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Integrating Community-based Adaptation into Afforestation and Reforestation (ICBA-AR) Programmes

QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT

APRIL-JUNE 2017

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Executive Summary:

The “Integrating Community-based Adaptation into Afforestation and Reforestation (ICBA-AR) Programs in ” is being implementing in eight of five coastal , namely Noakhali, Bhola, Patuakhali, Borguna and Pirojpur. The project is aimed at reducing vulnerability of local people in the project area to the adverse impacts of climate change through participatory design, community-based management and diversification of afforestation and reforestation programs. The project attempts to diversify livelihood of local community members and linking their livelihood aspiration with coastal greenbelt protection. Thus the project endeavors to address some of the barriers to sustainability of coastal greenbelt and bring innovative advancement in coastal greenbelt management.

Even though the project started from July 2016 there was a delay in approval of project TPP due to unavoidable reason. Hence the project activities started from a delayed period. In fact the project’s field level activities started from reporting quarter, i.e., April to June 2017 as the project’s field staff could not be recruited completely beforehand. Majority of the Project Directors (PDs) from the project’s partner agencies were appointed by the concern Ministries during this quarter.

This quarter was mainly focused on getting introduced and building rapport with key stakeholders of the project, and to get an idea of the project sites and their suitability for different planned activities. In addition to regular field visits and stakeholder meetings by the project’s field staff, two formal missions were carried to the project sites which included representatives from UNDP Country Office, some of the PDs, representatives of PMU and field staff. The mission covered all the five districts and met with Deputy Commissioners, Executive Officers (UNO) and Officers of partner agencies of some Upazilas, some local Union Parishad Chairmans and Members, community members and other important stakeholders.

During this quarter through field observation and stakeholder consultations project staff have identified 87 Villages from 22 Unions of 6 Upazilas (Hatyia, Charfashion, Monpura, Golachipa, Rangabali and Patharghata) under 4 districts (Noakhali, Bhola, Patuakhali and Borguna) for implementation of various project activities.

Progress of the reporting quarter mainly revolved around the activities of Output 1.1 and 1.2 of the project. This report presents detail of outcome and output wise progress of the April to June 2017 quarter (2nd Quarter).

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1. Major Accomplishments of the Quarter:

Outcome – 1: Vulnerability of communities in new afforestation and reforestation sites reduced through diversified livelihood options and more effective greenbelts. Output – 1.1: Community-based adaptation and livelihood diversification measures are integrated with baseline afforestation and reforestation activities in 4 districts • In total 1,617 poor local households have been selected through from the 6 Upazilas of 4 Districts as beneficiaries of different livelihood activities of the project for 2017. Of this number 712 are female beneficiaries. Out of 1,617 beneficiaries 555,579 and 483 beneficiaries were selected for agriculture, livestock and fisheries related livelihood support respectively. The beneficiaries were selected through community level meeting/participatory rural appraisal where representatives of local government and local level offices of concern partner agencies (Department of Agricultural Extension, Department of Livestock and Department of Fisheries) were present. • Basic socio-economic Baseline information have been collect for 16,17 beneficiaries. • 102 ha. (Bhola= 13 ha., Borguna= 49 ha., Noakhali= 15 ha. and Patuakhali= 25 ha.) of suitable area has been selected for Forest-Fish-Fruit (FFF) model based livelihood activities. The areas were selected through field visits jointly with Forest Department’s (FD) local staff and in consultation with local people. Output – 1.2: Diversified trial plantations of up to 10 mangrove and non-mangrove varieties established in 4 districts to increase the adaptive capacity of greenbelt structures on accreted lands • 180 ha. (Bhola= 50 ha., Borguna= 80 ha., Noakhali= 15 ha. and Patuakhali= 35 ha.) area of degraded mangrove have been identified for mixed species enrichment plantation with the participation of local offices of FD. Outcome – 2: Strengthened community involvement in, and ownership of, forestry-based adaptation and climate risk reduction programmes Output – 2.1: Existing systems of participatory natural resource management applied to strengthen the climate resilience of coastal afforestation/reforestation programmes • Formation, structure, roles and responsibilities, method of operation and management of Community Based Organizations and Co-management Committees formed under previously implemented CBACC project of UNDP and CREL project USAID were reviewed. The idea of co-management in the light of ICBAAR programme has been shared and discussed with the key stakeholders at field level. Output – 2.2: A forest product benefit sharing agreement between coastal communities and national government developed and adopted. • No mentionable progress is made.

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Output – 2.3: Awareness and capacity of local communities and government staff to promote coastal greenbelt co-management and benefit sharing improved • Various aspects of coastal greenbelt conservation and its benefits are discussed in different meeting held with relevant government staff and local community members. Outcome – 3: Communal livelihood assets in afforestation and reforestation sites are protected from extreme climate events through effective early warning and preparedness planning Output – 3.1: Strengthened CPP network capacity for effective early warning communications for extreme climate events in coastal afforestation sites • No mentionable progress is made. Output – 3.2: Communal livelihood assets in new afforestation and reforestation sites are protected from extreme climate events through dedicated disaster preparedness and risk reduction measures • Discussion held with representatives of local government and local administration with regard to killa construction. Name of 7 possible locations (Borguna= 3 and Patuakhali= 4) have come up. Finalization of the sites and identification of suitable location in other districts will require further work.

2. Other Progresses Related to Field Level Interventions: • On 3rd April 2017 a special meeting was held with the participation project PD, Forest Department and DFOs from the project sites. The meet was called to assess actual field level cost of FFF model implementation as the allocated budget for the activity is appeared to be less than necessary. The outcome of the meeting was later shared in the Project Board and Project Steering Committee meetings. • From June 2017 the project field staff started to select beneficiaries for the project’s agriculture, fisheries and livestock based livelihood activities. The selection was carried out as per criteria stated in the Annex 4.

3. Progress Related to Operation and Management: • On 5th and 6th April 2017 a two-day long induction was organized by the PMU to orient the newly recruited project staff with the project, its activities and implementation approach. • Four of the Project Directors have been appointed by the concern ministries in this quarter that includes PD of Department of Livestock (4th April 2017), Department of Fisheries (4th April 2017), Ministry of Land (5th April 2017) and Bangladesh Water Development Board (10th April 2017).

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• In June 2017 two Community Development Assistants joined the project one of whom were posted in Bhandaria of and the other one in Rangabali Upazila of . • The Project Board (PB) and the Project Steering Committee (PSC) were formed on 7th June 2017 with an order issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. • Project Board meeting held on 12th June 2017. The major decisions of the PIC meeting included - inclusion of under the project as per suggestion of inception workshop and to initiate project activities in Char Tajimuddin and Kaukhali at a later period; and Transferring CDA of Noakhali to Bhandaria Upazila. • The Project Steering committee met on 18th June 2017. The PCS meeting was mainly focused on fixing a new rate for FFF model construction, constitution of co- management committee and preparation of workplan and budget by partner agencies for 2017 activities. In the meeting, it was decided to start the project activities according to the budget allocation stated in the project document. Any necessary adjustment in the budget may be done at a later period during project document revision.

4. Financial Progress:

Expenditure of the reporting Quarter (April to June 2017): US $ 497,579.84

Annual Budget Expenditure of Expenditure of Total Annual Progress of 2017 1st Quarter 2nd Quarter Expenditure of of 2017 (US $) (US $) (US $) 2017 (Percentage) (US $) 1,000,000.00 68,814.56 497,579.84 566,395.40 57%

Total Project Cumulative Expenditure Cumulative Progress Budget (US $) (July 2016 to June 2017) (In Percentage) (US $) 5,650,000 629,273.77 11.14 %

5. Women Empowerment:

The project has special attention to improve the condition of poor, deprived and widow women in the project site. Therefore, it gives women high priority in selecting beneficiary for its livelihood activities. Among the 1,617 local people that were selected for 2017 for

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the project’s agriculture, fisheries and livestock based livelihood development activities 712 (44%) are local poor women. The figure is expected to rise during the future intervention.

6. Youth Involvement: N/A There was no mentionable effort or achievement with regard to involvement of youth in the project activities.

7. Partnership and Linkage Development: N/A There was no mentionable effort or achievement with regard to involvement of youth in the project activities.

8. Major Concerns and Challenges Faced During the Reporting Quarter:

Project activities in the reporting quarter were influenced by a number factors. In addition, some concerns have been identified that may continue to affect the project implementation in the future. • The project is designed to be implemented by some partner governmental agencies. However, in some Unions (e.g., Monpura of Bhola and Rangabali of Patuakhali) the staff of local level office of the concern government agencies are not available locally majority of the time due to remoteness of the Unions. • Unfavorable weather conditions like heavy rainfall and cyclone impeded field activities. Moreover, some of the water ways, specially to Rangabali bcomes unsafe with bad weather condition. • Due to difficult terrain and lack of enough public transport facility and not having motor bikes at local level the project staff have to face difficulty in reaching field destinations on time and smoothly. It is slowing down field level activities and monitoring. • In some locations (e.g., Char Ishwar union of Hatya Upazila) the local staff of some of the implementing partner agencies are reluctant to work due to tough political and security condition. • In many locations, suitable land for FFF model is not available and khash land is illegally occupied by local people. • Due to lack of inadequate budget local staff of Forest Department showing lack of interest in implementing the activity. They are not also much interested about the idea of motivating beneficiaries to contribute part of the labour in FFF model preparation. Of course, the issue have been discussed in the PSC meeting and it was decided to carry out the activity at the rate of previously implemented CBACC project. • In many places, location of coastal greenbelt and site for FFF model is far away from human settlement. Hence there will be difficulty in connecting the beneficiaries living in

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those settlements with the protection and management of coastal greenbelt or FFF models.

9. Important Recommendations for project implementation and management:

The following steps may act as positive factor in effective implementation of the project.

• Project Directors of different implementing partner agencies need to further sensitize and motivate their local level staff to take active participation in project implementation. • As it is deemed that there is budget deficiency for FFF model and it is not possible to revise the project budget beneficiaries of FFF model should be motivated by the Forest Department and project staff to contribute their physical labour in earth cutting. Such contribution will enhance their sense of ownership of the intervention. • Recruitment of partner NGO for livelihood activities may be done in advance. Because presence of NGO staff in the field in the beginning of the project will be very supportive.

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