Document of The World Bank FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Public Disclosure Authorized Report No.19944 IMPLEMENTATION COMPLETION REPORT Public Disclosure Authorized DEMOCRATIC AND POPULAR REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA EL KALA NATIONAL PARK AND WETLANDS COMPLEX MANAGEMENT PROJECT (GRANT NO. 28641-AL) Public Disclosure Authorized February 8, 2000 Rural Development, Water and Environment Group Public Disclosure Authorized Middle East and North Africa Region This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the performanceof their official duties. Its contents may not otherwise be disclosed without World Bank authorization. EXCHANGE RATE Currency Unit = Algerian Dinar (DZD) Exchange Rate at Appraisal (April 1994) S$1.00 = DZD23.50 DZD1.00 = US$0.4255 SDR1.00 = US$1.38107 Year Annual Average 1994 DZD35.059 1995 DZD47.663 1996 DZD54.753 1997 DZD57.707 1998 DZD58.739 1999 DZD62.995 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES Metric system ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ANN Agence Nationale pour la Conservation de la Nature BAD Algerian Development Bank ICR Implementation Completion Report DG Director-General El Environmental Inspectorate of the Wilaya EKNP El Kala National Park EKPIU El Kala Project Implementation Unit GEF Global Environment Facility GIS Geographic Infonnation System NGO Non Governmental Organization SDRs Special Drawing Rights UNDP United Nations Development Program FISCAL YEAR July 1 - June 30 Vice President: Kemal Dervis Director, Maghreb Unit: Christian Delvoie Sector Director: Doris Koehn Sector Manager: Salah Darghouth Task Manager: Aline Cabal FOR OFFICIALUSE ONLY IMPLEMENTATION COMPLETION REPORT DEMOCRATIC AND POPULAR REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA EL KALA NATIONAL PARK AND WETLANDS COMPLEX MANAGEMENT PROJECT (GRANT NO. 28641-AL) TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE Evaluation Summary ............................................ i-iv PART I - PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION ASSESSMENT ........................................... 1 A. PROJECT DESCRIPTION ............................................. 1 B. ACHIEVEMENT OF PROJECT OBJECTIVES ............................................ 2 (i) Objectives .2 (ii) Major achievements .3 (iii) Major f-actorsaffecting the project .3 (iv) Project sustainability .5 (v) Bank performance .5 (vi) Borrower performance .6 (vii) Assessment of outcomes ...................... 6 (viii) Future operation ...................... 7 (ix) Replicability .. 7...................7 (x) Key lessons learned ..................... 7 PART 11 - STATISTICAL TABLES Table 1: Summary of Assessments .................. : 10 Table 2: Related Bank Loans/Credits .11 Table 3: Project Timetable .12 Table 4: Cumulative Estimated and Actual Disbursements .1 Table 5: Key Indicators for Project Implementation .13 Table 6: Key Indicators for Project Operation .14 Table 7: Studies Included in Project .15 Table 8A: Project Costs .................................................. 18 Table 8B: Project Financing .................................................. 19 Table 9: Economic Costs and Benefits.................................................. 19 Table 10: Status of Covenants .................................................. 20 Table I1: Compliance with Operational Manual Guidelines ........................ .......................... 21 Table 12: Bank Resources: Staff Inputs .................................................. 21 Table 13: Bank Resources: Missions .................................................. 21 APPENDIX A-BORROWER'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE ICR ............................................ 22-31 APPENDIX B-ICR MISSION AIDE-MEMOIRE ................... ............................... 33-36 MAP C-IBRD No. 24763R This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the performance of their official duties. Its contents may not otherwisebe disclosed without World Bank authorization. IMPLEMENTATION COMPLETION REPORT DEMOCRATIC AND POPULAR REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA EL KALA NATIONAL PARK AND WETLANDS COMPLEX MANAGEMENT PLAN (GRANT NO. 28641-AL) PREFACE This is the Implementation Completion Report (ICR) for the Grant to prepare and implement Management Plan of the El Kala National Park and Wetlands Complex. The Grant, provided through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in an initial amount of SDR6.7 million (US$9.2 million), was approved by the Board of Executive Directors on April 29, 1994 and became effective on September 13, 1994. The Grant was closed on June 30, 1999 following two extensions of the original closing date of March 31, 1997. Final disbursement took place on December 14, 1999. An amount of SDR1.47 million (US$2 million) was cancelled, reducing the Grant to SDR5.23 million. Therefore, disbursements totaled US$5.06 million, or 69 per cent of the revised loan amount. The ICR was prepared by Aline Cabal, Operations Analyst, Rural Development, Water and Environment Group, MNSRE, Middle East and North Africa Region, and was reviewed by Salah Darghouth, Sector Manager, Water and Environment; and Kutlu Somel, Economist, MNSRE. Additional reviewers included Christophe Crepin for the GEF; Marisa Femandez-Palacios, Portfolio Manager, MNCMG; and Thu-Ha Nguyen of the Disbursements Division. Valuable historical details, observations, and information were provided by Laurent Msellati, the Project Officer during the project preparation phase and the early stages of implementation. Syvie Creger provided the administrative support required for completing of the report. The Borrower's contribution to the ICR is contained in Appendix A. The ICR is based on infornation from project files, interviews in the field with officers responsible for project assessment and monitoring, and information gathered by the project completion mission, which took place from September 29 to October 13, 1999. The mission team consisted of Aline Cabal, Operations Analyst, Mission Leader, and two consultants, Slimane Bedrani, agricultural economist, and Salah Khemissi, financial analyst. IMPLEMENTATION COMPLETION REPORT DEMOCRATIC AND POPULAR REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA EL KALA NATIONAL PARK AND WETLANDS COMPLEX MANAGEMENTPROJECT (GRANT NO. 28641-AL) EvaluationSummary Introduction Two important facts which impactedthe implementationof this project are, first, that the project was prepared during the 1991-1994pilot phase of the Global EnvironmentFacility (GEF), when its mechanismswere being establishedand its proceduresand criteria were less clearly defined, and second, that the project was implemented during a difficult period for Algeria characterizedby civil unrest. Today, the situationhas improvedand there is hope that the originalproject developmentobjective, the sustainableprotection of El Kala Park, will be achievedthrough perseverance. Overall, the project objectiveshave been only partially achieved. Despite two extensionsof the originalGrant closing date and the efforts of project staff in the field, the delays that affected all project componentsfrom the outset were continuedto plague the project until the final closing date. Certain actions produced positive impacts; however, those impacts fall short of the project objectives because those actions alone were not enough to either: (i) halt the degradationof biodiversity in the El Kala NationalPark and Wetlands Complex;or (ii) providea reliable natural resourcesmanagement model for the country's protectedareas. The El Kala ManagementPlan, which was to have servedas a benchmark and model for the managementof other nationalparks has not yet been finalized. However,the project has clearly created the necessary awareness of the need to finalize the managementplan as well as the momentumnecessary to implement its recommendations.It is too early to tell whether the Plan has laid the foundations for long-term financial, environmentaland socioeconomic viability, since that will depend on adoption of the measurestherein recommended. Project objectives and components Project objectives. The Grant's three objectives were: (a) mitigation of the degradation of biodiversity in the El Kala National Park and Wetlands Complex region; (b) establishment of a methodologyand procedures to be followed at the Wilaya level for conductingenvironmental impact assessmentstudies; and (c) developmentof a natural resourcesmanagement model for the country's other parks. The project was to introducemeasures for the long-term sustainablepreservation of sites in the region exposed to the pressure generated by groups living in and around the Park, which has an ecologicaland biologicaldiversity that is of criticalimportance for the entire Mediterraneanbasin. Project components. The project comprised five components: (a) Preparation of the managementplan for the El Kala region wetlandscomplex, through baseline studies, priority actions to stop further degradation and others to be carried out during execution of the management plan; (b) environmental monitoring and adaptive research, through introduction of a geographic informationsystem (GIS),establishment of an environmentalimpact assessmentunit and a subcomponent for environmentalresearch, and assessment of natural resource development potential in different subsectors;(c) environmentaleducation, to sensitizethe population to environmentalproblems, with ii NGO support; (d) institutional strengthening, focused on the National Agency for the Conservation of Nature (ANN), the Wilaya Environmental Inspectorate, and the El Kala Project Implementation Unit (EKPIU); and (e) creation of a conservation fund. Implementation experience and results Project objectives. The three project objectives