures for wedding are about 6,000 RMB. 4. Organizations and Capacity Organizations in the village are village committee, village branch of the party committee, the Communist Youth League, Militiaman, Monastery Management Committee. There is one mosque, one imam, 6 Manla belonging to Sunni Islam. 5. Seasons, Work and Rest Busy season: April, September and October; Slack farming season: January, February, March, May, June, July, August, November, December, Men work outside while women rest. 6. Project Impacts and Demands The area to be improved totals 5700 mu, covering 6 villages within the project area, with a total population of 2,040. Forest rehabilitation area is 2,700 mu. Record of Interview with the Village Party Secretary, Village Head and Accountant Recorded by Lu ShunRMB 0.7 mu of arable land per capita, all being dry land. The area of mountain closure for forestation totals 500 mu and needs further replanting. Another 1,500 mu of barren hills needs tree-planting and returning farmland to forests, with 50 households involved. Adrets are suitable for planting black thorn, caragana and so on, while the shady slopes can be planted with pines, cypress. Page 25 22 There are two gullies in the village, including one dry gully and two branch gullies. Check dam was built in 2003 under a small watershed improvement program. The existing earth dam was damaged by floods. Canals are all of open channel type, there is no drainage canal. The project will not cause resettlement of the villagers. Labor export involves more than half of the total population, bringing in 70% of the total income. 40% to 50% of the young people go work on coal mining, signing annual work contract. Such employment opportunity comes with requirement on physical capability, usually for the ones under 35, 40-year old is the maximal limitation. Monthly income of the employees is about 1,500 RMB, and there is no other welfare arrangement. Such income is at medium level in the village. Group leader of the miners has an income of 2,200 RMB per month. The daily work takes 12 hours, quite intensive. The village has relatively developed transportation industry and Taxi service in the county seat area is the major part. The villagers have altogether 11 Xiali cars and 9 buses, bought with personal loans under the terms for ordinary loan. There are also 11 large long-distance vehicles transmit daily necessities from Lanzhou to Lhasa and Zhangmu of Tibet, Sichuan and other places. The transportation operation is household based, with cooperation arrangement established between the households. The vehicles set off in three batches according to the arrangement. Their gross profit is 10,000 RMB per month. Such operation lasts 8 months a year, and the business is better in busy seasons. But this business quite risky, expenditures are high, particularly the repair cost. Each vehicle needs 2 people, one of whom is hired hand with the salary of 1000-1500 RMB per month, mainly people of the same village will be hired. About 70% of young people in the village have driving license, many of them drive. There are more than 20 households running business or restaurant. Business operators can earn 4000-5000 RMB of annual net income , and restaurant owners can make 15,000 RMB as the annual net income. There are 8 households running restaurants in the hinterland provinces. There are 35 poverty-stricken households in the village, 8% of the villagers enjoy the minimal living guarantee allowance. The actually poor population in the village accounts for one third of the whole village population. Causes of poverty include lacking labor, sickness, laziness, limited farmland and lacking revenue generating opportunity. ‘Previously, no attention was paid to education, even for the boys. Now, with few kids, girls’ education is being attaching great importance.’ Planting trees is for the establishment of ecological protection forest, not for setting up income generation forest. Revenues from forestry are owned by the households with signed contracts on returning farmland to forest or on land reclamation. They need to collect fruits or cut the trees by themselves, the village committee is responsible for the management in this regard, this means the households need pay 20 RMB each to the village committee. Page 26 23 3.3 Ethnic Relations in the Project Area The relations among Han, Tibetan and The Huis, and the relationship between Muslims of the old and new sects in the project area are comparatively friendly and harmonious. The following is a summary of their relationships: (1) People of various ethnic groups are adjacent to each other in the residential spaces. In the project area, Tibetan and Han peoples are living together as neighbors, and even Hui, Tibetan and Han peoples are mixed in the residential areas, as is the general living structure in the Huangshui River basin. Such mixture is illustrated with not only adjacent communities of various ethnic groups, but also many communities formed by multi-ethnic groups. One feature is that intermarriage among ethnic groups is very common, particularly between Han people and Tibetans. Although The Hui are constrained by their religious belief and living habits and are less active in intermarriages, great change has taken place in the past 10 years, the intermarriage between Hui and Han or Tibetan has been increasing gradually. (2) Livelihood approaches of various ethnic groups are complementary to each other. In the project area, The Hui in the urban districts are mostly running freight or trade businesses, while Hui in the counties are mostly engaged in agricultural production; Tibetans are mostly engaged in agricultural cultivation, though breeding and animal husbandry for a proportion in family income. From a historical point of view, Hui and Tibetan have been quite interdependent, since Tibetans engaged in farming, breeding and animal husbandry rely on trade service provided by The Hui for supplying the production tools and circulation of the agricultural and animal products they produced, while the Hui need to buy products from Tibetans and then get benefits from the selling. (3) The e thnic groups respect each other’s religious belief. In the project area, the ethnic minorities have mutual respect relating to the religious belief. Between Tibetan Buddhism believers and Muslims and, within Islam, between the old sect and new sect, the relationship is harmonious, without religious conflict or sectarian conflict. Take Lushaer township in Huangzhong County as an example, this township enjoys high reputation because of the famous Tibetan Buddhism Monastery, Kumbum Monastery, but it also has a big sized mosque just located within 500m from the Kumbum Monastery. The Taskforce found in the survey that this mosque is used by both Sunni and the Shiah believers. The two sects usually carry on religious activities in the same Monastery. All of these indicate that different religious groups or different religious sects are coexisting harmoniously, and peoples are free from prejudice against each other because of different religious belief. (4) The ethnic relationship in the mixed communities is harmonious. In selecting villager leaders or managing the village, inter-ethnic struggle for power or profit did not happen, whether openly or secretly. The village leaders are well aware of situation of individuals or households, no matter which ethnic group they belong to, which reflects that ethnic barriers rarely exist between the leaders and the villagers. Meanwhile, the peoples in the village have close and normal daily social communication. Besides, The Hui are not bothered when Tibetan and Han raise pigs, eat pork, smoke, or drink liquor. There is nearly no contradiction and conflict caused due to lacking mutual respect for each other's customs. Page 27 24 Furthermore, students of all ethnic groups in schools at all levels and the youth from different ethnic communities communicate freely and hold harmonious relationships. Among the students, there is neither gang war, nor language discrimination or communication limit based on ethnic beliefs. At the same time, leaders from various ethnic groups and in all government agencies at all levels hold harmonious relationship among them, they are working closely together and mutually respect each other. Given the harmonious relationships between various ethnic groups in the project area, the EMDP to be prepared should avoid separating the ethnic minorities, or Hui and Tibetan, from the Han nationalities in dealing with activity plan for the mixed communities; it should also avoid excluding Han people in making plan for the communities where Hui or Tibetan people take the majority. Public good activities should be increased while appropriately reducing the development activities targeted at individual ethnic minority households, so as to reduce the possibility of project resulted negative stimulus to interethnic relationship. Page 28 25 4. Overall Social Assessment In accordance with the requirements and regulations of World Bank, on the recommendation of the experts of the World Bank, Professor Zhang Haiyang, director of the Western Development Research Center of the Central University of Nationalities, and associate Professor, Jia Zhong Yi, the deputy director of the WDRCCUN, were entrusted by Xining World Bank PMO to conduct social assessment on Xining flood control and watershed management project. To make a thorough and deep survey, a 9-person optimized Taskforce was organized, with the experienced project leaders and local Tibetan, Tu and Hui experts. From late November 2007 to mid January 2008, the group conducted two field investigations to the project area. In January and September 2008, another two formal field surveys were made with full cooperation and coordination of PMOs at city and county levels. The constitution of the group, the field investigation methods applied, the attention to sensitive issues of ethnicity and religion and the depth and breadth of the investigation were met with general acceptance by the Project team of the World Bank. Meanwhile the social assessment report is objective and fair for PMO. On the basis of the field investigations, the conclusions drawn by the SA Taskforce are as follows: (1) The need for the Project. Xining is the center of politics, economics, culture and transport in Qinghai Province. The geographical condition and certain human factors have made Huangshui River basin in the project area undergo the floods for many years. Mountain torrents disasters, soil erosion, ecological degradation and pollution of surface run-off have seriously affected the construction and sustainable development of Qinghai Province. The governments at all levels and the local people have reached broad consensus that it’s the high time to carry out the implementation of this project. (2) Project support. The governments at all levels in the project have attached importance to the implementation of the project and the ethnic minority development plan (EMDP). At present, according to the surveys of the communities and household interviews, the support rate of the project reached over 90%. With the good understanding of the Project, most of the local residents hope they can be benefited as soon as possible. (3) In line with the definition “ethnic minority” of the World Bank, the rural population of Tibetans and The Hui accounts for 34.6% of the total population of the project area. Undoubtedly the measures to reduce soil erosion, such as forestation and check dam construction will benefit the local people. However, the forestation and forest rehabilitation activities in the project area will restrict their livestock raising activities to a certain extent. Thus the Taskforce proposes that an ethnic minority development plan(EMDP) for the Tibetans and The Hui be made to minimize the adverse effects on the ethnic communities and minorities in the project. (4) Relevant regulations and policies. China's current legal system and attached great importance to the protection of minority rights and interests, improvement of ethnic minorities’ situation, economic development in ethnic minority areas, and the promotion of ethnic minorities’ culture. These laws and regulations share common Page 29 26 essence with the World Bank. Therefore, measures of the project can minimize the possible negative impacts on the local people. (5) The key beneficiary and consultative process. The key beneficiaries are mainly the PMOs, government at all levels, community residents and other vulnerable groups in the project area. To ensure the carry-out of project, the experts made a Participatory Planning survey of 3 small watersheds at the preliminary stage. Moreover, PMO staff conducted all-round surveys of the rest 14 watersheds, using the method taught by the Taskforce. In order to ensure the implementation of the project management and maintenance in the late stages on the basis of previous unlimited consultations, representatives elected by the villagers will constitute a small watershed management group (including woman and young man) and consult or negotiate with PMO on behalf of the villagers. To ensure them qualified and active, PMO provided some special training and some extra money for their extra work. (6) Project Activities. Aiming at flood prevention, soil erosion control and the protection of the life and properties, some comprehensive measures will be taken at 17 small watersheds, which include(a) public water and soil conservation projects as tree-planting, forest rehabilitation, check dam, slope protection works, gully head strengthening, pond reinforcement and terracing, etc.(b)Projects for the personal interest as terracing( to change slop to terrace) and the construction of supporting working pavements,(c) livelihood improvement projects as livestock, livestock sheds building, methane-generating pits, cookers and road building etc. Those projects are feasible and workable on the analysis of the experts and gained acceptance by the local people. (7) Project impact identification and measures. The benefits of the above projects are (a) such public water and soil conservation projects as tree-planting, forest rehabilitation, check dam, slope protection works, gully head strengthening, pond reinforcement and terracing and so on will help reduce the mountain torrents disasters, soil erosion and restore the environment and to provide a safe, sustainable production and living conditions for the residents (b)The production and living conditions in the communities will be improved by such measures as the construction of working pavement and road. (c)The farmers will enjoy a safer, healthier and more comfortable condition as a result of the building of livestock sheds. Meanwhile the community environment will be improved. (d) The use of cookers and methane-generating pit will help farmers better their living condition and reduce the ecological damage; (e) Specify Project financing plan : Public welfare projects; the World Bank 73%, counties (districts) 27%;The livelihood project: the World Bank 75% ,counties (districts) 25% , The office equipment project: the World Bank 75% , counties (districts) 25%; Training costs: the world Bank 100%.The local people can participate the project activities and their incomes can be used as an investment of the project. Livelihood improvement projects as livestock, livestock sheds building, methane- generating pits and solar stoves etc emphasize to support the poor households. Thus, the project will not ask for money from the poor households. Affluent and well-off households who provide funds to participate will benefit. The negative impact and countermeasures of the project are as follows: Page 30 27 (a) small-scale demolition and resettlement in the city; (b) expropriation and requisition of a small amount of land in the urban river training; (c) The herding activities of local residents are subject to certain restriction as a result of forestation and the forest rehabilitation of local residents. According to the national and local policies and regulations, the residents will have a reasonable compensation and resettlement. (See RAP of this report). The project will minimize the negative impact through the construction of livestock sheds, appropriate technical training and other measures, or the centralized herding. (8) Cultural relevance. The ecological, economic, social factors are involved in the carry-out of project activities and measures are based on the free, prior, and informed consultation with community ethnic residents. The religious beliefs of the Hui and Tibetan, the production and living activities and constraints are the important consideration in the project. For the participation or beneficiary, the cultural characteristics of ethnic minorities and their physical needs are fully considered in project activities, life customs and habits of minority residents are fully respected. 5. The Free, Prior & Informed Consultation 5.1 Result in the preparation phase of the project There were 3 pilot sites for participatory small watershed planning; they are Lasagou in Huyuan, Hujigou in Datong and Huoshaogou in the south of the city (participatory small watershed planning operation ( Guidebook of the project). From January to August in 2008, the project office of the city and county carried out participatory pilots on the other 14 small watersheds. The basic procedures are: (a) Participatory small watersheds planning were also mobilized by the township and village cadres. They organized villagers meetings, and made the villagers fully involved especially the vulnerable groups, such as women, the old and poor. (b) First, villagers expressed freely on participatory small watersheds planning which were centered on problem identification, demand analysis, project activity, development of organizations (Community Planning Team), implementation and management, monitoring and evaluation. Second, after a series of discussions, analysis and vote, the result would open to the public according to the concentration of requirement, advice and opinion. (c)The community planning group, project officials, and water and soil conservation experts which were elected by the community made their project plan based on the project nature and some other factors. (d)The community plan group delivered the plan to the whole community in time, and to get the feedback and advice from the community. (e)Finally, the plans were completed and then open to the public According to the unrestricted prior informed consultation, the project activities in the minority communities and other communities with the population of ethnic minorities (total 21 communities) are studied out. The table blow mainly shows the activities about EMDP and the determined financing plan (see Table 4). Page 31 28 Page 32 29 Table 4: The activities about EMDP and the financing plan in Xining City project (Part) Investment Cost Sharing Proportion % 2009 year 2010 year Counterpart Counterpart Counterpart C o u n t i e s W a t e r s h e d s C o m m u n i t i e s Project activitie s Area/ Scope Starting /end time Total Investme nt(10 thousand RMB) WB Govern -ments House -holds WB Govern -ments House -holds Total WB Govern -ments House -holds Total Total 2025.55 1429.16 434.48 161.91 782.44 169.18 91.64 1043.25 562.94 121.05 66.60 750.58 Road 406.50 214.88 191.63 95.18 31.73 126.90 63.45 21.15 84.60 Livesto ck shed 970.00 727.50 145.50 97.00 429.21 85.84 57.23 572.28 293.43 58.69 39.12 391.24 C a t t l e 305.40 229.05 45.81 30.54 129.60 25.92 17.28 172.80 94.23 18.85 12.56 125.64 L i v e s t o c k S h e e p 262.05 196.54 39.31 26.21 91.73 18.35 12.23 122.31 87.35 17.47 11.65 116.46 Bio-gas pit 29.50 22.13 4.43 2.95 13.28 2.66 1.77 17.70 8.85 1.77 1.18 11.80 Total Solar stove 52.10 39.08 7.82 5.21 23.45 4.69 3.13 31.26 15.63 3.13 2.08 20.84 Road 330.00 157.50 172.50 60.75 20.25 81.00 40.50 13.50 54.00 Livesto ck shed 357.40 268.05 53.61 35.74 160.83 32.17 21.44 214.44 107.22 21.44 14.30 142.96 C a t t l e 288.00 216.00 43.20 28.80 129.60 25.92 17.28 172.80 86.40 17.28 11.52 115.20 D a t o n g Total L i v e s t o c k S h e e p 97.80 73.35 14.67 9.78 44.01 8.80 5.87 58.68 29.34 5.87 3.91 39.12 Page 33 30 Bio-gas pit 29.50 22.13 4.43 2.95 13.28 2.66 1.77 17.70 8.85 1.77 1.18 11.80 Solar stove 52.10 39.08 7.82 5.21 23.45 4.69 3.13 31.26 15.63 3.13 2.08 20.84 Road 195.00 56.25 138.75 33.75 11.25 45.00 22.50 7.50 30.00 Livesto ck shed 91.00 68.25 13.65 9.10 40.95 8.19 5.46 54.60 27.30 5.46 3.64 36.40 C a t t l e 78.00 58.50 11.70 7.80 35.10 7.02 4.68 46.80 23.40 4.68 3.12 31.20 L i v e s t o c k S h e e p 12.00 9.00 1.80 1.20 5.40 1.08 0.72 7.20 3.60 0.72 0.48 4.80 Bio-gas pit 15.25 11.44 2.29 1.53 6.86 1.37 0.92 9.15 4.58 0.92 0.61 6.10 T o t a l Solar stove 7.88 5.91 1.18 0.79 3.55 0.71 0.47 4.73 2.36 0.47 0.32 3.15 Road improve -ment 7(km) 2009-12 120.00 120.00 Livesto ck shed 100(No.) 2009-10 70.00 52.50 10.50 7.00 31.50 6.30 4.20 42.00 21.00 4.20 2.80 28.00 C a t t l e 100(Head) 2009-10 60.00 45.00 9.00 6.00 27.00 5.40 3.60 36.00 18.00 3.60 2.40 24.00 E r m a L i v e s t o c k S h e e p 300(Head) 2009-10 9.00 6.75 1.35 0.90 4.05 0.81 0.54 5.40 2.70 0.54 0.36 3.60 D o n g x i a n d Livesto ck shed 30(No.) 2009-10 21.00 15.75 3.15 2.10 9.45 1.89 1.26 12.60 6.30 1.26 0.84 8.40 Page 34 31 C a t t l e 30(Head) 2009-10 18.00 13.50 2.70 1.80 8.10 1.62 1.08 10.80 5.40 1.08 0.72 7.20 L i v e s t o c k S h e e p 100(Head) 2009-10 3.00 2.25 0.45 0.30 1.35 0.27 0.18 1.80 0.90 0.18 0.12 1.20 Bio-gas pit 31(No.) 2009-10 7.75 5.81 1.16 0.78 3.49 0.70 0.47 4.65 2.33 0.47 0.31 3.10 Solar stove 316(No.) 2009-10 6.64 4.98 1.00 0.66 2.99 0.60 0.40 3.98 1.99 0.40 0.27 2.66 Road 5(km) 2009-10 75.00 56.25 18.75 33.75 11.25 45.00 22.50 7.50 30.00 Bio-gas pit 30(No.) 2009-10 7.50 5.63 1.13 0.75 3.38 0.68 0.45 4.50 2.25 0.45 0.30 3.00 L i u j i a z h u a n g Solar stove 59(No.) 2009-10 1.24 0.93 0.19 0.12 0.56 0.11 0.07 0.74 0.37 0.07 0.05 0.50 Road 5 km 2012 75.00 56.25 18.75 Livesto ck shed 112(No.) 2009-10 78.40 58.80 11.76 7.84 35.28 7.06 4.70 47.04 23.52 4.70 3.14 31.36 C a t t l e 25(Head) 2009-10 15.00 11.25 2.25 1.50 6.75 1.35 0.90 9.00 4.50 0.90 0.60 6.00 L i v e s t o c k S h e e p 160(Head) 2009-10 4.80 3.60 0.72 0.48 2.16 0.43 0.29 2.88 1.44 0.29 0.19 1.92 Bio-gas pit 7(No.) 2009-10 1.75 1.31 0.26 0.18 0.79 0.16 0.11 1.05 0.53 0.11 0.07 0.70 M i a o g o u S h a n g m i a o Solar stove 379(No.) 2009-10 7.96 5.97 1.19 0.80 3.58 0.72 0.48 4.78 2.39 0.48 0.32 3.18 Page 35 32 C a t t l e s h e d 35(No.) 2009-10 24.50 18.38 3.68 2.45 11.03 2.21 1.47 14.70 7.35 1.47 0.98 9.80 L i v e s t o c k s h e d P i g s h e d 30(No.) 2009-10 18.00 13.50 2.70 1.80 8.10 1.62 1.08 10.80 5.40 1.08 0.72 7.20 Cattle 60(Head) 2009-10 36.00 27.00 5.40 3.60 16.20 3.24 2.16 21.60 10.80 2.16 1.44 14.40 Bio-gas pit 48(No.) 2009-10 12.00 9.00 1.80 1.20 5.40 1.08 0.72 7.20 3.60 0.72 0.48 4.80 M a o j i a g o u M a o j i a g o u Solar stove 360(No.) 2009-10 7.56 5.67 1.13 0.76 3.40 0.68 0.45 4.54 2.27 0.45 0.30 3.02 C a t t l e s h e d 49.00 36.75 7.35 4.90 22.05 4.41 2.94 29.40 14.70 2.94 1.96 19.60 L i v e s t o c k s h e d S h e e p s h e d 9.00 6.75 1.35 0.90 4.05 0.81 0.54 5.40 2.70 0.54 0.36 3.60 Sheep 54.00 40.50 8.10 5.40 24.30 4.86 3.24 32.40 16.20 3.24 2.16 21.60 Cattle 90.00 67.50 13.50 9.00 40.50 8.10 5.40 54.00 27.00 5.40 3.60 36.00 Bio-gas pit 0.50 0.38 0.08 0.05 0.23 0.05 0.03 0.30 0.15 0.03 0.02 0.20 T o t a l Solar stove 14.66 10.99 2.20 1.47 6.60 1.32 0.88 8.79 4.40 0.88 0.59 5.86 D a m e i d o n g Y u a n s h u e r L i v e s t o c k s h e d C a t t l e s h e d 30(No.) 2009-10 21.00 15.75 3.15 2.10 9.45 1.89 1.26 12.60 6.30 1.26 0.84 8.40 Page 36 33 S h e e p s h e d 15(No.) 2009-10 9.00 6.75 1.35 0.90 4.05 0.81 0.54 5.40 2.70 0.54 0.36 3.60 Sheep 1800(Hea d) 2009-10 54.00 40.50 8.10 5.40 24.30 4.86 3.24 32.40 16.20 3.24 2.16 21.60 Bio-gas pit 2(No.) 2009-10 0.50 0.38 0.08 0.05 0.23 0.05 0.03 0.30 0.15 0.03 0.02 0.20 Solar stove 298(No.) 2009-10 6.26 4.69 0.94 0.63 2.82 0.56 0.38 3.75 1.88 0.38 0.25 2.50 Livesto ck shed 20(No.) 2009-10 14.00 10.50 2.10 1.40 6.30 1.26 0.84 8.40 4.20 0.84 0.56 5.60 Cattle 80(Head) 2009-10 48.00 36.00 7.20 4.80 21.60 4.32 2.88 28.80 14.40 2.88 1.92 19.20 M e i d o n g g o u Solar stove 200(No.) 2009-10 4.20 3.15 0.63 0.42 1.89 0.38 0.25 2.52 1.26 0.25 0.17 1.68 Livesto ck shed 20(No.) 2009-10 14.00 10.50 2.10 1.40 6.30 1.26 0.84 8.40 4.20 0.84 0.56 5.60 Cattle 70(Head) 2009-10 42.00 31.50 6.30 4.20 18.90 3.78 2.52 25.20 12.60 2.52 1.68 16.80 B a i y a Solar stove 200(No.) 2009-10 4.20 3.15 0.63 0.42 1.89 0.38 0.25 2.52 1.26 0.25 0.17 1.68 Road 60.00 45.00 15.00 0.00 27.00 9.00 36.00 18.00 6.00 24.00 Livesto ck shed 87.50 65.63 13.13 8.75 39.38 7.88 5.25 52.50 26.25 5.25 3.50 35.00 C a t t l e 69.00 51.75 10.35 6.90 31.05 6.21 4.14 41.40 20.70 4.14 2.76 27.60 L i v e s t o c k S h e e p 27.00 20.25 4.05 2.70 12.15 2.43 1.62 16.20 8.10 1.62 1.08 10.80 T o t a l Solar stove 14.05 10.53 2.11 1.40 6.32 1.26 0.84 8.43 4.21 0.84 0.56 5.62 Road 4 km 2010-11 60.00 45.00 15.00 27.00 9.00 36.00 18.00 6.00 24.00 Q i a o e r g o u S o n g l i n Livesto ck shed 75(No.) 2009-10 52.50 39.38 7.88 5.25 23.63 4.73 3.15 31.50 15.75 3.15 2.10 21.00 Page 37 34 C a t t l e 65(Head) 2009-10 39.00 29.25 5.85 3.90 17.55 3.51 2.34 23.40 11.70 2.34 1.56 15.60 L i v e s t o c k S h e e p 400(Head) 2009-10 12.00 9.00 1.80 1.20 5.40 1.08 0.72 7.20 3.60 0.72 0.48 4.80 Solar stove 245(No.) 2009-10 5.15 3.86 0.77 0.51 2.32 0.46 0.31 3.09 1.54 0.31 0.21 2.06 Livesto ck shed 50(No.) 2009-10 35.00 26.25 5.25 3.50 15.75 3.15 2.10 21.00 10.50 2.10 1.40 14.00 C a t t l e 50(Head) 2009-10 30.00 22.50 4.50 3.00 13.50 2.70 1.80 18.00 9.00 1.80 1.20 12.00 L i v e s t o c k S h e e p 500(Head) 2009-10 15.00 11.25 2.25 1.50 6.75 1.35 0.90 9.00 4.50 0.90 0.60 6.00 Q i a o e r g o u Solar stove 424(No.) 2009-10 8.90 6.68 1.34 0.89 4.01 0.80 0.53 5.34 2.67 0.53 0.36 3.56 Road 76.50 57.38 19.13 0.00 34.43 11.48 0.00 45.90 22.95 7.65 0.00 30.60 Livesto ck shed 596.40 447.30 89.46 59.64 268.38 53.68 35.78 357.84 178.92 35.78 23.86 238.56 Total Sheep 106.05 79.54 15.91 10.61 47.72 9.54 6.36 63.63 31.82 6.36 4.24 42.42 Road 76.50 57.38 19.13 0.00 34.43 11.48 0.00 45.90 22.95 7.65 0.00 30.60 Livesto ck shed 151.80 113.85 22.77 15.18 68.31 13.66 9.11 91.08 45.54 9.11 6.07 60.72 T o t a l Sheep 9.96 7.47 1.49 1.00 4.48 0.90 0.60 5.98 2.99 0.60 0.40 3.98 Road 5.1(km) 2010-11 76.50 57.38 19.13 34.43 11.48 45.90 22.95 7.65 30.60 H u a n g y u a n L a s a g o u G u a n g h u a Livesto ck shed 68(No.) 2009-10 45.60 34.20 6.84 4.56 20.52 4.10 2.74 27.36 13.68 2.74 1.82 18.24 Page 38 35 Sheep 103 Hea d 2009-10 3.09 2.32 0.46 0.31 1.39 0.28 0.19 1.85 0.93 0.19 0.12 1.24 Livesto ck 139(Head) 2009-10 6.87 5.15 1.03 0.69 3.09 0.62 0.41 4.12 2.06 0.41 0.27 2.75 Y o n g x i n g Livesto ck shed 161(No.) 2009-10 106.20 79.65 15.93 10.62 47.79 9.56 6.37 63.72 31.86 6.37 4.25 42.48 Livesto ck 14.19 10.64 2.13 1.42 6.39 1.28 0.85 8.51 4.26 0.85 0.57 5.68 T o t a l Livesto ck shed 139.60 104.70 20.94 13.96 62.82 12.56 8.38 83.76 41.88 8.38 5.58 55.84 Livesto ck 146(Head) 2009-10 2.61 1.96 0.39 0.26 1.17 0.23 0.16 1.57 0.78 0.16 0.10 1.04 W a n f e n g Livesto ck shed 99(No.) 2009-10 114.40 85.80 17.16 11.44 51.48 10.30 6.86 68.64 34.32 6.86 4.58 45.76 Livesto ck 68(Head) 2009-10 11.58 8.69 1.74 1.16 5.21 1.04 0.69 6.95 3.47 0.69 0.46 4.63 Q u a n e r w a n g o u Q u a n e r w a n Livesto ck shed 36(No.) 2009-10 25.20 18.90 3.78 2.52 11.34 2.27 1.51 15.12 7.56 1.51 1.01 10.08 Livesto ck 81.90 61.43 12.29 8.19 36.86 7.37 4.91 49.14 24.57 4.91 3.28 32.76 T o t a l Livesto ck shed 227.90 170.93 34.19 22.79 102.56 20.51 13.67 136.74 68.37 13.67 9.12 91.16 Livesto ck 31(Head) 2009-10 9.03 6.77 1.35 0.90 4.06 0.81 0.54 5.42 2.71 0.54 0.36 3.61 B o h a n g Livesto ck shed 108(No.) 2009-10 72.10 54.08 10.82 7.21 32.45 6.49 4.33 43.26 21.63 4.33 2.88 28.84 Livesto ck 121(Head) 2009-10 72.30 54.23 10.85 7.23 32.54 6.51 4.34 43.38 21.69 4.34 2.89 28.92 N a l o n g Livesto ck shed 118(No.) 2009-10 82.60 61.95 12.39 8.26 37.17 7.43 4.96 49.56 24.78 4.96 3.30 33.04 Livesto ck 19(Head) 2009-10 0.57 0.43 0.09 0.06 0.26 0.05 0.03 0.34 0.17 0.03 0.02 0.23 B o h a n g g o u H u s i d o n g Livesto ck shed 122(No.) 2009-10 73.20 54.90 10.98 7.32 32.94 6.59 4.39 43.92 21.96 4.39 2.93 29.28 H e l a d g o u H e l a Livesto ck shed 113(No.) 2009-10 77.10 57.83 11.57 7.71 34.70 6.94 4.63 46.26 23.13 4.63 3.08 30.84 n g z h U s h a e T o t a l Livesto ck shed 16.20 12.15 2.43 1.62 7.29 1.46 0.97 9.72 Page 39 36 C a t t l e 17.40 13.05 2.61 1.74 7.83 1.57 1.04 10.44 L i v e s t o c k S h e e p 58.20 43.65 8.73 5.82 26.19 5.24 3.49 34.92 Livesto ck shed 20(No.) 2010-11 7.20 5.40 1.08 0.72 3.24 0.65 0.43 4.32 C a t t l e 94(Head) 2010-11 9.30 6.98 1.40 0.93 4.19 0.84 0.56 5.58 Q i n g q u a n y i L i v e s t o c k S h e e p 310(Head) 2010-11 28.50 21.38 4.28 2.85 12.83 2.57 1.71 17.10 Livesto ck shed 4(No.) 2010-11 1.44 1.08 0.22 0.14 0.65 0.13 0.09 0.86 C a t t l e 39(Head) 2010-11 3.60 2.70 0.54 0.36 1.62 0.32 0.22 2.16 Q i n g q u a n e r L i v e s t o c k S h e e p 120(Head) 2010-11 11.70 8.78 1.76 1.17 5.27 1.05 0.70 7.02 g z a Livesto ck shed 21(No.) 2010-11 7.56 5.67 1.13 0.76 3.40 0.68 0.45 4.54 Page 40 37 C a t t l e 60(Head) 2010-11 4.50 3.38 0.68 0.45 2.03 0.41 0.27 2.70 L i v e s t o c k S h e e p 150(Head) 2010-11 18.00 13.50 2.70 1.80 8.10 1.62 1.08 10.80 PS (i)Due to the limited space, the table mainly shows the Project Activities of investment size, components and main activities in 2009 & 2010 years in EMDP. (ii)The table is compiled by Xining Government and PMOs of the 3 counties. Page 41 38 As shown in the table, the 8 project involved ethnic minority communities are mainly of 2 types: one is soil and water conservation management measures, including tree-planting, forest rehabilitation, check dam, slope protection works, gully head strengthening , pond reinforcement and terracing, etc; the other is livelihood supporting and infrastructure construction projects see table 4 , mainly including construction of livestock sheds, animal raising (cattle, sheep), biogas digesters, solar cookers, as well as improvement of rural roads. The communities containing ethnic minorities have basically identical environmental improvement, livelihood supporting and infrastructure construction activities with the ethnic minority communities. The following aspects have taken into consideration: (a) Flood control and disaster diminishment, pollution control, water and soil conservation, ecological restoration and other core requirements of the project. (b)The economic & social factors, such as increasing employment rate & income of the residents, improving environment and conditions of the community and production, can motivate the participation and attendance of the community actives. All affect the achievements. (c) Avoiding or minimizing negative impact. The former plan is to restrict rotational grazing for forest rehabilitation in 17 sub-watersheds. But this measure will affect livelihood of the local households according to the consultations among project officials, watershed management experts and residents. Therefore, it is changed to disseminate and expire the grazing in forestation area step by step by improving the livelihood activities of residents, forest rehabilitation and water, soil conservation. Due to the new measure, the negative effect is minimized. (d) Cultural adaptability. Culture adaptability is a long-term, beneficial experience of life and work practices of the ethnic minorities. In the project of improving the livelihood, culture tradition such as religions and customs has supported the community of the Hui in raising cows and sheep. However, the community of Han and Tibetan regarded raising cows and sheep or pig according to their own conditions is better. The Kumbum Monastery in Huangzhong County and Guanghui Monastery in Datong County and the holy mountains in Tibetan communities were not involved. The participatory small watersheds planning which requested by unrestricted prior informed consultation, so the residents in the minority community could get full understanding of the purpose, significance, content, and requirement and have fully involved in the design, discussion of the project. The final result of the plan would open to the public by holding villager meeting in time, so the plans were generally accepted by the residents. In terms of the social assessment, the implementation of the party investigated and interviewed 17 communities, took questionnaire survey in 130 families. The community and the residents all expressed their welcome to the project; the approval rating in the community is 100%, the approval rate of household interview is 95%. In September 2008, the expert in social security of World Bank, Doctor Lin Zongcheng was accompanied by the implementation party of the social assessment paid a major return visit to the ErMa village of DaTong county,Yuanshuer village of QiaoTou town, HuSiDong and Na Long village of BoHang town of Huangyuan County. The feedbacks from the villagers of the community were all positive. The feedbacks revealed that all the communities have a general support for this project. Page 42 39 5.2 Consultation Framework: During the Construction The borrower realizes that these projects may need some adjustments and improvements in practice, for these projects are pre-designed. Therefore, in various stages of project implementation, it is necessary to make arrangements to carry on the unrestricted prior informed consultation for the relevant parties to deals with the problems encountered in the process of construction, in order to achieve the maximum interests of all parties , especially to maintain the minority groups and vulnerable groups in minority communities, namely: a When entering the substantive phase of construction, the program unit and the construction party must inform the community residents in advance through community planning group or the village committees during the construction period to secure the agreement of the majority community residents on implementing the constructions, which involves the vital interests of the minority community residents, such as construction methods and progress management of public interest projects, the timing, methods and criteria of payment for community residents mobilized to work, the arrangement order of related activities in the village or in the courtyard, the balance between technical standards of improving livelihood program and the personal requirements, etc. (b) As many able body villagers go out to work, in public interest projects, the relevancy is much higher with women, the elderly and children in the aspect of the public interest construction objects, private interest construction objects and projects to improve the livelihood. Therefore we should pay attention to listen to their advisory opinion no matter whether the views are from the community or the family. (c)The dissenting opinions of the minority in the community are not equal to the unreasonable ones. In this case the program unit and the construction company should attach importance to exert the positive effect of the village committee, the community planning groups, community elders, families and other substrate societies. Thus they can do the persuasive and explanatory work well, avoiding antagonism and even conflict. (d) The unrestricted venue for preceding formation and consultation should be located in the community to facilitate community residents; time is supposed to be arranged in the spare time of majority community inhabitants to ensure the participation. Page 43 40 6. The potential impact & Rights Protection 6.1 The potential impact of this project 6.1.1 The Local people’s Understanding of the Positive and Negative Effects The local residents all believe that this project will benefit ecological environment, preventing water loss and soil erosion, ensuring safety of hometown, perfecting the construction of urban infrastructure, bettering local people’s residence, as well as developing economy. Some ethnic minority residents fear that their gazing land will be restricted more or less. But most people, over 90%, see there is no difference because they have developed the shed husbandry. 6.1.2 Potential Positive and Negative Effects The content of this project had been determined as motioned in chapter 5. Accordingly, there will be some resettlement of the Han communities in the Xining city and Huangyuan County. (see RAP for details). The activities involved minorities’ communities will not occupy farmland or remove houses. So there will be no involuntary resettlement problem. 6.1.2.1 Positive (a) Planting trees and forest rehabilitation will be good for preventing water loss and soil erosion of this minor watershed. Further more, ecotope of this area will be improved. (b) Soil stabilization works on both sides of river valley and sloping field can conserve water, fertilize soil, and expanse agricultural areas. (c) A series of protecting dams in the gullies will reduce threat of flood in rainy season and protect the gullies from becoming wider and muddy,. Page 44 41 (d) Tree-planting will increase timber reserves, raise income level of local people. (e) Restored natural environment will be beneficial to more animals and rare plants. 6.1.2.2 The Potential Negative Effects The main negative effect of this project is to reduce some grazing land for forestation in the ecologically fragile and eroded areas. In addition, the following targets are sensitive. 14 of the total 21 communities containing ethnic minority residents have traditional grazing land being affected. The affected population is 17,000, about 600 are Tibetans, 12,000 are the Hui. Because of different forestation area and diverse livelihood activities, the degree pf this adverse effect is various. Take Yuanshuer Village of Qiaotou Town Datong County for example, the forest rehabilitation will reduce no more than 12.67 hm², but the Shangmiao Village is 1000hm². The borrower confirms that since the operation re-vegetation has begun since 2000, no family will be further influenced by this project. The PMO and Bureau of finance will support this project financially together. Local residents will pay no money in all the public facilities and activities. According to the principle of helping disadvantaged groups, the activities for improving private land facilities will not charge money or labor on poor families. The well off families will pay 50% and the affluent ones will pay in full. Livelihood improvements will emphasize the poor families, so this project will not to be a burden to local minorities. Although few well- off and affluent households share the individual activity funds, the governments provide free training, designing and material supply service, Project office affords 75% of all funds. So, people are welcome this project and take it as a great chance to participate. The borrower have realized that the time limit for this project must be from the middle of March and the middle of November. Because the rest time of a year is too cold to work outside. Considering there are three months (April, September, and October) are busy farming season, this project will arrange all plans that need local people to participate in the free farming time. That can avoid conflicts between project activities and resident labors as much as possible. 6.2 Plan and Measures to Guarantee and improve the rights and interests of Local Ethnic Minorities 6.2.1 Cultural adaptability of this project The core of this project is improving the ecological environment, which is closely connected with the rights and benefits of local people. There are series of supporting plans. (a) The plans of preventing water loss and soil erosion, forest rehabilitation, protecting dam, and other river constructions. (b) The plan of changing sloping fields into flatlands. Page 45 42 Besides, there are some projects of improving local people’s life. (a) A complete set of plans supporting the main project. (b) Building ways, biogas generating pits, and solar cookers. Those are good for bringing the local life up to a new level. There are some practical considerations about local people’s life and production, as we can see in the above suggestions. (a) As the income of local people is growing faster, more and more peasants begin to use tractors and other agricultural machineries. That requires better ways and paths in farming areas. Building more roads will be good for production and decreasing labor. (b) In this area, the environment has been destroyed by overdevelopment recent years. The shortage of firewood leads to high price of cool, which has been a white elephant of local people. The introduction of new biological energy, like biogas and solar energy, which is clean, cheap, and convenient, will be benefit for people’s health and local economy. Meanwhile, with biogas technology, planting and feeding of the area will be developed fast. (c) The most important part is that those activities, advanced by free, prior, and informed consultation among residents in this project, are well acknowledged and received. So we can say, to local minorities, all those plans have strong cultural adaptability and do solve their daily problems. 6.2.2 Participation and Planned Actions There are few technical difficulties at operational level. And absorption of labor power is an important principle. The borrower confirms the following: (a) Encouraging local labor to participate the project activities, and their payment will be no less than migrant labors, so that it can be an opportunity to increase income for local surplus laborers. (b) The land contractors will be responsible of building field paths, changing sloping fields into flatlands and other private plans. Families do not have labor force will get help from their clans and village committees. The project office will rent construction machineries and provide cement. Peasants using their own farm vehicles in this project will be paid daily and have oil supplement. (c) All the building rocks needed by this project will be purchased from local residents. The price will be the same as the market prices. (d) Based on the principle of benefiting the investors, plans of improving life level, which includes biogas generating pits and country roads, will be constructed by people and communities involved in this project. Families do not have sufficient labor force will gain help from clans or village committees. This project will support some technologies. Project office will take charge of road constructions. (e) This project will provide professional training to all the workers, in order to ensure the quality and persuade local people to participate this project. Table 5: Preparation of EMDP and Implementation Schedule Time/Duration Event/Activity Officials/Agencies Involved Participants Requirements Source of Fund Page 46 43 A : M a y 2 0 0 7 — — S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 8 a) Carry out baseline survey about society and economy of this area b) Participatory plan in watershed (Identity of problems and demand analysis) c) Verification of project’s content d) Mobilizing of this project a) PMOs at city and county levels b) SA Taskforce; Participatory small watershed planning and management group; resettlement group a) Staff of PMOs; Township and village officials; b)Villagers’ representatives including women, teenagers, and elders. a) Following two principles: Being close to the communities & negotiation based on the rights to know b) Creating a complete and authoritative database c) Ensure the list about all residents and communities involved in this project d) Ensure ways of participation for all people PMO B : O c t o b e r 2 0 0 8 - M a r c h 2 0 0 9 a) Negotiation about action plans, timing of construction in 2009,and wage standard b) Ensure all lists about people, communities, and participants c) Ensure the content and arrangement of trainings d) Starting the first training a) PMOs at city and county levels; b) officials of town c) experts hired by the project on agriculture, forestry, and civil engineering a) Staff of PMOs; Township and village officials; b) participating households c) Villagers’ representatives including women, teenagers,and elders. a) Be sure to guarantee the ‘right to know’ b) Making the helping plan for households that do not have sufficient labor force c) Discussion on special training for Tibetans and the Hui d) Emphasizing the pertinence, time- effectiveness, and cultural adaptability of this project e) Improving the ability of community planning team PMO C : A p r i l t o N o v e m b e r , 2 0 0 9 a) The project will be in full swing b) Preliminary evaluation about relationships around stakeholders a) PMOs at city and county levels b) Governments and village committees c) Experts a) Community planning teams b) Participants in the communities c) fabricators d) other people - a) Following two principles: Being close to the communities & negotiation based on the rights to know b) Discussion on the problems in all directions c) Do not interrupt agricultural season . According the financial plan D : D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 9 – M a r c h 2 0 1 0 a) Negotiation on the action plans of this project b) Arranging necessary trainings a) PMOs at city and county levels; b) officials of town c) experts hired by the project on agriculture, forestry, and civil engineering a) Community planning teams b) represents of participating households c) Villagers’ representatives including women, teenagers,and elders. a) Following two principles: Being close to the communities & negotiation based on the rights to know b) Making the helping plan for households that do not have sufficient labor force c) Discussion on special training for Tibetans and Hui women d) Emphasizing the pertinence, time- effectiveness, and cultural adaptability of this project According the financial funds After 2010 April, each year’s arrangement will repeat C and D Page 47 44 every two years after project launch mid-term inspection a) PMO of the city b) World Bank a) Experts of participatory plan in minor watershed b) Experts of SA c) Experts on Technology d) Represents of local people a) The qualification of experts must be accepted by both sides b) random sampling c) To present mid-term reports of inspection to PMOs, World Bank, and communities. Special project funds After the whole project is completely finished a) Inspection of the whole project b) Negotiation on maintenance of communities plans c) Sign the agreement d) Setting up trainings of skills and technologies for local people a) PMOs b) Governments of towns c) Experts on technology d) Social Scientists a) Community planning teams/ village committees b) Represents of local people c) Local people who will be responsible for this project a) The final reports will be provided to PMOs, governments of all levels, and all people in the right ways. b) Negotiation on maintenance of communities plans will be based on the early right to know c) The agreement will be signed in public in the communities d) care for its weakest members Special project funds 6.3 Measures to Reduce Potential Negative Effects 6.3.1 Measures to check negative effects & benefit anylysis Error! Bookmark not defined. The underlying negative effects if recovering vegetation in some seriously ecological fragility and eroded areas in the project are already analyzed in the chapter 6.1.2.2. In a voluntary and gradual way, it will not apparently affect the minority communities and residents and will not impact their works. But the underlying and adverse effects such as long distance grazing and reduced grass area will not totally avoid. Therefore: (a) The project adopted resident suggestions to support the barns rebuilding for ethnic minority communities in the project area and provide excellent breeders for villagers; (b) Provide livelihood improvement projects as methane-generating pits, solar stoves and road building and so on to alleviate the loads of residents on labor; (c) Project office and Governments provide resources and technology for barns rebuilding, solar stoves and bio-gas pits etc. Poor households supply money or labors as their wishes and Governments afford all funds; well-off households supply money, labors and 50% counterpart funds; affluent households supply money, labors and all funds; (d) Affluent, well-off, and poor households are to be demarcated and decided by villagers themselves; (e) Consider partial funds are required from well-off and affluent households, whether participate are up to themselves to avoid loads. And Project office and local governments will not limit the proportion of community participation; Page 48 45 (f) The project will provide excellent cow and sheep breeders for Huis and excellent cow, sheep or pig breeders for Tibetans. The corresponding technology training, livestock medicine and information services will be offer to ensure practical benefits; (g) Minority residents have the raising tradition and diet habit on meat, milk etc. Livelihood improvement projects as livestock sheds building, methane-generating pits and solar stoves etc are partially actualized and apparently profited. Residents welcome and suggest popularizing those improvement projects which suit for local culture and society. The debtor party and the SA Taskforce observe that common households in the project area are lacking labors for many labors go out to work. To alleviate the pressure of labor lacking in spring and summer grazing of grassland, the solution, created by residents from Erma Village of Dongxia Township, Datong County, is to collect funds from residents to pay for those who would like to take on the livestock grazing. This solution that will not increase the burden of villagers because of few commissions (Commissions in Erma Village are only 200RMB in summer, each household less than 1RMB) is the method to deal with the temporarily limited grazing of grass land based on the interests of each household. Thus, the debtor party will positively popularize this solution according to Village Committees. Additionally, the debtor party reckons that the solar energy and methane usage of the project spread will halve the need for firewood, grass and coals, on the one hand, it will economize the corresponding labors and capitals for the villagers, on the other hand, the saving will increase the interests of households if the saving is handled in a properly way. Meanwhile, the construction and usage of the methane pools will directly enhance the natural fertilizers and reduce the demand from chemical fertilizers. The methane pools can not only save the costing, but improve the land and water qualities. All the measures will completely eliminate the adverse effects of the project in virtue of the increased income of villagers or the decreased living costing of villagers. 6.3.2 Action plan for reducing the adverse effects Table 6: The plan for Relieve the underlying and adverse effects Time Contents Personnel /institutions Participants Requirements Fund Resources Page 49 46 A . 2 0 0 8 / 1 2 - 2 0 0 9 / 0 3 a) Confirm and publish the villager participants list; b) Ascertain the training requirements list and start training a) Municipal/Country Project Office( including cadres from Poverty Assistance, Ethnic departments and Women Unit etc); b)Country/Township governments a) Village Committee/Community programming group; b)community residents a) Free, prior, and informed consultation and adjacent community principle; b) Free principle and appropriate priority for the poor; c) Effect and pertinence of training; d) Establish community assistance mechanism Executed by financing plan B . 2 0 0 9 / 0 4 - 2 0 0 9 / 1 1 a) Barns constructions; b) Excellent breeders supply; c) Bio-gas pits and Solar stoves constructions. a) Municipal/Country Project Office(including farming technicians); b)Country/township cadres a)Community programming group/Village Committee; b) Villagers i a)Notice busy time in farming; b) Aid labor-lacking households; c) Experienced community residents continually help who need assistance; d) Installment and low risk Executed by financing plan C . 2 0 0 9 / 1 2 - 2 0 1 0 / 0 3 a) Confirm the second participants and train them; b) Organize the participants exchange experience a) Project Office b) Country/township governments and Village Committees c)technicians a)Community programming group; b)Participant households; c) Other free resident participants a) Recruit the successful raisers as trainers; b) Plentiful visits Executed by financing plan After April.2010, repeat the arrangements in Time B and C until realizing all the villager participation. Evaluations in this plan and Evaluations in the last chapter that all have the same requirements and should be carried out at the same tine. PS: The first phase is the slack season of farming from Dec.2008 to Mar.2009. a) “Confirm and publish the villager participants list.” This activity starts at the leisure farming time and Spring Festival when mobile labors back home. According to Village Committee and Community Participation Management Group, affluent, well- off, and poor households to be demarcated and decided by villagers themselves. Each household chooses its participatory projects in a voluntary way. To ensure the participatory right of households, residents who worry and hesitate about projects will participate in batches. Publishing the participants list not only ensures the publicity and justice, but avoids disputes that will efficiently achieve every project. b) “Ascertain the training requirements list and start training.” Ascertaining training points and methods, due to voluntary choices of households and diverse knowledge, skills, needs of households, will utmost fulfill and benefit those projects. The second phase is the construction period from Apr.2009 to Nov.2009. According to the training in the first phase, the households acquire the necessary knowledge and skills. Each household can start constructions by its labors condition Page 50 47 and farming schedule, also, Project office and local government departments will engage technical experts to instruct constructions. The third phase is the summary for the first phase and preparation for the next phase from Dec.2009 to Mar.2010. a) “Confirm the second participants and train them.” To ensure each household owning widespread participation right, this activity provides those households who worry and hesitate about projects anther chance to participate. b) “Organize the participants exchange experience.” To enhance the benefits of projects and boost the confidence of households, this activity arranges the participatory households together to share successful experience. Also, it utmost avoid the underlying risk. 6.4 Case Study: EMDP for a Community In the following, Erma village, a Tibetan community is used as an example for analysis of the specific approaches of EMDP implementation. 6.4.1 Background in Erma village Erma village lies in Dongxia Township of Datong County, with Tibetans as the major part of its population. The following data on population composition: Table 7: Statistic of Population in Erma village Ethnicity composition Items Population Male female households Laborers Migrant Laborers Tibetan Tu Mongolian Hui Han No. of People 936 471 465 211 572 200 749 11 0 0 186 Percentage 100 50.3 49.7 61.1 21.4 80.0 1.2 0 0 19.9 Statistical data show that Tibetans account for 80% of the total population of village, Han people accounts for 18.8%, while Tu people only accounts for 1.2 %. The gender ratio in the village is 50.3: 49.7, which is comparatively symmetrical. There are 572 laborers in total, accounting for 61.1% of the total population; migrant laborers (work more than half a year) total 200 in 2007, taking up 21.4% of the total population. Nearly every household has migrant laborer. The local Tibetan residents in Erma Village are mainly engaged in farming activities, with animal husbandry as a supplement. Located in the mountainous area, the village has relatively larger land areas and abundant forest resources, as is shown in the following table. Table 8 Resources and Development of Erma Village unit mu, RMB, head, kg Area Crops and production Animal Raising Others and number of employee Items 9000 w h e R a p Y S s h C P i o t h e M i g a t h T r a n s p T r a d Page 51 48 Arabl e land Forest Land Grass Land Land Returned to forest Quantity 2482 1700 3000 99.2 400 250 1000 190 150 200 150 mul e 12 1 4 As shown in the above table, the villagers are mainly engaged in cropping, with animal raising as a supplement. A small number of people are doing other activities. Besides, income from migrant labor work has become the main source of cash for most households. Until now, Erma village is still a poverty-stricken village 6.4.2 Perceptions of Tibetan Villagers on Their Development 6.4.2.1 Ethnic consciousness and Cultural Characteristics According to mixed residence and intermarriage features, etc., and in comparison with the nomadic or Tibetans in the Ping’an County, Qinghai Province, the cultural characteristics of the Erma Tibetan are more assimilated to the Han. Most Tibetans in Erma village no longer speak Tibetan language. One interviewee said, "There were several old people in our village who could speak little Tibetan language in the 1940s and 1950s. But no villager can speak Tibetan now because they don’t use the language frequently. In recent years, a few Tibetan girls from Yushu, Guoluo and other places came here through marriage. They can speak Tibetan. However, they can use Mandarin to communicate with us villagers here, because our villagers can not talk with them in Tibetan.” As for apparel, villagers of Erma rarely wear Tibetan costumes; Their wearing is not much different from the Han residents around. Their many customs and etiquette are not different from the Han people, either. However, in term of self-identity, many people affirm that they are Tibetan. They hold that, although they are similar to Han people in their courtesy, there are still differences on some details. For example, Tibetans will wear hats inside out during the mourning period. These show that they have their own ethnic consciousness. Tibetan villagers in Erma also have a system of Mountain God worship, because of this worship, they would also affiliate themselves to Tibetan group. In day- to-day life, they maintain their own historical memory. The memory of their ancestors and imagination of other Tibetans outside the village are the temporal and spatial connections they established for their sense of belongings as Tibetans. In daily life, Tibetans and Han villagers are often joking with each other. In such optional jokes, the Tibetans villagers maintain their own ethnic border, which is not fixed but won’t be washed away, though it may shift along with situation. 6.4.2.2 Perceptions of Tibetan Villagers on Their Development Villagers in Erma village have a lot of thoughts on their own development situation. The entrusted party of the SA Taskforce learned a lot of their views during the discussions and individual interviews. The following is a summary of their views. (i) Most villagers fully affirmed improvement of physical conditions. Many villagers thought that their life had changed a lot compared with that in the past, Page 52 49 especially in the past few years. Now they have primary school and a clinic in the village, as well as road connecting them to outside. Every household has a TV receiving satellite signals; many households have telephone installed. Production tools have also changed greatly, many households no longer use animal power, instead they use tractors and agricultural vehicles. Young people ride motorcycles, instead of walking. (ii) As for welfare, the state totally exempted the agricultural tax on farmers; all income from agricultural production belongs to the farmers themselves. Besides, Because of implementation of the new cooperative rural medical care system, with 10 RMB a year, they can have 50% of medical care cost paid by the cooperative system in cases of serious illness, so the situation of unaffordable medical care for the villagers has been greatly changed. (iii) Many villagers show the psychological contradiction in understanding of the outside world. On one hand, they are longing for the outside world, but on the other hand, they fear that their own little world will be completely altered. During the interviews, an elderly man gave an interesting comment, "the outside world belongs to young people, while the world here belongs to us old people; you know, it is impossible for us to become young again." His saying precisely explicates the mind- set of local people towards modernization. On one hand, they pursue the convenience and fastness of modernization, but on the other way around, they are reluctant to abandon their own cultural traditions. (iv)On belief, the local Tibetans believe in Tibetan Buddhism. They, especially the old, go regularly to Guanghui Monastery, the Monastery not far from the Village, to pilgrimage. There are both ancestral spirit beliefs and Mountain God worship system in the village. When the social crisis outside world implicates their village, they will defuse the crisis in such way. Many villagers said that these belief systems would be extended to the next generation, and would continue from generation to generation. 6.4.2.3 Activities and Impacts of Project and Demands of Villagers Table 9: Project Activities Planned for Erma Village Cost Sharing Proportion % Community Project activities Area/Scope Starting /end time Total Investment WB Counterpart Source of Fund Tree Planting 33.33 (ha) 2011-12 91.07 73 27 PMO Co unty finance department Erma Check dam 50 (No.) 2011-12 77 73 27 PMO, County finance department Page 53 50 Gully Head protection 50(m) 2011-12 0.035 73 27 PMO, County finance department Village to Township Road Rehabilitation 7(km) 2009-12 120 0 100 Village Road Connection Program of the Province Animal Shed 100 2011 70 75 25 PMO, County finance department and affluent, well-off households Cattle 100(head) 2011 60 75 25 PMO, County finance department and affluent, well-off households Sheep 300(head) 2011 9 75 25 PMO, County finance department and affluent, well-off households (PS: Funds and financing details are in table 4) In Table 9 above, the project activities planned for the village include 33.33 ha of tree planting, improvement of the seriously eroded Erma gully that is now a threat to the safety of villagers, and construction of 50 check dams in Erma and Zancang gullies based on the previously implemented improvement programs. The livelihood supporting activities to be implemented are mainly improvement of the existing roads connecting the village with the town, construction of 100 livestock sheds and support to the households for cow raising. Tree planting will be implemented on the slopes of both sides of the gully, some slope land there has been planted with trees as pilot site for returning farmland to forests program. Frost and drought tolerant trees, such as Cypress and Poplar, are the main species chosen for the project activity, so as to increase soil and water Page 54 51 conservation capacity. Experience of the villagers has proven that grazing should not be allowed until after 8 years for the forest establishment. As a result, it is needed to partly restrict herding activities of the villagers. The explanation is: ( )Erma Village has 190 sheep, 300 livestock, 2476.95mu undeveloped hills and slope lands. Subtracting 495 mu lands for forestation, there have 1981.95mu lands. ( )Hay output o f the existing plowlands in Erma Village: a) Straw output is 500 ton/year. The existing plowlands are 2482mu and straw output is 200 kg/mu (conservative output); b) Bran output is 100 ton/year and hay output is 300 ton/year (barns changed into hays in 1:3). The existing plowlands are 2482mu and bran output is 40 kg/mu (conservative output); c) Hay output is 260 ton/year produced by natural grass lands. Hay output is 2000 kg/ha produced by 1982mu (132 ha) undeveloped hills and slope lands. As above, if the diet of each sheep is 610kg, 1060 ton hay output in Erma Village that can feed 1740 sheep. Hay output of the existing lands resource can meet all the livestock including 190 sheep and 300 livestock (match to 1500 sheep). Thus, this project will not apparently effect the livelihood activities of local residents. The SA Taskforce found that what the villagers were concerned about was not the impacts of tree planting and the resulted restriction on herding activities, actually they were supportive to such project activities, because the state has compensation policies for returning farmland to forest and they can get subsidies from doing that, also the program has already generated certain ecological improvement effects. What the local residents was concerned about was the ownership of trees and woods resulted from tree planting and restricted grazing. Some residents proposed that the benefits should belong to entire village collective and the property right should belong to the village itself, rather than the nation or any individual. The debtor party deems that the ecological character trees are the major planting and will consider the villagers’ suggestion which is reasonable in some aspects about the Right of Forest. The project area will put the Right of Forest reform into practice as well as the whole country. But, the essential point is to protect the forest and keep its ecological function, no matter who own the Right of Forest. Two flood disasters occurred in this area in the 1950s and 1980s, respectively. Because of funding problems, the village is not able to put an end to flood disasters with the existing 10 check dams and 1 flood prevention wall established. Hence, the villagers hope that, through implementation of this project, flood problem can be completely solved, and they have great enthusiasm to participate in the project. The villagers also hope that the project implementation will facilitate development of the whole village. They think water source is the most important issue to them. They are now pumping water from river channel at downstream, which is not only power-consuming, but also very inconvenient. What is more, the water diverted is not as good in quality as in the upper reaches. There is a water source on the slope of a hill near the village, the water has good quality but is not yet properly used. Page 55 52 During the rainy season, rainstorm will cause rise of water level and pose a threat to the village at the downstream. As said by the villagers, if a dam can be built at the upstream to store water, the water source problem and the flooding problem will both be solved, and this will also save energy and cost for water supply facilities. Another strong desire of the villagers is construction of a road directly connecting the Upper Erma and Lower Erma natural villages with the county and Township, which can shorten the distance by about 1 km and free their vehicles from tonnage limitation of the road of Yamenzhuang Village, the section of road which they need to pass by to reach the main road (Villagers in Yamenzhuang built the road with their own money collectively. The road is narrow and the surface concrete application is thin, so they only allow tonnage of within 5 tons. ) 6.4.2.4 EMDP and the Benefit Analysis The social assessment professionals, the Project Office personnel do a fieldwork together and have a consultation with Erma villagers time after time, they also communicate with the local departments of Country Government. So, ethnic minorities develop plan (EMDP) for Erma village is confirmed: A. Infrastructure construction: (a) Drinking Water Source: The villagers proposed to use the water source at upstream of the village as their drinking water source. Since water there is clean and stable in yield, the diversion method is energy-saving, and that use of the water can help to reduce gully erosion in rainy seasons, the proposal are supported. The County Water Affairs Bureau decides that: it will implement a drinking water project for livestock and people in the time period from 2009 to 2010 to meet the requirement of the villagers. The water project will cost The Country Water Affairs about 50,000RMB and the fee all comes from itself. (b)Village Road Improvement: The village now has a 7 km road surrounding the village and linking up its 3 natural villages to connect with the road extending to Dongxia Township. But the road surface is not yet hardened. Some sections of the road have sharp slope and are dusty in fine days and difficult to travel along in the rainy season. The villagers also need to pass through the road of Yamenzhuang village on which tonnage limitation is imposed. Therefore, the villagers require a straight, surface-hardened road to connect them with the town. The County Transportation Bureau affirms that this requirement has been listed into the Village Road Construction Program of 2007 by the provincial Transportation Bureau, with 1.2 million RMB of special funds earmarked. The village road improvement will start at 2009. The above two projects will greatly improve the production and living conditions of villagers including Erma Village, ensure water quality of their drinking water and year-round smooth transportation. B. Livelihood support: In the village, 60 poor households had received support form the County Poverty Alleviation and each built a new animal shed, with a cost between 5000- 7000RMB. Some villagers start to raise milch cows. The average milk from 4-12 Page 56 53 years old milch cow is about 400kg in a year and the profit is almost 500RMB. The most profitable thing is to raise little cows, the price of each one is 1800RMB and the profit is at least 1200RMB. In an underestimated method, the raiser will have 1000- 1500RMB by raising a milch cow. Pig Raising is prosperous because the profit of each pig is as high as 200RMB.The profit of a piglet is about 400RMB, so raising female pigs are most profitable. Also, some villagers raise goats and Tibetan sheep. Considering the meat needing of local residents for festivals, we support these villagers and provide 300 breeder sheep to enlarge the raising scale. The villagers are more confident with cow and pig raising based on their experience in recent years. Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau affirms that 100 barns will be constructed for 100 households in 2009. The debtor party confirmed that these 100 households should cover as many as possible poor households in the village under the respect of their own wishes. In order to make animal sheds fully functional, the county government departments will govern and utilize the special capitals for the agriculture development and poverty assistance, also, they will provide breeders for villagers by the standard that one animal shed at least have one breeder and contact with the dairy product produces to help the villagers to establish reliable marketing relationship. Additionally, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau will organize animal husbandry experts to investigate the water, soil and climatic conditions of Erma village, and advise on suitable grass varieties to the animal-raising households, so as to ensure good quality, high yield fresh fodder for the animals. Animal raising households in the village indicated that, in recent years, they have been using potatoes, corn and straw as feed to reduce the cost of feeding, and they have seen good results. Since the village has more arable land and large areas of hills and slopes, grass planting will not affect food rations of people. Based on experience of the villagers and practice in Husidong village and other villages in Huangyuan County, it is certain that such activity is promising. Table 10 The activity schedule of EMDP in Erma Village Livestock shed(Household) Cattle(Household) Sheep(Household) No. Affluent Well- off Poor Total Affluent Well- off Poor Total Affluent Well- off Poor Total 1 6 6 2 7 9 2 1 4 7 2 8 8 1 6 7 1 8 9 3 7 7 2 4 6 1 3 4 4 9 9 5 4 9 1 2 4 7 5 2 2 2 2 4 1 1 6 2 6 8 5 4 9 3 2 2 7 7 9 9 1 5 6 6 4 10 8 1 9 10 1 7 8 5 2 1 8 9 5 7 12 1 3 4 8 3 2 3 8 Page 57 54 10 1 8 9 3 4 7 1 3 4 8 11 5 5 3 4 7 7 2 9 12 5 5 3 3 6 4 6 10 13 6 6 2 5 7 3 3 14 4 4 1 6 7 2 2 5 9 Sum Total 9 91 100 2 33 65 100 35 16 49 100 C. Technic training: (a) Animal Raising Skill Training: This should cover skills for animal feeding, caring, disease prevention, transportation and preservation of fresh milk, fodder processing, feed mixing and so on. These technical and knowledge training should be provided by the experts of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau at county and Township levels, or technicians of dairy companies, and experienced animal-raising villagers will be invited to participate in the training. PMO should provide financial support for this. Such training should be mainly conducted in the village and in the sheds of the households, so as to give the villagers on-the-spot guidance. The debtor part wakes up to the important meaning about women, the elderly and the kids in conducting the training, as they are now the major force in the households while young laborers are mostly working outside. So, it is necessary to enroll those people. (b) Technical Training for Migrant Laborers: At present, the migrant laborers are employed in a wide range of industries, such as catering business, mining, building and others, and lots of them are working to build fence and houses in pastoral area. As a result, the focus of the training should be improving their building skills. Students in the junior or high schools may adopt technical training courses provided by schools to improve their skills for future employment. (c) Training for Participation in the Project: The Public constructions like tree planting and check dams etc under the Project have few technique demand, the villagers may participate by their own whishes under the on-site guidance and supervision by technical staff. Before the participation, the technical staff will provide some necessary technical training to the villagers. D. Latter management and protection The trees planted under the Project need long-term management and protection, while the structures including check dams etc also need taking care of by the villagers, particularly in the rainy seasons when the villagers need to take responsibilities for observation and emergency handling to reduce the risks. Such participation activities should be organized by the community programming group or village committees, while part of the project fund can be used to subsidize the villagers and village leaders for their input. It should be pointed out that, due to the fact that post-project maintenance does not require much technique, therefore, people with the required Page 58 55 capability and from poor households should be first considered for such work, especially the elderly and women who have proper hearing, vision and the ability to walk, so that they can receive a certain amount of subsidies from the operation and maintain funds of the Project. The activities of the project above will be implemented as the chapter 6.2.2 and 6.3.2. According to these measures, the project will not only fully alleviate the underlying and adverse effects on Tibetan and other ethnic residents in Erma Village, but improve the living standard and condition of residents. The debtor deems that all the steps in the project will profit every ethnic resident of Erma Village in a long time and remarkably amend the residents living. E. Expenditure From table 9, the project activities in Erma Village will cost about 4.27 million RMB, the drinking water project need 50,000RMB which provided by the County Water Affairs Bureau itself and the training fee is about 60,000RMB (the fee of each village labor is about 100RMB). So the whole expenditure is about 4.4 million RMB. All the activities are belong to ethnic minority development plan (EMDP) except the three core activities in the project: Tree planting, Check dam and Gully head protection. EMDP in Erma Village will cost about 2,720,000RMB. The expenditure of Village Road Improvement and drinking water project (1.25 million RMB) is resolved by other ways, the other expenditures are shared by each party in the light of the financing plan in the project. 6.5 The financing plan in EMDP 6.5.1 Principles (a) Different financing plans for the different project constructions; (b) For the public constructions, municipal and country governments will provide all the special capital to ensure aim of the project fully implemented; (c) For the loan from World Bank for Living Improvement of the project, different ranking governments singly borrow and give back; (d) For the “participation” idea, disadvantaged group assistance and project management, the individual financing collection from villagers in every basin community should conform to different wealth rates, it is that the rich households should pay all the financing they bear 25% of funds and Project office bear 75% of funds , the middle households bear 50% financing (account for 12.5% of the total project funds) and the poor households do not need to give. The rest 50% financing and the poor households financing are contributed by the local government; (e) Municipal and Country governments will positively govern and use the special funds provided by our nation for poverty assistance and rural basic establishment, meanwhile, the project has the priority to use the funds; (f) To ensure the financing be collected wholly and in time, the Municipal Project Office will sign a duty treaty about the financing collection with the Country Project Office. And, Country Project Office who govern and use the financing will monitor Page 59 56 each basin participatory community management group to execute the financing collection job. 6.5.2 The Ratio for Each Party The financing rate in the project: World Bank takes 73% and Country (District) accounts for 27% in Public Project; World Bank takes 75%, Country (District) takes 25% in Living Improvement; World Bank takes 75% and Country (District) takes 25% in work equipment cost; World Bank takes 100% about the training fee; Country (District) occupies 100% in base preparation fee. The actual financing of each participatory household refer to 6.5.1(d). Explanation: Only personal beneficial projects such as livestock shed rebuilding, solar stove and bio-gas pit building are required money from participatory households, affluent households afford all the counterpart money (takes 25%-27% of the plan funds) and well-off households afford 50% counterpart money (takes 12.5% of the plan funds). Even the households who participate both livestock shed rebuilding (each shed cost 5-7000RMB) and solar stove or bio-gas building (each building cost 2-3000RMB), the economical load of affluent households is only 2500-2700RMB and well-off households less than 1500RMB that local households could bear, furthermore, they have the right to choose whether participate or not by their own conditions and wills. In this measure, it will not compress living conditions of households. According to the information which come from the investigation of The SA taskforce, Sub-watershed Participatory Management group and local government departments, community residents positively welcome and accept this financing measure. 6.5.3 Funds calculation in EMDP The total funds are 116.36 million RMB for the 17 sub-watersheds constructions. Engineering constructions cost 54 million RMB, ecological engineering constructions cost 23 million RMB, forest rehabilitation including dissemination and training fee costs 13.6 million RMB and livelihood reversion and improvements cost 36 million RMB. To alleviate the negative effects on 21 communities containing ethnic minorities, we invest 20.26 million RMB for public and household benefits. Public major constructions are to improve the village roads and household beneficial items are livestock shed rebuilding, solar stove and bio-gas pit building, excellent breeders providing. Activities in this project are blow: Table 11: Financing components in EMDP (Unit: 10 thousand RMB) Funds Counterpart funds Page 60 57 Scope Activities Total investment Project investment County government investment Households investment Total 2026 1429 434 162 Road 407 215 191 0 Cattle 305 229 46 31 L ivestock Sheep 262 197 39 26 Livestock shed 970 728 146 97 Bio-gas pit 30 22 4 3 21 communities containing ethnical minorities in three counties Solar stove 52 39 8 5 PS: The particular financing plan dividing into different communities, items and activities of EMDP refer to table 4. Page 61 58 7 Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) 7.1 Responsible M&E Agencies M&E is an important component element to ensure serious and fully implementation of EMDP, and also the important error-correcting mechanism and participation mechanism. 4 independent M&E groups are established with members of representatives of the government, World Bank, PMO and local Residents, respectively. to maintain communication while each has its won focus. Government M&E group: It mainly attends to see whether the EMDP is implemented, whether ethnic minority/ties or the ethnic minority households are facing up with problems, and helps them to solve problems that may arise, so as to avoid accumulation of the problems. Its members include mainly officials from governmental departments of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, science and technology, national and religious affaires, poverty alleviation, women federations and so on. World Bank M&E group: It will mainly concentrate on aspects including project progress, implementation effectiveness of EMDP, status of participation of ethnic minority communities and the households and the corresponding satisfaction degree, implementation of rules and regulations, use of funds and M&E carried out by the other three M&E groups, etc. World Bank M&E group consists of independent experts engaged by the World Bank, they are experts in the fields of social assessment, resettlement, participatory watershed management, finance, agriculture and forestry, etc. PMO M&E group: It has main tasks of urging the relevant government departments and community residents to take their responsibilities in the project implementation, assisting and promoting M&E work of the government M&E group and resident representatives’ M&E group, and providing specific proposals to improve EMDP. Resident Representatives’ M&E Group: It will mainly conduct M&E on status of EMDP implementation by the village-level project management team, the effectiveness of the project implementation, and on realization of project objectives against the schedule. Its members should be elected from the households involved in the project, represent various ethnic groups, and have the courage to speak. Moreover, its membership should not overlap with the village project management team. 7.2 Indicator System of M&E 7.2.1 The focuses of M&E The focuses of M&E are on the following aspects: (a) Whether the right of ethnic minorities is protected; Page 62 59 (b) Whether the ethnic minority communities and the residents indeed benefit from the project; (c) What specific measures have the local PMOs taken to guarantee participation of ethnic minority residents and communities? How are the effectiveness and flexibility of these measures? (d) Whether the mechanism of multi-department organizations involved in the project organization, guidance and implementation is effective; Are there any improvement measures; (e) How do ethnic minority residents evaluate these measures? What specific comments do the majority people have on these measure? (f) Whether the M&E mechanisms of EMDP have been established; Are these mechanisms effective? M&E methods and the specific indicators for M&E are included in Section 10.3 and Section 10.4 of the Social Assessment Report. 7.2.2 M&E Baseline information The particular baseline information for EMDP including life materials of community families, the origin of income, the level of income and consumption etc, at present we have the information not only from the SA Taskforce which has taken questionnaire research on 130 households in 10 communities within the project area (refer to table 3 in the social assessment report), but the 2006/2007 economy report about communities and residents which provided by Village and Township governments, and so on. Municipal Project Office and Country Project Office investigated the baseline information of the community residents within the project area according to the questionnaire in February, 2008, part reflections from the community investigation can be found in table 4 of the social assessment report. The debtor party seriously indicates that, to providing credible data for M&E, we will mobilize Country and Township governments to cooperate with corresponding Village Committees of communities for the sake of baseline information of villagers fully and particularly collected. Additionally, we will start it before March, 2009 which means earlier than the whole Project. 7.3 Appeal Mechanism The debtor party recognizes that it is not easy to implement free, prior, and informed consultation, though we carefully carry it out during the preparation and execution phases of the project. To make sure the action of free, prior, and informed consultation and figure out some problems which can not dealt with by free, prior, and informed consultation (such as the local residents’ wealth damages and casualties due to the negligence and deregulation during constructions, and so on), also to furthest protect the right of the ethnic minority residents, we must establish appeal mechanism for the ethnic minority communities and residents. Page 63 60 (a) Appeal Mechanism for the activities in the project: if the community residents dissatisfy with the project activities in their communities, the community residents or their relatives feel discriminations during the project activity arrangements, and moreover, which can not suitably solved by free, prior, and informed consultation, they can report to Appeal Reception Institution in local government. The project activities should be ceased when the corresponding departments are informed. Appeal Reception Institution should investigate the reflections and promote the two parties that come to an agreement by free, prior, and informed consultation; (b) Appeal Mechanism for the constructions: if the constructed party is not followed the negotiated step, measure, time, route and other rule of constructions, or even starts constructions without negotiations, Village Committee and community residents can report it any time. Appeal Reception Institution should go to the locale when the day that receive the report or after the day to call off deregulations or summons the involved parties to make an agreement. If there have wealth damages or casualties to the community residents due to constructions, according to different levels, firstly Country, Township or Village government will coordinate the involved parties, and then turn the matter to The Judiciary if the mediation is failed. In addition, the project will mobilize national justice assistance system to provide free justice service for the community residents; (c) Appeal Mechanism for the conflicts among community residents: if community residents have contradictions in terraces changing form slop lands and barns rebuilding, and so on, the community programming group or Village Committee will coordinate each other; (d) Appeal Reception Institution consists: Village, Township or Municipal appeal departments, Municipal or Country Project Office, Village Committee, the community programming group. The justice assistance system, in the interest of disadvantaged group, which set up by Chinese Government will provide justice assistance to EMDP. 7.4 M&E Cycle and Information Publicity M&E for EMDP implementation includes 2 forms: annual M&E and irregular M&E, The 4 M&E groups can carry out their work separately or do it jointly. It is better to have a joint diagnostic M&E every year. The fundamental purpose of M&E is not to pick fault or just ask difficult questions, but to find out reasons of problem identified so as to solve or reduce the problem using proper measures. Therefore, M&E is a constructive mechanism. The diagnostic M&E shall be organized and coordinated by PMO, and the funds needed should be incorporated into the project budget. Written reports need to prepared for the M&E conducted and submitted to PMOs, governments in the project area, the World Bank and the communities. Furthermore, they should be publicized on websites of the World Bank and governments, bulletins boards of the communities and so on, and subject to inspection by all parties, especially the local residents should be informed. The eth nic minority people in the project area don’t use their own language either orally or in writing anyhow, so the M&E report for domestic uses in Chinese version is adequate. Page 64 61 ——The End—— Page 65 62