Page 1 PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) CONCEPT STAGE Report No.: AB2688 Project Name Forest and Environment Sector Project Region AFRICA Sector General agriculture, fishing and forestry sector (100%) Project ID P100620 Borrower(s) DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO Implementing Agency Ministry of Environment, Forest and Nature Conservation Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo Environment Category [X] A [X] B [ ] C [ ] FI [ ] TBD (to be determined) Date PID Prepared 11/13/2006 Estimated Date of Appraisal Authorization November 2007 Estimated Date of Board Approval February 2008 1. Key development issues and rationale for Bank involvement Background and Issues Facing the Forest and Environment Sector 1. The Congolese forest is critical for the livelihoods of about 40 million rural people among the poorest in the world. It has a potential to contribute to poverty alleviation and growth at national level. It can also help the DRC establish partnerships with the international community based on the services it provides for the global environment. However, natural resources governance has always been a problem in the DRC; institutional capacities have collapsed; and the post-conflict recovery carries the risk of a chaotic development of the sector. In this context, the multiple functions of the Congolese forest can not be preserved and shared equitably and sustainably, without immediate efforts to strengthen sector governance and to enhance the capacities of public institutions and civil society. 2. In the DRC, forest provides proteins, medicine, domestic energy, arable lands, and cash income to the vast majority of rural people; and to urban people as well. The level of dependence on forest is probably among the highest in the world. The Congolese rainforest is also the second largest in the world, and it is unique in view of its biodiversity and of the environmental services it provides on a global scale. Forest also contributes to recovery at the national level. A variety of formal/informal, timber/non-timber-based activities provide jobs and other economic opportunities in remote areas and revenues to the government. However, many of these benefits are only potential (and would not materialize without specific efforts) or at risk. Page 2 3. The legacy of the past . The forest sector in the DRC was traditionally dominated by vested interests and by lack of transparency and public participation. Little consideration was given to forest values other than timber. This led to a situation where benefits for the public (other than informal gathering of non-timber products) remained marginal, and were half of the country’s forests were locked up under logging concessions even before they became accessible. Most of these concessions had been awarded with no local consultations, overlapped with villages and biodiversity hotspots, and put at risk non-timber forest values. Most public institutions across the country are in shambles. The departments in charge of forest and environment are no exception in that regard. Their capacity in the field is close to nil, and they are unable to enforce laws and to detect illegal logging. Conflicts between logging companies and local communities are frequent, and some groups are marginalized especially the Pygmies. 4. With the return of peace and security, the timber sector is restarting gradually and, to some extent, inevitably. With the current forces at play, including weak institutions and weak governance, there are significant risks that local people and the country will remain on the losing side, and that the resource-base and the environment will continue to deplete at an accelerated pace. The political transition context also heightens the risk of speculative acquisition of forest lands and other misappropriation of public resources. If these risks materialize, peace will result in an overall impoverishment of the local people, the country, and the global community. 5. In 2002, the government started to address crucial governance issues and embarked in a Priority Reform Agenda. This Agenda emphasizes forest as a public good. It aims to clean up the legacy of mismanagement, to mitigate the risks of the post-conflict recovery, and to lay the foundation for more sustainable and equitable management. It led to the cancellation of about 25 million hectares of non-compliant logging concessions – a move unprecedented in Africa. These areas are now open for participatory land use processes, and can be turned into community forests, protected areas, or new non-extractive uses. The reform agenda also resulted in the establishment of a moratorium on new logging concessions, and in the launching of a legal review of remaining concessions with the participation of an independent observer. A new Forest Code was adopted. It sets basic principles for sustainable management, community forestry and an expansion of protected areas, as well as for greater transparency and civil society involvement, and for the maintaining of traditional user rights in all production forests. Rationale for Bank involvement 6. The key challenge now for the DRC and its partners is to carry through the basic steps of the reform agenda and to implement the new forest code which includes among others: ensuring effective consultations with forest people; curbing illegal logging; and promoting alternative forest uses. In practice, these undertakings can succeed only if reformers within the government receive continued support; if basic capacity for law enforcement is restored within the forest department, and if initiatives from civil society and local communities’ are encouraged and supported. Despite the institutional collapse, a number of staffs have maintained a vision for the sector, and some political commitment for improved sector governance has emerged at top-level in the recent years. A clear demand for more sustainable and more equitable management of forests is also emerging from civil society. Page 3 7. Since 2002 the Bank has played a key role in promoting new forest policies in the DRC, and it now has a key role to play in supporting their implementation on the ground. The proposed project aims to help forest institutions implement these new policies, and to help local communities and civil society capture the potential benefits. 2. Proposed objective(s) 8. The higher level objective to which the project will contribute is: to improve the livelihoods of forest- dependent people, to increase forest’s contribution to shared growth, and to protect the natural resource-base and the environment. The project aims to bring more transparency and public participation in forest management, to strengthen the enforcement of laws and contracts, to empower local communities and ensure more equitable sharing of benefits, and to protect the environment. 9. The project’s specific PDO is: to enable public institutions and civil society to implement, enforce, and monitor the sector governance reforms and the innovations of the forest code . 3. Preliminary description 10. Components . The project would include 4 components aimed at helping implement reforms in key areas of governance, poverty reduction, and environmental protection. These components would combine institutional strengthening, technical assistance, and support to local initiatives. Given the resources available and the limited capacities, the project design will have to be selective and to focus on critical functions and reforms. The likely sub-components and areas of intervention of the project are listed below: Component 1 – Sustainable Forest Management · Enforcement of forest management plans · Tax collection enhancement · Third-party forest monitoring, log tracking system Component 2 – Local Livelihoods and Community Development · Monitoring of poverty-oriented sector reforms (cahier des charges, sharing of revenues) · Support to community forests and community reserves · Support for indigenous peoples’ equal access to innovations of the code · Support to small scale family (timber/non-timber based) enterprises · Fuel-wood management in savannas and highlands Component 3 – Biodiversity and Environmental Services · Promotion of environmental services and innovative forest uses · Biodiversity conservation, management of protected areas · Monitoring of the program’s socio-environmental management plan Component 4 – Transversal Supports · Participatory multi-purpose land use planning/Local consultations · Outreach, dissemination of the forest code, and consultations on decrees · Administrative and financial management, planning and monitoring-evaluation · Rehabilitation of forest/ICCN field offices and teams in selected areas Page 4 11. The project would help implement the recommendations of a Forest Sector Review finalized in co-authorship with research centers and national and international NGOs. It would also help implement the conclusions of two international forest forums held in Kinshasa in 2004 and 2006. These exercises helped gradually build a consensus around the sector strategy and the reform agenda. 12. The proposed operation would support a national, multi-donor, sector-wide program, and be articulated w ith other donors’ interventions. A draft Forest and Nature Conservation Sector Program (PNFoCo) was prepared by the Ministry of Environment and the ICCN in 2003. This framework document would be finalized in a participatory manner so as to provide a strategic framework for all interventions in the sector. 13. The proposed operation would constitute the central piece of a package of Bank assistance to the sector, which includes a Forest sector review completed in partnership with research centers and national and international NGOs, support to governance reforms through the Transitional Support for Economic Recovery (TSERO), a GEF grant for national parks ($7 million), and a possible Bio-Carbon Purchase Agreement for a carbon sink/afforestation program ($4 million). It would also complement a Bank-administered multi-donor trust fund for forest governance. 14. If the project is successful, it will: · enable the Ministry of Environment/Institute for Nature Conservation to fulfill their core- regulatory functions in the field. The problem that the project is expected to solve is that these technical institutions do not have capacity to implement their new policies in the field. If the project is successful, these institutions will be controlling logging operations and enforcing sustainable management plans, rehabilitating national parks, conducting participatory processes; and running basic administrative functions (financial management, annual planning and monitoring-evaluation). · enable local communities to engage in the decision-making, management, and benefit- sharing mechanisms created by the new forest code. The problem that the project is expected to solve is that local communities do not have adequate instruments and capacities to claim their rights and their benefits, and to participate in forest management. If the project is successful, local communities will be participating in forest land use planning, developing community forests, and benefiting from social responsibility contracts and retrocession of revenues. Local communities include Indigenous People for whom an additional challenge is to ensure equal access to the benefits of the reforms, and to avoid marginalization. · enable civil society to engage in dialogue with the government and in partnerships with the public institutions, especially for the monitoring of the new code in the field. The problem that the project is expected to solve is that adequate instruments and frameworks for civil society involvement do not exist, or exist on an informal and ad-hoc basis, and there is limited accountability. If the project is successful, local civil society organizations will be conducting awareness-raising campaigns, monitoring illegal logging, and monitoring the use of forest revenues at local level and social responsibility contracts. Page 5 15. The project will be implemented throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo. The project will not be able to cover the entire country with the same intensity. While some activities are nationwide by nature, others will focus on selected/pilot areas. These regions will be determined during project preparation or through the annual planning process during project implementation. 16. The project would be implemented through the Ministry of Environment and ICCN, with the view to promote ownership by the technical institutions, and with an emphasis on enhancing their own administrative and financial management capacity. As much as possible, planning, administration, and monitoring-evaluation would follow and improve the country systems. 17. Institutional support will be a key dimension of the project. However, the way this support is delivered will have to take into account the overall collapse of institutions in the country. Also, the current level of salary and incentive framework for civil servants is discouraging and hardly compatible with good management of forests as a public asset. The project will coordinate with other reconstruction strategies and other sector projects to address these issues. Most equipment, training, and technical assistance would be combined in packages focusing on specific missions of the institutions and/or on outcomes expected from the project (as opposed to capacity building being an end in itself, and being isolated from other outcomes of the project). 18. Activities related to community development and local livelihoods (especially component 2) would be subcontracted or entrusted to specialized implementing agencies, such as NGOs, FAO, or others. Experience will be drawn from Community Driven Development operations in the region. 4. Safeguard policies that might apply 19. The following safeguard policies apply to the project: Environmental Assessment (OP 4.01), Forests (OP 4.36), Natural Habitats (OP 4.04), Indigenous People (OP 4.10), Involuntary Resettlement (OP 4.12), and Physical Cultural Resources (OP 4.11). The project will be processed as Category A. As a first step, a strategic socio-environmental assessment (SSEIA) will be conducted, with due consultations and disclosure, and will inform subsequent phases of the preparation. It will include a Social Management Plan, an Indigenous People Development Plan, a Resettlement Policy Framework, and a Process Framework. The project will not directly or indirectly finance industrial logging or promote its expansion in the DRC. The project will not entail any physical resettlement. It will not restrict the rights of indigenous peoples as compared to the situation at the start of the project. On the contrary it will include a component aimed at ensurin g indigenous peoples’ equal opportunities and access to the benefits of the new policies. Page 6 5. Tentative financing Source: ($m.) BORROWER/RECIPIENT TBD INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION 30.00 MULTI-DONOR TRUST FUND 4.00 GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL FACILITY 7.00 Total 41.00 6. Contact point: · Task Manager Laurent Debroux, Sr. Forestry Specialist The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington D.C. 20433 Telephone: 202 473 3581 Fax: 202 473 8229 · For information on other project related documents contact: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 458-5454 Fax: (202) 522-1500 Web: http:// www.worldbank.org/infoshop · Implementing Agency Ministry of Environment, Forest and Nature conservation Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo