IPP174 Guangxi Integrated Forestry Development and Conservation Project Public Disclosure Authorized Funded by the Global Environmental Facility and the World Bank Public Disclosure Authorized Social Assessment Report Public Disclosure Authorized Prepared for the Guangxi Forestry Bureau Public Disclosure Authorized Final version November 2005 List of Acronyms CFA Community Forestry Appraisal CNY Chinese Yuan EMDP Ethnic Minority Development Plan GEF Global Environment Facility GIFDC Guangxi Integrated Forestry Development and Conservation project GZAR Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region NTFP Non-Timber Forest Products NR Nature Reserve OD Operational Directive of the World Bank OP Operational Policy of the World Bank PMO Guangxi Forestry Bureau World Bank Project Management Office PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal PRCDP Poor Rural Community Development Project SA Social Assessment SFA State Forestry Administration Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................I 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................1 2. Methodology.......................................................................................................................2 2.1. Social Assessment Process ..........................................................................................2 2.2. Social Assessment Tools ..............................................................................................2 3. Policy and Legal Framework.............................................................................................4 3.1. Timber Plantation Establishment Component ...............................................................4 3.2. Ecological forest management Component ..................................................................6 3.3. Nature Reserve Management Component....................................................................8 3.4. Policy Framework Shared by All Components ............................................................10 3.5. World Bank Safeguard Policies...................................................................................11 4. Assessment of the Timber Plantation Establishment Component .............................13 4.1. Project Location...........................................................................................................13 4.2. Component Stakeholders............................................................................................15 4.3. Production Arrangements............................................................................................22 4.4. Analysis of Risks and Opportunities............................................................................26 4.5. Recommendations for Project Design.........................................................................29 4.6. Project Monitoring .......................................................................................................31 5. Assessment of the Ecological Forest Management Component ...............................32 5.1. Project Location...........................................................................................................32 5.2. Component Stakeholders............................................................................................34 5.3. Analysis of Risks and Opportunities............................................................................38 5.4. Recommendations for Project Design.........................................................................40 5.5. Monitoring....................................................................................................................41 6. Assessment of the Nature Reserve Management Component ....................................42 6.1. Project Location...........................................................................................................42 6.2. Component Stakeholders............................................................................................44 6.3. Analysis of Risks and Opportunities............................................................................47 6.4. Recommendations for Project Design.........................................................................50 6.5. Monitoring....................................................................................................................51 7. Ethnic Minorities in the Project.......................................................................................52 7.1. Ethnic Minority People in the Project Area ..................................................................52 7.2. Outcomes of Community Consultation........................................................................54 7.3. Risks and Opportunities ..............................................................................................58 7.4. Recommendations ......................................................................................................60 I Executive Summary 1. Methodology Social assessment approach. A full social assessment has been undertaken during the design of the Guangxi Integrated Forestry Development and Conservation Project (GIFDC). A team of independent consultants has carried out the social assessment under the responsibility of the Guangxi Forestry Bureau. It started early during the process of project design in January 2005, and draft recommendations for each component were provided to the design team in April 2005. GIFDC is the second forestry project funded by the World Bank in China for which a full social assessment is conducted. The forestry sector context has evolved markedly since the previous project was prepared in 1999. This social assessment was an opportunity to use the concept of “people-based” forestry since sustainable development has become the overall provincial strategy in the forestry sector in Guangxi. The social assessment itself has used a participatory approach and trained local forestry staff in the approach. It has also finalized, in addition to the assessment itself, a project information leaflet and application forms for dissemination to the project areas. 11800 copies of have been printed in the form of a leaflet and a poster. Social assessment activities and status. The 4 national social assessment experts have surveyed 26 villages in 8 candidate counties for the plantation establishment and ecological forest management components, 18 villages in the 7 nature reserves, and 4 candidate forest farms and enterprises. This assessment has allowed consultation with households, village cadres, county governments, nature reserves, forest farms and enterprises. A provincial stakeholder consultation meeting was then carried out. County teams have carried out a similar survey in the remaining candidate counties for the timber plantation establishment component. A baseline survey with some 600 households has thus been completed. The international social assessment consultant has joined in for interviews with a cross-section of stakeholders. 2. Main Findings of Stakeholder Analysis Regional contrast. In summary, the project area includes 3 types of contrasted areas: (a) relatively better-off coastal areas and areas close to major cities, (b) relatively poorer red soil hills and mountains, and (c) very poor karst hills and high-elevation mountains. All three types of areas (except karst hills) would participate in the timber plantation establishment component, while the other components would mostly be located in poorer areas. The timber plantations might however be preferentially established in poorer areas where small and large tracts of collective unallocated land remain available for afforestation. Contrasted household participation. The social assessment survey indicated that, in better- off counties, up to half of the households would be interested in individual loans. in the remote counties, conversely, it is very likely that the number of households directly taking loans for timber plantations will be modest and mostly limited to better-off households or individual entrepreneurs. In the poorer areas, households will mostly be involved as seasonal workers and/or by receiving payments for land where the plantation takes place. The communities, i.e. the administrative and natural village collectives, will be actively involved in commercial forestry contracts with enterprises, in ecological forest management and in co-management in nature reserves. By July 2005 applications from 1300 villages had been received. An average 13 households or individual entrepreneurs per administrative village have applied for project loans. These loans will account for 25% of the component. II Contractual production arrangements. While the forestry sector has long been developed in Guangxi through contractual arrangements between local communities or groups and other stakeholders, this project will take place at a time where the stakeholders providing these contracts are becoming large or very large commercial operators. As a result, the issue is not so much which types of production arrangements should be promoted under the project, but how to ensure that vulnerable groups enter these contracts on a fair and transparent basis. Natural and administrative villages. The social assessment demonstrates the importance of paying attention both to administrative villages and natural villages,