Environmental Monitoring Report Project Number: 44214-024 August 2019 Building Climate Resilience of Watersheds in Mountain Eco-Regions Prepared by the Government of Nepal for the Asian Development Bank. This Environmental Compliance 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. Your attention is directed to the “terms of use” section of this website. 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. Government of Nepal Department of Forests and Soil Conservation Building Climate Resilience of Watersheds in Mountain Eco-Regions (BCRWME) Project (ADB Loan/Grant No.: GO357/0358-NEP) Semiannual Environemntal Monitoring Report of BCRWME Sub-projects (January to June 2019) Preparaed By BCRWME Project Project Management Unit Dadeldhura July, 2019 ABBREVIATION ADB : Asian Development Bank BCRWME : Building Climate Resilience of Watersheds in Mountain Eco- Regions BOQ : Bills of Quantity CDG : Community Development Group CFUG : Community Forest User Group CO : Community Organizer CPC : Consultation, Participation and Communications (Plan) CS : Construction Supervisor DDR : Due Diligence Reports DFO : Divisional Forest Office DFSC : Department of the Forests and Soil Conservation DSCO : District Soil Conservation Office DSCWM : Department of Soil Conservation and Watershed Management EARF : Environmental Assessment and Review Framework EIA : Environmental Impact Assessment EMR : Environmental Monitoring Report EO : Environment Officer FAC : Feasibility Approval Committee FTT : Field Technical Team GRC : Grievance Redress Committee GoN : Government of Nepal Ha : Hectare IEE : Initial Environmental Examination MoFE : Ministry of Forests and Environment NCB : National Competitive Bidding NDF : Nordic Development Fund NES : National Environmental Specialist O& M : Operation and Maintenance PAM : Project Administrative Mannual PIU : Project Implementation Unit PMIC : Project Management Implementation Consultant PMU : Project Management Unit REA : Rapid Environmental Assessment RVT : Reservoir Tank SES : Senior Environment Specialist SEMR : Semiannual Environment Monitoring Report SP : Sub-project SPPR : Sub-project Preparation Report SWMC : Sub-watershed Management Committee VDC : Village Development Committee WMA : Watershed Management Associate WME : Watershed Management Engineer i EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Building climate Resilience of Watersheds in Mountain Eco- Regions (BCRWME) Project being implemented by the Department of the Forests and Soil Conservation (DFSC) with grant assistance from ADB, Nordic Development Fund and Government of Nepal intends to improve access to and reliability of water supplies to communities living in watershed vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The project has considered environment component to address environmental issues of sub-projects (SPs) implementation. The project has an environmental assessment review framework (EARF) that specifies sub-project (SP) selection procedures, SP’s environment categorization, environment assessment procedure, community consultation, grievance redress mechanism and institutional arrangement for environment monitoring and reporting mechanism. There are 108 SPPRs (Batch I-8, Batch II-20, batch II-40 and Batch IV-40) and all of them are category C projects. The environmental safeguard requirements of GoN and ADB are satisfactorily addressed in SPs planning and implementation stages. The project has adopted procedural requirements such as environmental screening, SPs categorization, Due Diligence Report inclusion, community consultation, voluntary land donation documents during sub-project preparation report (SPPR) preparation and approval process. No violations of local traditions and culture, no resettlement of indigenous people, worker’s safety, avoidance of under aged workers, community consultations, slope stabilization through engineering and bioengineering measures, minimizing trees cutting (if unavoidable), quarry site management, spoil management are considered during implementation of SPs. The project has the provision of intermittent inputs of senior environment specialist (SES) and designated soil conservation officer as an environment officer. Environment compliance status of 20 SPs has been reported in January-June, 2019. Inclusion of DDRs in 108 SPs, 515 numbers of voluntary land donation documents and more than 1077 ward level consultations were conducted during planning stage. Quarry site management, burrow pit management, spoils management, soil erosion and landslide control are adopted in SPs implementation. No tree cut issue is reported in 20 SPs of Dadeldhura, Baitadi and Bajhang. These 20 SPs have planted 8031 winter plantation, 69478 forestry species, 83910 fodder trees and 24506 fruit trees. It is reported that 30959 winter trees, 70665 fruit trees, 134537 fodder trees, 122610 forestry species were planted in 68 SPs till June, 2019. Cultivation of 1096503 numbers of grasses is reported. 237 numbers of source upstream location covering 22033 ha of catchment area are managed in 20 SPs of Dadeldhura, Baitadi and Bajhang. 553 numbers (n=20 SPs) of catchments are restored. No involuntary land acquisition, resettlement issues, social conflicts, child labour were noticed due to SP implementation. No grievance is received till date; however project is under the process of formation of grievance redress committee. The SPs have great environment benefits in terms of catchment management, ground water recharge, surface water management, water source protection, land stabilization and erosion control mechanism. The project is now planning to prepare environment safeguard guidelines and orient the project staffs. The project needs to provide a monitoring and reporting training to the project teams so that the project could receive quality environmental report regularly. ii Table of Contents Abbreviation ................................................................................................................................................................... i Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................................................... ii 1. Background ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 2. Environment Safeguard in The BCRWME Project .................................................................................. 2 3. Construction Approach ................................................................................................................................. 2 4. Overall Environmental Safeguard Status .................................................................................................... 3 5. Compliance Status with Environmental Covenants ................................................................................ 3 6. Institutional Arrangement.............................................................................................................................. 4 6.1 Environment Safeguard Compliance Mechanism .............................................................................. 4 6.2 Environmental Monitoring Mechanism in District ............................................................................ 4 7. Compliance with Environmental Safeguard Measures ............................................................................ 5 7.1 During Planning and Approval Phase ................................................................................................... 5 7.1.1 Environment Screening and SP categorization, environment assessment ........................ 6 7.1.2 Project Procedural Requirement ............................................................................................... 6 7.1.3 Rapid Environment Assessment and Due Diligence Report ............................................... 6 7.1.4 Environmental officers .................................................................................................................. 6 7.1.5 Grievance redress mechanism and Environment safeguard desk ...................................... 6 7.1.6 Community consultation and downstream users’ consent ................................................. 7 7.1.7 Land Donation ................................................................................................................................ 7 7.1.8 Environment benefits by SPs ....................................................................................................... 7 7.2 During Implementation Stage ................................................................................................................ 7 7.2.1 Quarry Site and Burrow Pit Management................................................................................ 7 7.2.2 Soil erosion, landslide control .................................................................................................... 8 7.2.3 Excess Spoil and excavated top soil management .................................................................. 8 7.2.4 Tree cutting and plantation