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Dams and Development E-Paper Contents

p. -1 of 74 BACK | NEXT Home Page of Dams and Development Foreword I. Why an e-paper on dams and development? II. Assessing options III. Participatory processes IV. Social impacts V. Environmental impacts VI. Benefit distribution VII. Dam safety and sustainability VIII. Existing projects IX. Improving governance X. What other organizations say XI. ADB, Dams, and Development XII. References Contact Us

Biodiversity conservation

Two recent examples aimed at biodiversity conservation include:

• Protection of threatened plants and promotion of indigenous plants in traditional medicine in Lesotho Highlands Development Project
• Establishing a Biodiversity Conservation Area and Trust Fund associated with the Nam Theun 2 Project in Lao PDR.

Katse Botanical Garden

The Lesotho Highlands Development Project (LHDP) is a joint project between Lesotho and South Africa primarily to supply water to the industrial heartland of Gauteng in South Africa.

Following the plant rescue missions of 1995 and 1996 due to the inundation of the Katse reservoir under Phase 1A of the project, the Katse Botanical Garden became the logical subsequent development to address the rescued plants. The objectives of the rescue mission programmes were to:

• Hand over the germplasm material to the National Plant Genetic Resource Centre (NPGRC); and
• Establish a nursery of medicinal plants in response to the plea by local communities that many key plants used for traditional medicine would be submerged and would no longer be available for their use following Katse dam inundation.

The objectives of the Botanical Garden, established by the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), are to:

1. Conserve, protect and manage the wild genetic resources within the Lesotho Highlands.
2. Promote the sustainable use of indigenous plants for medicinal and other economic values.
3. Strengthen the understanding of the need to conserve plants throughout the community.
4. Display live collections of plants in order to enhance awareness of the needs to preserve the unique indigenous botanical diversity of Lesotho.
5. Play a role in the protection and conservation of rare and endangered plants.

The Botanical Garden is currently in the process of implementing five major programs namely, garden management, plant collections, conservation, horticulture and information and education.

The above text was taken from the UNEP-DDP webpage on experiences and lessons learned.

Nam Theun National Biodiversity Conservation Area

Planning for the Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project on a tributary to the Mekong river in Lao PDR is nearing completion.

One of the mitigation measures is to provide protection to the 4,000 km² catchment area of mountainous forest and rivers that is 'recognized to be of outstanding significance in terms of its biodiversity' through the Nam Theun National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA).

Financing for the protection and establishment of a Watershed Management Protection Authority ("WMPA"), - a special purpose Government entity established under the Prime Minister's Office responsible for the management of the conservation in the Project watershed- will comprise (i) an initial $6.5 million contributed during the construction phase and (ii) an annual index-linked contribution from the Project of $1 million per year in each of the 25 years after the beginning of commercial operations.

The project promoters claim that 'Project implementation will trigger the large scale and long-term protection of the area. Without the Project - and thus the funding it allows - the NBCA would most likely continue to degrade. Indeed, there are no other projects effectively protecting the forests of Laos in such a large scale, let alone the Nam Theun area. More generally, protected Area managers worldwide desperately seek funding, and one of the most sustainable approaches is considered to be "user pays" arrangement. In the Nam Theun 2 case, not only will the Project pay for the protection of its water source, but also it will largely contribute to the long-term conservation of a unique and world-class biodiversity heritage'.

Detailed conservation plans are provided in Social and Environmental Management Framework and Operational Plan.

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