Forestry and Ecological Restoration Project in Three Northwest Provinces (RRP PRC 40684) Project Administration Manual Project Number: 40684 Loan and/or Grant Number(s): L2744/G0250 March 2016 People's Republic of China: Forestry and Ecological Restoration Project in Three Northwest Provinces Contents I. PROJECT DESCRIPTION 1 A. Rationale 1 B. Impact and Outcome 3 C. Outputs 3 D. Special Features 5 II. IMPLEMENTATION PLANS 6 A. Project Readiness Activities 6 B. Overall Project Implementation Plan 7 III. PROJECT MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS 9 A. Project Implementation Organizations – Roles and Responsibilities 10 B. Key Persons Involved in Implementation 11 C. Project Organization Structure 12 IV. COSTS AND FINANCING 13 A. Cost Estimates by Expenditure Category, Component and Financier 20 B. Allocation and Withdrawal of (Loan and/or Grant) Proceeds 17 C. Contract and Disbursement S-curve 18 D. Fund Flow Diagram 19 V. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 20 A. Financial Management Assessment 20 B. Disbursement 20 C. Accounting 22 D. Auditing 23 VI. PROCUREMENT AND CONSULTING SERVICES 23 A. Advance Contracting and Retroactive Financing 23 B. Procurement of Goods, Works and Consulting Services 24 C. Procurement Plan 25 D. Consultant's Terms of Reference 30 VII. SAFEGUARDS 32 VIII. GENDER AND SOCIAL DIMENSIONS 37 IX. PERFORMANCE MONITORING, EVALUATION, REPORTING AND COMMUNICATION 33 A. Project Design and Monitoring Framework 33 B. Monitoring 36 C. Evaluation 37 D. Reporting 37 E. Stakeholder Communication Strategy 37 X. ANTICORRUPTION POLICY 37 XI. ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM 38 XII. RECORD OF PAM CHANGES 38 Project Administration Manual Purpose and Process The project administration manual (PAM) describes the essential administrative and management requirements to implement the project on time, within budget, and in accordance with government and Asian Development Bank (ADB) policies and procedures. The PAM should include references to all available templates and instructions either through linkages to relevant URLs or directly incorporated in the PAM. The State Forestry Administration (SFA), the forestry departments of Gansu, Shaanxi, and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang) together with the county forestry bureaus are wholly responsible for the implementation of ADB financed projects, as agreed jointly between the borrower and ADB, and in accordance with government's and ADB’s policies and procedures. ADB staff is responsible to support the implementation, including compliance by SFA, forestry departments of Gansu ,Shaanxi, and Xinjiang together with county forestry bureaus of their obligations and responsibilities for project implementation in accordance with ADB’s policies and procedures. At loan negotiations the borrower and ADB will agree to the PAM and ensure consistency with the loan agreement. Such agreement shall be reflected in the minutes of the loan negotiations. In the event of any discrepancy or contradiction between the PAM and the loan agreement, the provisions of the loan agreement will prevail. After ADB Board approval of the project's report and recommendations of the President (RRP), changes in implementation arrangements are subject to agreement and approval pursuant to relevant government and ADB administrative procedures (including the Project Administration Instructions) and upon such approval they will be subsequently incorporated in the PAM. Abbreviations ADB = Asian Development Bank ADF = Asian Development Fund AFS = audited financial statements CCAS = community consultation and disclosure strategy DMF = design and monitoring framework EARF = environmental assessment and review framework EIA = environmental impact assessment EMDP = ethnic minorities development plan EMP = environmental management plan ESMS = environmental and social management system GACAP = governance and anticorruption action plan GDP = gross domestic product ICB = international competitive bidding IEE = initial environmental examination IEM = integrated ecosystem management IPP = indigenous people plan IPPF = indigenous people planning framework LAR = land acquisition and resettlement LIBOR = London interbank offered rate NCB = national competitive bidding NGOs = nongovernment organizations PAI = project administration instructions PAM = project administration manual PMO = project management office PIU = project implementation unit QBS = quality based selection QCBS = quality- and cost-based selection RRP = report and recommendation of the President to the Board SBD = standard bidding documents SOE = statement of expenditure SPS = Safeguard Policy Statement TOR = terms of reference I. PROJECT DESCRIPTION A. Rationale 1. The project will help restore degraded and barren forest land in Gansu, Shaanxi, and Xinjiang with a focus on assisting (i) households upgrade degraded and barren forest land into economic tree crops, and (ii) state forest farms (SFFs) and forest stations improve ecological forestry development and management. Under economic tree crops development, numerous varieties of fruits, nuts, timber trees, and shelterbelt trees will be planted in the three provinces with the objective of converting barren forest land into more ecologically sustainable land use that generates sufficient profit to create incentives for the long-term management of natural resources. About 207,000 households will benefit from the tree crops development. By year 10, the project will generate an estimated 445,900 tons (t) of fruit and nuts of which apple production (about 288,240 t), grapes (about 32,390 t), and Chinese date (jujube) (about 31,950 t) are the major tree crops, along with production of walnut, persimmon, and other products. In addition, the project will finance the expansion of 9 profitable enterprises in Gansu with about 16,000 t of cold storage facilities, and support 17 other small enterprises in Xinjiang that have successfully worked with farmers. 2. Ecological forestry development will consist of (i) reforestation of about 3,000 ha of hilly and degraded land in Gansu, and (ii) facility improvement on seven SFFs in Shaanxi with a managed area of about 126,000 ha involving public–private partnerships with private ecotourism enterprises. In addition, GEF-financed activities in the three provinces will include (i) reforestation of about 700 ha of barren and steeply sloping land in southeast Gansu, (ii) restoration of degraded land in Xinjiang with sand-fixing and replanting technologies on about 435 ha (and about 630 ha using loan funds), and (iii) carbon market readiness and education with ecological forestry and climate change capacity development in Shaanxi's seven SFFs and five SFFs in Gansu. These SFFs will jointly improve their forest management with the aim of becoming eligible to sell the carbon sequestration in their forests through a carbon market. The SFFs will be assisted through a newly established ecological forestry center (EFC) based in Xian, Shaanxi. 3. Gansu, Shaanxi, and Xinjiang are among the poorest provinces in the PRC. The poverty incidence of Gansu is about 19.4% higher than the national average of about 5.2%, while the poverty incidences of Shaanxi and Xinjiang are both about 14% higher. Rural inhabitants in the project area are even poorer than the provincial averages. The project will respond to policy failures related to forest land tenure that have resulted in resources being allocated to low-value and non-sustainable land uses causing a loss of forest and tree crops benefits, and disadvantaged socio-economic conditions. These conditions have resulted in higher poverty and weak organizations responsible for managing the high-priority ecological assets in natural forests and critical watersheds for urban water supplies. These policy failures have also created externalities in terms of under-delivery of public goods in the form of soil and water protection. 4. Forest land is typically of three types in the PRC: (i) degraded ecological or natural forests, (ii) timber plantations, and (iii) economic trees comprising fruit and nut orchards. In the project area, the focus is on degraded ecological forests and economic trees. Degraded ecological forests are in need of restoration with improved forest density and forest cover. Ecological forests provide important environmental and biodiversity benefits, and help mitigate adverse climate changes. Forest land currently being cultivated and cropped annually, usually with wheat and maize, degrades through loss of soil qualities, such as organic matter and 2 carbon, and water holding capacity. The excessive use of fertilizer leads to water pollution, additional use of agrochemicals results in health and environmental threats, and high levels of irrigation cause depleted water resources. In addition, producers on these lands are increasingly living in below-average socio-economic conditions and lag further behind urban dwellers and more productive rural producers. 5. The high proportion of forest land in most rural regions combined with inappropriate low-value use is a significant constraint on the government's rural development objectives. For example, Shaanxi's collective forest land totals about 8.7 million ha and while all this is not cultivated, it represents about 42% of the total provincial land area. Gansu has about 4 million ha of collective forest land, which is about 25% of the total cultivated land area. 6. The conversion of annual cropping systems into perennial tree crops systems provides significant changes to the ecology. Tree crop development has a wide