1 of the Commission Implementing Decision on the 2014 Individual
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ANNEX of the Commission Implementing Decision on the 2014 Individual Measure for Environment and Climate Change under the Global Public Goods and Challenges Thematic Programme, to be financed from the general budget of the European Union Action Document for the "Central Africa World Heritage Forest Initiative - CAWHFI (phase II): Conserving Biodiversity through the World Heritage Convention in the Gabon-Cameroon-Central African Republic-Congo trans-border zones (Phase II)" 1. IDENTIFICATION Central Africa World Heritage Forest Initiative - CAWHFI (phase II): Conserving Biodiversity through the World Heritage Convention Title/Number in the Gabon - Cameroon- Central African Republic - Republic of Congo trans-border zones (Phase II) CRIS number: DCI-ENV/2014/37568 Total estimated cost: EUR 5 000 000 Total cost Total amount of EU budget contribution: EUR 5 000 000 Aid method / Project Approach Management mode Indirect management with United Nations Educational, Scientific and type of financing and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) DAC-code 41030 Sector Biodiversity 2. RATIONALE AND CONTEXT 2.1. Summary of the action and its objectives The overall objective of the action is to ensure the integrity of a network of protected areas and the forest landscapes linking them, in the Gabon-Cameroon-Republic of Congo-Central African Republic trans-border forest zone. The programme has three specific objectives: (1) promote the protection and monitoring of sites harbouring exceptional and globally important biological values in the Gabon-Cameroon-Central African Republic- Republic of Congo trans-border forest zone; (2) site management activities are strengthened; (3) Promote no net loss of biodiversity in the inter-zones through the systematic implementation of the different steps of the mitigation hierarchy (avoid damage if possible, minimize any damage that is unavoidable including through restoration and compensate for any residual damage from economic developments) 2.2. Context 2.2.1. Regional context 2.2.1.1. Economic and social situation and poverty analysis The ten countries of Central Africa have a total population of about 140 million and a population density of 18 people per square kilometer (World Bank data, 2014). The economies of these countries depend almost entirely on the primary sector, the extraction and export of unprocessed raw materials produced through agriculture, forestry and mining. In 1 addition, some 30 million people, belonging to over 150 different ethnic groups, live in the central African rainforests. These forests have always been a source of varied resources, services and primary materials for their populations, providing timber, wood energy, bushmeat, fish and other foods, medicinal plants and other diverse wood and non-wood products. With the development of economic activities (in particular industrial extractive industries such as logging and mining), and the creation of increasingly dense road networks along which human settlements become established, these halos of forest clearance coalesce to form ribbons of forest degradation which fragment the remaining forest blocks. This process of forest degradation is further exacerbated when rural populations are shifting cultivation and uncontrolled exploitation to satisfy the needs of both the local populations and the market for primary materials. The Central Africa World Heritage Forest Initiative (CAWHFI) would contribute to the development of sustainable land-use policies through the World Heritage label and status. It would seek to limit the impacts of extractives industries in Central Africa region. These proposed activities will contribute to the sustainable protection and management of natural resources and the protection of indigenous people who are, unfortunately, the first to be affected by the negative impacts of this process of forest degradation. Efforts to ensure the regeneration and conservation of these resources are ineffective in the context of poor governance and persistent poverty. 2.2.1.2. Regional development policy One of the most important considerations for UNESCO was that its actions should be fully in line with regional and national conservation priorities and that its initiatives should be firmly integrated in national, regional and international development partnerships. The World Heritage programmes are in line with the Strategic Plan of the Commission des Ministres en charge des Forêts d’Afrique Centrale (COMIFAC), and their activities are implemented through long-standing conservation actors within the sub-region. By combining forces with locally active partners considerable economies of scale can be achieved in the use of the CAWHFI resources while maintaining the specificity of its intervention which is its focus on World Heritage. 2.2.2. Sector context: policies and challenges The moist tropical rainforests of central Africa, covering 1.62 million km², constitute one of the world’s most important natural heritages. They contain a large proportion of the world’s biodiversity and they play a central role in climate regulation and carbon sequestration. The exceptional importance of these forests for global biodiversity and ecosystem conservation is demonstrated by the presence of three natural World Heritage sites in this region. Most of central Africa’s exploitable moist forests have already been designated for industrial logging and a rapidly expanding network of logging is spreading into the last remaining unlogged forest. Large international mining companies will soon start mining 8 of the world’s largest iron ore and nickel-cobalt deposit located in the zone of the programme, while artisanal gold mining is very present. An important network of railways and roads will soon link the extraction areas and the export infrastructure. A number of international companies are also looking for large tracts of land for agro-industrial development. Local indigenous communities risk being severely disrupted by an “open access” onslaught on their natural resources by in-migrants. The Cameroon-Gabon-Central African Republic- Republic of Congo trans-border zone, covering 222,736 km² and encompassing the Trinational Dja-Odzala-Minkébé (TRIDOM - Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of Congo) and Trinational Sangha (TNS - Cameroon,Central 2 African Republic, Republic of Congo) landscapes, contains 13 protected areas (totalling 74.000km²), including 3 World Heritage Sites. The project’s overarching aim is to reduce the risk of biodiversity loss in this critically important zone by maintaining ecological interconnectivity with the network of well protected areas within it. Engaging actively, not only with Governments, but also with the private sector mining and logging interests is therefore crucial to mitigate the impacts of their activities This project seeks to improve sustainable management and monitoring of natural resources in this trans-border zone by raising awareness of the outstanding value of natural heritage of Central Africa using the leverage of the World Heritage Convention. The approach includes work on Government policies and land use planning and on public-private partnerships for sustainable development and biodiversity offsets with mining and logging companies. It includes the active participation of local communities as key partners in the process. The project is perfectly in line with the EU’s biodiversity strategy. 2.3. Lessons learnt This project will build on the lessons learnt from phase 1 of the Central African World Heritage Forest Initiative (CAWHFI)1, partly funded by EC (2009-2013). Two ROM missions took place in 2010 and 2011 and an evaluation took place in 2011. Dialogue has been on- going between UNESCO, EU delegations and partners of the project. These documents recommended a continuation of the EU support for capitalising the first institutional arrangements. But a future phase should be more focused on key activities (management of the World Heritage sites and an integrated management of the entire landcsapes), a better communication to local population and its stronger involvement into the program, and a systematic monitoring of the conventions with the logging companies. World Heritage initiatives in Central Africa has highlighted the added value that the World Heritage Convention can bring in terms of bringing pressure to bear on Governments with respect to improving management of existing World Heritage Sites (WHS) and new sites of outstanding universal value that are applying for nomination. CAWHFI 1 also highlighted the added value that the Convention can bring in terms of federating neighbouring countries around a common biodiversity conservation objective, for example for the Sangha Tri National WHS nomination dossier. CAWFHI provided capacity building for the various stakeholders involved in the nomination process and leveraged the support of regional institutions (COMIFAC, and the Réseau des Aires Protégées d'Afrique Centrale, RAPAC2) for the Trinational Sangha (TNS) nomination. However this is an on-going effort and long term support to UNESCO's efforts is therefore required. Lastly lessons from CAWHFI 1 have highlighted the need to focus the limited resources available to avoid dispersion while also obtaining a multiplier effect. Given the very large size of the intervention zone the project therefore aims to avoid dispersing its efforts by focusing on (a) the mining and logging concessions in the Trinational Dja-Odzala-Minkébé (TRIDOM) east-west orientated “inter- zone” whose activities will affect the