Page 1 1 Non technical Sammury English Version ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK OF THE PRO-ROUTES PROJECT PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS FOR THE PRO ROUTES ADDITIONAL FINANCING PROJECT Context The financing of major infrastructure projects, classified Category A by the World Bank for environmental sensitivity, is subject to rigorous procedures, among which appear, during preparation of projects that will finance a number of investments, the obligation to publish a framework for the management of environmental and social impacts of the project, and to ensure the process of public consultation. Category A applies, among others, to roads for which the impacts on the environment can be “irreversible” since they cross protected areas and/or zones in which live protected species and also can affect indigenous people and cultural heritage. The Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) of a project is a document in which is presented, in broad outlines, the main consequences of the project on the environment; it considers the mitigation of these impacts and recommends accompanying measures, and as far as possible, it evaluates the overall costs of these actions. It defines also the terms of reference of the detailed studies which will have to be realized thereafter, before the implementation of related investments. It proposes finally a mechanism of follow-up evaluation of the direct and indirect socio-environmental impacts. The ESMF proposes moreover an Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) for the various actors involved in implementation of the project. For the Pro-Routes project ( Projet d’appui à la réouverture et d’entretien des routes hautement prioritaires ), whose management was entrusted to the Cellule Infrastructures of the Ministry for Infrastructures, Public works and Reconstruction (MITPR), the Environmental and Social Impact Strategic Framework was validated and published in 2008 for the following road axes: · The National Road 4 (RN4); Kisangani via Dulia towards Bondo and Bunduki in the Oriental Province (620 km); · The National Road 5 (RN5); between Uvira, in the South-Kivu, and Kasomeno, in Katanga (1,180 km). The global provisions prescribed for the environmental and social impact assessment of the Pro-Routes project is in conformity with the operational policies of the World Bank which envisage the following safeguard policies applicable to this project: OP 4.01 (Environmental Assessment); OP 4.04 (Natural Habitats); OP 4.36 (Forests); OP 4.11 (Physical Cultural Resources); OP 4.12 (Involuntary Resettlement); and OP E2749 v14 Page 2 2 4.10 (Indigenous Peoples). The complete texts of these policies are available on the World Bank web site. Currently, the Government of the DRC is about to obtain an additional financing of its funders, DFID and the World Bank, to extend the Pro-Routes project to four (4) new road axes, namely: · The National Roads 6 and 23 (RN6 / RN23) : Akula – Gemena – Mbari – Libenge – Boyabo – Zongo (376 km); · The National Road 2 (RN2) : Kamituga (Bukavu) – Kasongo – Lubawo – Kabinda – Mbuji Mayi (825 km); · The National Road 26 (RN26) : Niania – Isiro (216 km); · The National Road 4 (RN4): Kisangani – Beni (replacement of the nine (9) bridges and maintenance works « GENIS » on the total length of the axis) (741km). For these new road axes, the ESMF of the Pro-Routes project, including the global elements of the environmental and social approach of the project, will apply in its general form. Bank procedure requires that the ESMF of the Pro-Routes project, for the new road axes, is adapted, published and explained by the means of public consultation workshops, in order to collect the opinions of the different stakeholders so as to integrate them in the terms of reference of the detailed studies detailed to be carried out. This step must be followed by the elaboration of detailed environmental and social studies which will take into account, for each one of these road sections, realities specific to the environmental and social contexts of the zone of influence of the project (which extends 75 km on both sides of the road axis). The adaptation of the ESMF relates to 2,158 km of national roads. The detailed environmental and social studies to be carried out (or to be updated for those already realized in 2005) will mobilize environmentalists, sociologists, agroeconomists, biologists, foresters, specialists in indigenous Pygmy peoples, etc. They will be supported and accompanied in the field by the experts of the Cellule Infrastructures, Office des Routes, Groupe d’Évaluation Environnementale au Congo (GEEC) and Institut Congolais pour le Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) of the Environment Ministry (MECNT). The documents of the Pro-Routes project’s ESMF (Environmental and Social Impact Studies, Environmental and Social Management Plan, Resettlement Plan, Indigenous People Development Plan) are available on the World Bank web site (www.worldbank.org/infoshop - number of P101745 project) and will be also, within the framework of public consultations, available in paper version from the month of June 2010, at the Cellule Infrastructures in Kinshasa, and at the Office des Routes’ agencies of the provincial capitals and following districts: · Gemena · Kisangani · Isiro · Beni · Bukavu · Kasongo · Mbujimayi · Kindu · Kabinda Page 3 3 In addition, this non technical summary will be posted in the offices of the public administration of the following cities and towns: · Akula, Gemena, Libenge, Mbari, Zongo for the RN6 / RN23 ; · Bukavu, Kamituga, Kitutu, Kindu, Kasongo, Lubawu, Kabinda, Katanda, Mbujimayi for the RN2 ; · Kisangani, Bafwasande, Niania, Epulu, Mambassa, Komanda, Beni for the RN4 ; · Niania, Wamba, Isiro for the RN26. In relation to the present procedure, press and radio releases will be published and diffused simultaneously on nationally and in the regions concerned with the project. Thus, at the national level, the following agencies will be used for dissemination: l’Agence Congolaise de Presse (ACP), La Référence Plus, La Prospérité and Radio Okapi. In addition, at the provincial level, at Mbujimayi, Kindu, Kisangani, Isiro, Beni, Gemena and Bukavu, the local newspapers and the provincial stations of the National Radio (RTNC) will be solicited to publish and diffuse the press release. The presentation workshops, whose dates will be specified in the radio communiqués, will be also organized in the chief towns and main cities concerned with the project. For the present context, they are: Kisangani, Isiro, Beni, Bukavu, Mbujimayi, Kindu and Gemena. Diagnostic of the ESMF The context of the Pro-Routes project’s support for the new road axes is the following: 1. Built in colonial time, these roads have not been maintained for some twenty years. The majority of the sections connecting the chief towns are disconnected, by defective bridges or ferries. They are now used mostly by bicycles, motor bikes and by carriers on foot, even if they connect important agglomerations and cross zones of great economic importance (basic agricultural products, various minerals, wood, etc). 2. However, almost everywhere, the agriculture sector in these zones is in crisis: land tenure crisis in the zone forestry areas, crisis of speculation in the coffee zone, crisis of agricultural techniques everywhere, environmentally unsustainable activities, and a sector unable to ensure satisfactory incomes for the farmers. 3. The populations are poor, their incomes not exceeding on average 25 dollars by household and by month. The living conditions are bad, precarious habitat with houses seldom covered with tin roof; the level of schooling everywhere lower than 50%; the rates of frequentation of health care institutions are lower than 15%; less than 1% have potable water sources installed; the households equipment rate very low (straw beds directly on the ground, scarcity of kitchen Page 4 4 utensils, furniture), sometimes the traditional soap, which is corrosive, replaces manufactured soap. Public equipments are non-existent or decrepit. 4. There is a considerable expectation of the populations for the rehabilitation of these roads. This anticipation also relates to the local roads connected to them and which, sometimes, can have a large economic importance. Everywhere, the population insists on the prerequisite that there is a provision for the regular maintenance of these roads. 5. For almost all the 2,158 km length of these 4 road axes, the old road layout will be used as the basis for the rehabilitation work. 6. Three (3) of these new road axis cross zones inhabited by indigenous pigmy peoples (at a distance of less than 150 km of the road axis), in particular the RN6/RN23 between Mbari and Libenge, on the RN26 between Niania and Isiro, and on the RN4 between Bafwasende and Beni. 7. The exploitation of bushmeat is intense everywhere. Hunting and fishing are practiced without regulation, and without concern for the sustainability of the resource. Hunting penetrates in-depth in all the protected areas and threatens protected species like elephants, okapi, chimpanzees, Congolese peacock, etc. In the savanna zone, game has practically disappeared. 8. Everywhere, the Provincial Coordination services of the Environment Ministry are almost non-existent on the ground and the rules applicable for the natural resources in force in DRC (agriculture, hunting, fishing, forestry) are generally ignored. Forest exploitation, which takes place in the influence zone of the road, often destroys, without any control, protected tree-species, in all impunity. Repercussions for the populations or the local territorial entities in terms of public equipment, employment and tax resources are low or even non-existent. 9. The encroachment of the road right-of-way is low for most of the axis layout, if one takes as reference a band of 12,5 m starting from the center of the old layout in rural environment and of 4,25 m in inhabited area. The encroachment concerns above all perennial crops and the buildings of mud houses. It will be lower than 50,000 dollars by 100 km in rural milieu (forest and savanna). Considering they are existing roads, encroachment on cultural sites and cemeteries is rare. 10. The roads to be rehabilitated cross, for the majority, zones of high mining potential. Mitigation and Management Measures On the basis of this diagnosis, the following environmental and social accompanying measures are formulated in order to manage and/or mitigate as much as possible the negative impacts of the road project: Page 5 5 1. The installation of the Bureau d’Études spécialisés en Gestion Environnementale et Sociale (BEGES), which is responsible for implementing the environmental and social management measures throughout the project duration, in close cooperation with the official agencies and those of civil society. 2. The management of road construction sites by the implementation of the agreed measures (Environmental and Social Management Plan). These recommendations apply to road safety, health and protection of laborers and local populations, compensation for all harmful impacts, in particular of sacred and cultural places, information and communication, and conflict resolution. 3. Management of impacts on the various Pygmy communities affected by the project between Mbari and Libenge (RN6), Niania and Isiro (RN26) and between Bafwasende and Beni (RN4), will be achieved through a special program which limits the cultural and socio-economic risks that road construction sites could represent for these populations. 4. With this intention, an Indigenous People Development Plan (PDPA) involving all natural resource management stakeholders will be prepared and should include, among others, the following points: · Equal treatment between the pygmy and bantu communities in recruitment of personnel and measures to avoid threats to food supply their villages; · Facilitation in the acquisition of formal rights on the arable lands to the benefit of pygmy communities in the areas where this is not the case; · Reinforcement of the capacities and the identity of pygmy communities so that they manage to be recognized as groups, organized if possible by the administration (process of recognition of their localities as such); · Reinforcement of the capacities of pygmy populations to better manage natural resources, in concert with their bantu neighbors, through a process of participative and community management of the natural resources; · Improved access for pygmy populations to health and education services. 5. Reinforcement of the capacities of local services in charge of the protection of nature and the environment (Provincial Directions of the Environment Ministry and ICCN), in order to allow them to protect natural resources in the short run, to sanction contraventions, and especially, in the long-term, to diffuse environmental information, so that populations themselves can develop this capacity. 6. For the Pro-Routes project, as the right-of-way of the road is fixed at 12,5 m on both sides of the center of the axis in rural environment whereas in Page 6 6 inhabited area, it is of 11 m (5,5 m from the center of the axis), all the built assets and agricultural and cultural elements located in this zone will be listed, evaluated and compensated in accordance with the prescribed World Bank PO 4.12 and in compliance with the 2004 interdepartmental “mercurial” (ministries of Finances, Land tenure, Public Infrastructures, Urbanism and Habitat). 7. Socio-economic accompanying measures will be implemented for the project zones, through a program involving (i) the rehabilitation and the maintenance of the national roads (ii) support for actors (research institutions, universities , NGOs) for action-research into innovative solutions relating to agricultural techniques and diversification of crops (coffee/palm tree/cocoa). These programs exceed the competences of the Pro-Routes project, which will encourage however the concerned ministries to implement them. In certain cases, pilot projects could be implemented in threatened zones, in particular the buffer zones of the protected areas, within the framework of the participative community program for the management of natural resources. 8. The installation of a monitoring mechanism which will mobilize not only the GEEC and the Office des Routes, but also the other institutions, namely the universities and the research centers, the civil society, etc. ______ Page 7 7