News and Events

PRC/GEF Partnership on Land Degradation

Training Session, July 30th, 2001 at Chinese Academy of Forestry

Mr. Xiao Wenfa opened the meeting and welcomed participants, including representatives from GEF, ADB and different ministries and organizations.

Mr. Herbert Acquay gave a presentation of the implications of GEF's Operational Program on Integrated Ecosystem Management (OP 12) for the PRC/GEF Partnership for Land Degradation in Dryland Ecosystems. He explained what the GEF is, and the evolution of GEF support for land degradation, from its "traditional" focal areas of biodiversity, climate change, international waters and ozone depletion. He then discussed OP 12 as a framework for the PRC/GEF partnership, including some key features of OP 12. Mr. Acquay further discussed the role of GEF in the Partnership, elaborated some design principles and presented two conceptual models for integrated ecosystem management, at both a program and project level. The detailed presentation is attached as Annex 1.

In response to discussions, Mr. Acquay emphasized the new integrated ecosystem management approach takes into greater account human activities in the production landscape, as well as natural areas, such as reserves. At farm level, soil degradation, such as results from the move to more intensive production systems, can thus be considered in land degradation, even though global impact needs to be demonstrated. Mr. Acquay noted that, should land degradation be considered a GEF focal area in its own right, as is currently being considered, this could further facilitate integration.

There followed extensive discussion on incremental costs and how to calculate them. Mr. Acquay emphasized that calculating incremental costs is not an exact science. Incremental costs have to be agreed between government, GEF and other partners to come to a figure that is reasonable and balances the costs needed by a country to address the protection of its own environment, and additional global benefits. The advantage of calculating incremental costs for a program is that costs do not have to be calculated for each project, thus avoiding high transaction costs. In this light, a ratio between government investment and GEF investment over the life of the program may be appropriate. GEF has done this for the Black Sea/Danube Partnership. However, it was emphasized that in the PRC/GEF Partnership, the contribution of GEF will be very small, and hence needs to be very targeted and catalytic.

In the afternoon session, Mr. Spike Millington gave an overview land degradation, its importance, and the extent of land degradation in PRC, noting that there was an urgent need to harmonize estimates of the different types of land degradation for the country. He then discussed the causes, both proximate and ultimate of land degradation, and identified some lessons learned and some challenges for the future. The second part of his presentation focused on the PRC/GEF Partnership, emphasizing the role of the different partners, notably GEF, ADB and the government of PRC. He then discussed the programmatic approach to the Partnership, and the Country Programming Framework (CPF), including what elements the CPF should include, as well as what will be needed for the CPF to succeed. The detailed presentation is attached as Annex 2.

Mr. Peter King then estimated the total investment package for the PRC/GEF partnership over ten years. This comprised $ 5-800 million from multilateral partners, such as ADB and the World Bank, $ 1-200 million from bilateral donors, $ 1 billion from private sector sources, $ 1-200 million from East-West provincial cooperation, and perhaps $ 200 million from innovative funding, such as foundations and the Clean Development Mechanism. Domestic investment from PRC, combining agriculture, water resources, environment and forestry is estimated at $ 10 billion, resulting in an overall investment package of $ 12-15 billion. This could be supported by $ 100-150 million from GEF, funded incrementally.

Mr. King also strongly urged participants to think about partnerships beyond the traditional confines of their own ministries. He highlighted the potential to work with the private sector, including those companies and consortiums that are, or will be, investing huge amounts in infrastructure development in the Western region, including road, railway, oil and gas pipelines. These investments are potentially directly threatened by land degradation, such as sand invasion and flooding. Companies should therefore be willing to support land rehabilitation efforts that can protect their investments. A second group of companies are supporting land rehabilitation for public relations purposes, e.g. Coca Cola is supporting reforestation efforts to protect Beijing. Other large international companies also have headquarters in PRC, and could be interested in supporting such activities. Finally, foundations, such as the Rockefeller, Ford and Gates Foundations are providing significant funding for poverty alleviation projects worldwide. In PRC most poor people are living in degraded areas, and foundations have the potential to mobilize considerable resources to combat land degradation in these areas.

Finally, Mr. King noted that the implementation timetable for submission of the CPF is very tight. A draft CPF has to be submitted to the GEF Secretariat in May 2002, and the final CPF, with its integrated program of $ 12-15 billion has to be finalized and signed by all of the committed parties by October 2002. This is a major challenge. Over the next 2-3 months a detailed "roadmap" needs to be prepared to achieve this. ADB is committed to supporting that, but the responsibility for this belongs to PRC.

Further discussion focused on how to maximize existing resources, and avoid costly overlaps and duplications. The harmonization of land degradation data and standards was discussed as an example.

Brainstorming Session on PRC/GEF Partnership on Land Degradation

31st July, 2001 at Chinese Academy of Forestry

The session was opened by the moderator, Mr. Peter King, who welcomed participants and invited Madam Jiang Zehui to present opening remarks. Madam Jiang emphasized that integrated ecological management and OP 12 is very important to PRC. She noted that yesterday's training session had been very successful. Previously, individual GEF projects have been rather small and self-contained. OP12 is innovative in that it promotes an integrated approach and provides an important framework, both at national and global level. The preparatory period for development of the OP12 initiative has had good support from GEF and ADB, laying the foundation for a successful program. Investment by the government of PRC is very substantial, and ecological improvement, along with infrastructure development, is the main priority of the Western Development Strategy. Ministries and sector interests will be integrated into the Country Programming Framework (CPF). An expert group will be formed and the PMO will also comprise representatives from different ministries. Madam Jiang made several suggestions for consideration in the development of the program. These are to:

• review the sectoral planning framework for the next ten years
• make joint efforts to brainstorm on the linkages and operating mechanisms for OP12 in the CPF
• seek common areas in scopes and assure the time needed for effective planning
• find ways of developing model projects, incorporating the above features
• ensure OP12 objectives conform with other investments under the Western Development Strategy, to seek common development areas

Madam Jiang noted that addressing land degradation issues, based on sound principles, is a major challenge, but expressed confidence that, under MOF leadership, we will succeed.

The representative of the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Ju Kuilin, also emphasized the importance of environmental protection to the Government of PRC, and noted that this was a significant focus of the Western Development Strategy. He further noted that funds and activities for environmental protection have been scattered and self-contained ("spraying pepper") and there needs to be an integrated structure to make such activities more coherent and investment more efficient. This program will provide that.

Mr. King began the brainstorming exercise by outlining the need for a "road map" - to know where we are going, and how to get there (and how to know when we have got there). The proposed process/framework was to develop a problem tree that identifies the causes and impacts of land degradation in PRC, followed by an objectives tree (which re-phrases the problems in terms of objectives), which leads to a definition of goal, purpose and objectives for the program. This is followed by a logframe, a matrix that links inputs and outputs with targets and monitoring mechanisms. Mr. King had already developed a draft logframe (Figure 1.), based on information available in government plans. Discussion of the logframe then leads to a gap analysis ('what we do not know") followed by an action plan ('how to find the information we need").

Lively discussion and input from many participants led to the problem tree illustrated in Figure 2. It should be noted that many factors outside of the traditional technical area of land degradation appear in the problem tree. Mr. King then asked which government organization is responsible for all of these elements. It was suggested that the State Development Planning Council was most logical, with input from sectoral agencies and liaising with the Leading Group on the Western Development Strategy. It was further agreed that it made sense to address these issues in a comprehensive framework, rather than to divide up responsibilities along sectoral lines.

A comparison between the problem tree and draft logframe revealed several gaps in the latter, as listed below.

1. Legislation/Enforcement
2. Education/Awareness
3. Policy Integration
4. Institutional Coordination
5. Monitoring
6. Urban and Industrial Impacts
7. Poverty Nexus
8. Market-based Incentives
9. Technology Diffusion

For 1-5, above, information exists but needs to be documented. For example, there are two major surveys of land degradation and desertification/soil erosion, but standards have not been developed. Harmonization of survey results and the development of a common standard is required. For legislation, there are laws on desertification and soil and water conservation developed, or being developed. The Land Administration Act requires that for any arable land taken for urban or industrial purposes an equivalent area needs to be reclaimed from waste or barren land. Discussion focused on the need for improved implementation and monitoring of enforcement. Examples could include:

• improved access to information on legislation and regulations
• implementing regulations for general laws (who is responsible ?)
• harmonizing national and provincial laws.

Similarly, for institutional coordination, mechanisms exist, such as the Leading Group for the Western Development Strategy, the Steering Committee and PMO for the PRC/GEF Partnership.

It was noted that additional requirements are needed for improved institutional coordination. These include greater attention to the coordination of planning between central and provincial authorities, where priorities may be different. International conventions should also be in the CPF to make sure that PRC is fulfilling its international obligations.

In summarizing the morning's activities, Madam Jiang called on relevant departments to study what was discussed, and to further contribute comments and questions. She then thanked participants and closed the session.