Environmental and Social Monitoring Report # 2 Semi-Annual Report December 2020 Samoa: Samoa AgriBusiness Support Project Prepared by Samuelu Sesega for the Ministry of Finance, Government of Samoa and the Asian Development Bank. This environmental and social monitoring report is a document of the borrower. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of ADB's Board of Directors, Management, or staff, and may be preliminary in nature. In preparing any country program or strategy, financing any project, or by making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area in this document, the Asian Development Bank does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. Safeguards Bi-annual Monitoring Report Samoa AgriBusiness Support (SABS) Project Reporting Period : 1 July – 31 December, 2020 Status : Final Date : 31 January, 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS Sections Page # List of Abbreviations 4 1 Introduction 5 2 Environment and Social Safeguards 6 3 SABS and the Environmental and Social Management 7 System (ESMS) 4 Monitoring Agribusinesses for ESMF Compliance 8 5 Summary of Agribusinesses Monitored 8 6 Monitoring Results 15 7 Overview of environmental and social impacts 26 8 Emerging Challenges 27 9 Findings 26 10 Conclusions 27 28 11 Recommendations 30 Annex 1 – Details of Monitoring Methodology Annex 2 – Brief Descriptions of all Agribusinesses Monitored 1. Samoa Coconut Clusters, Vaitele 34 2. Mailelani Cosmetics, Papauta 36 3. T H Plantation, Aleisa 38 4. SVM Green, Aleisa 40 5. Savaii Koko, Asau 43 6. Samoa Meats Supplies, Alaoa 45 7. Island Shopper Butchery 47 8. Lata Plantation 49 9. Sunshine Farms – Poultry 50 10. Healthy Me Hydroonics 53 11. Tautua Samoa Nonu 55 12. Victorene’s Investments 57 13. Vicky’s Jams 58 14. Pauli Faafetai’s Plantation 59 15. Taualagi Ulimasao’s Enterprises 62 16. Foundation for Farming 64 17. Liu’s Integrated Farm 66 2 18. Purpose Plantation 68 19. E-Life Samoa Wild Tumeric 70 20. Ioane and Dora Maposua’s Farm 72 21. Sala Sagato’s Plantation 76 22. Samoa AgroMarketing 77 23. Ola Pacifica 78 24. Fuatino Oils 80 25. Misiluki Skincare Products 80 26. Ofisa Levave Plantation 82 27. Fe’epo Co. Ltd. 85 28. Satuala Development 87 29. Potoga Plantation 90 30. Sunshine Farms (Frankies #2) –Hydroponics and 94 Fertigation Vegetable Farm 31. Saifaleupolu , Matautu, Falealili 110 32. Dan Tanielu Sua 116 33. Tusani Lanuola, Savaia 119 List of Tables: Table 1 Project Investment Plan 6 Table 2 Financing Plan 7 Table 3 SABS Assisted Agribusinesses Monitored in this Report 9 Table 4 SABS Assisted Agribusinesses – Initial Categorizations and Issues of Concern 13 Table 5 Matrix of Monitoring Results and Updated ER 15 List of Figures Figure 1 Lata Plantation products – bottled water and honey 49 Figure 2 Tautua Samoa Noni Puree 52 Figure 3 Cooking banana chips at Victorene’s 54 Figure 4 Faafetai’s taro awaiting exporter’s truck 57 Figure 5 Copra drying at Taualagi’s operation in Puapua 59 Figure 6 Newly formed farm roads at Purpose Plantation 65 Figure 7 E-Life Wild Tumeric bottles and labels 67 Figure 8 Views of Ioane and Dora’s vegetable farm at Aleisa 69 Figure 9 Aerial (Google Earth) view of Potoga Plantation (2020) 95 Cover Photo: Various Products produced by SABS Clients; S Sesega, 2019. 3 Acronyms ACEO Assistant Chief Executive Officer ADB Asian Development Bank ADB SPS Asian Development Bank Safeguards Policy Statement ANZ Australia-New Zealand Bank BSP Bank of the South Pacific CEO Chief Executive Officer EIA Environmental Impact Assessment ER Effectiveness Rating ESMP Environmental and Social Management Plan ESMS Environment and Social Management System FI Financial Intermediaries FM Facility Manager GOS Government of Samoa GRM Grievance Redress Mechanism MNRE Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment MOF Ministry of Finance NFM National Facility Manager PEAR Preliminary Environmental Assessment Report PM Project Manager PMU Project Management Unit PUMA Planning and Urban Management Agency SABS Samoa Agribusiness Support Project SCB Samoa Commercial Bank SROS Scientific Research Organization of Samoa SSA Social Safeguards Advisor SSMR Semi-annual Safeguards Monitoring Reporting TL Team Leader 4 1. Introduction Semi-annual safeguards monitoring reports (SSMR) are a requirement of the Samoa AgriBusiness Support (SABS) Project agreement between Government of Samoa (GOS) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Preparation and submission of the SSMR is one of several deliverables under the Safeguards Advisor’s (SSA) contract. The purpose of the SSMR is to document the status of safeguards compliance for all Financial Intermediaries (FIs) and subprojects or agribusinesses supported by the Samoa AgriBusiness Support (SABS) Project through approved FIs. This is the ninth 6-monthly monitoring report for the Samoa AgriBusiness Support (SABS) Project. It covers both environmental and involuntary resettlement (IR) compliance for the period 1 July – 31 December, 2020. It builds on and updates the statuses of subprojects reported in the previous biannual report, and introduces new clients that came on board during this reporting period. 1.1. Scope of report This report focuses on SABS agribusiness clients and their safeguards compliance with ADB policies and Samoa Government safeguards laws. It does not include Financial Intermediaries (FI) for the reason that FI’s are, contrary to project design, not involved in any way with the process of screening and assessing potential clients’ proposals for environmental and social impacts, or in the subsequent monitoring of safeguards compliance of clients during their operational lives. FI’s simply refer interested agribusinesses to the National Facility Manager (NFM) and through the NFM, the Safeguards Advisor for screening, assessment and monitoring or compliance. There are 33 agribusinesses approved and supported by SABS to date, three more than reported on previously. Another five1 potential clients were assessed during the reporting period and were found acceptable for environmental and social impacts, with a decision on their being SABS supported dependent on on-going financial assessments and or loan negotiations2. This report is also prepared in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic which impacts on SABS clients’ have been devastating for many. Brief comments on the pandemic’s impact on SABS clients are included. 1.2. Brief Overview of SABS The SABS Project is financed by an ADB grant to the Government of Samoa (GoS). Approved in June 2014, the SABS supports the strengthening of the agribusiness sector by improving access to finance for eligible agribusiness enterprises. Funds are accessed by eligible and qualified agribusinesses through the following four financial intermediaries (FI): ANZ Bank, Bank of the South Pacific (BSP), Samoa Commercial Bank (SCB) and National Bank of Samoa (NBS). SABS’ focus is to address the key financial and capacity limitations in selected agribusinesses that have sound prospects for commercial success and which will contribute to the higher level objectives of value addition, employment, trade and rural incomes. The project has three outputs: Output 1 – Improved access to finance for selected agribusiness enterprises to address the lack of 1 Tauiliili Polito Vili (Lotofaga); Aukuso Tiavaasue (Faleula and Matautu Falealili), Alex Mikaele (Saleimoa), Mary and Ruperake Petaia, and Mauli Faleulu (Mt Vaea) 2 A further five potential clients screened in the previous reporting period (Jan – June 2020) are also at various stages of financial appraisal - Tufuga R Betham (Asau); Nora’s Plantation Foods (Lotopa); Pauli Faafetai (Salelologa, second proposal); Danny Rankin (Fiaga); John Pasina’s Plantation (Safa’atoa, Lefaga). 5 suitable financing instruments, the risk awareness of commercial banks to lend long term to the sector, the overall liquidity constraints in the financial sector, and the shortage of capital in the agribusiness sector. Output 2 – Business Support Services provided by the project to partner companies to help build their capacity in a broad range of areas which are critical to business success and adherence to environmental and social safeguards. Output 3 – Project Management: This involves a Project Management Unit (PMU) established within the Ministry of Finance (MOF) to be responsible for financial control, procurement and reporting. 1.3. Project Basic Data a. Grant Identification 1. Country Samoa 2. Grant Number 0392/0539 3. Project Title Samoa AgriBusiness Support Project 4. Recipient Independent State of Samoa 5. Executing Agency Ministry of Finance 6. Implementing Agencies Ministry of Finance ANZ Bank/Bank of the South Pacific /Samoa Commercial Bank/National Bank of Samoa 7. Amount of Grant $5,000,000 +$750,000 b. Grant Data 1. Fact-Finding – Date Started 20 January 2014 – Date Completed 24 January 2014 2. Grant Negotiations – Date Started 3 April 2014 – Date Completed 3 April 2014 3. Date of Board Approval 17 June 2014 4. Date of Grant Agreement 19 June 2014 5. Date of Grant Effectiveness – In Grant Agreement 18 September 2014 – Actual 19 September 2014 – Number of Extensions 6. Closing Date – In Grant Agreement 31 January 2022 – Number of Extensions 0 7. Elapsed Time Since Grant 6 months Effective- ness c. Project Data Table 1: Project Investment Plan ($ million) Item Amounta A. Base Costb 1. Output 1: Financing services 8.00 2. Output 2: Business support services 0.69 3. Output 3: Project management 1.47 Subtotal (A) 10.16 B. Contingenciesc