United Nations Development Programme Project Document Project title: Enhancing financial sustainability of the Protected Area system in Georgia Country: Implementing Partner: Management Arrangements: Georgia Ministry of Environmental Protection and National Implementation Modality Agriculture (MoEPA)/ Agency of (NIM) with Country Office support Protected Areas (APA) UNSPF/Country Programme Outcome: By 2020, communities enjoy greater resilience through enhanced institutional and legislative systems for environment protection, sustainable management of natural resources and disaster risk reduction1. UNDP Strategic Plan Output: 1.4.1 Solutions scaled up for sustainable management of natural resources, including sustainable commodities and green and inclusive value chains UNDP Social and Environmental Screening Category: UNDP Gender Marker: GEN2 Low Atlas Project ID (formerly Award ID): 00089759 Atlas Output ID (formerly Project ID): 00095873 UNDP-GEF PIMS ID number: 6138 GEF ID number: 9879 Planned start date: October 1, 2018 Planned end date: September 30, 2023 PAC meeting date : TBD Brief project description: Georgia’s recent socio-economic transition was accompanied by unsustainable economic activities and over-use of biological resources, driven by poverty, lack of alternative livelihoods, irresponsible exploitation, ignorance on nature’s values, and ineffective legislation. Today, Georgia is one of the few countries globally where protected areas are a genuine high level national priority. Significant progress is made with the expansion of the PA network in the past decades, supported by legislative-institutional reforms, and the country is committed to increase the area under formal protection to 20% protection (from current 8%) in the next 8 years. Despite 1 United Nations Office in Georgia, 2016. United Nations Partnership for Sustainable Development (framework document) – Georgia 2016-2020. UN House, Tbilisi, Georgia, 56 pp. 1 | P a g e progress made, threats to globally significant biodiversity in Georgia from socio-economic development as well as climate change are exacerbated by ineffective implementation and enforcement of legislation and policies on PAs. Remaining barriers to an effective and efficient PA system are addressed under three components: (i) sufficient, secure and predictable revenue sources ensure sustainable PA operations; (ii) improved management effectiveness of PAs; and (iii) improved awareness of Protected Area values. With GEF incremental support, CNF’s 2030 Sinking Fund will until 2030 annually provide $950,000 to 12 Target PAs, supporting operating costs, site-level TA and capacity building, on financial-administrative planning, budgeting and accounting, tourism development, management effectiveness assessment, and operational management. Awareness raising improves societal acceptance and support of PAs. The project will close the annual funding gap by $1.15 mln; increase CNF’s co-financing to Target PAs until 2030 by $4.35 mln over the baseline, matched by government funding; increase CAS, METT and Financial Scorecards; and expand support to 12 Target Key Biodiversity Areas, covering 431,872 ha. Project costs are estimated at $9,958,516, including $1,826,484 from GEF and $7,958,516 co-financing from MoEPA ($4,750,000), CNF ($3,008,516) and Bank of Georgia ($200,000). FINANCING PLAN GEF Trust Fund USD 1,826,484 UNDP TRAC resources USD 0 Cash co-financing to be administered by UNDP USD 0 (1) Total Budget administered by UNDP USD 1,826,484 PARALLEL CO-FINANCING Government US$ 4,750,000 Caucasus Nature Fund US$ 3,008,516 Bank of Georgia US$ 200,000 (2) Total co-financing US$ 7,958,516 (3) Grand-Total Project Financing (1)+(2) US$ 9,785,000 SIGNATURES Signature: print name below Agreed by Date/Month/Year: Government Signature: print name below Agreed by Date/Month/Year: Implementing Partner Signature: print name below Agreed by UNDP Date/Month/Year: 2 Table of Contents I. Acronyms and abbreviations ............................................................................................................................. 4 II. Development Challenge ..................................................................................................................................... 6 III. Strategy ............................................................................................................................................................ 11 IV. Results and Partnerships.................................................................................................................................. 14 V. Project Management ....................................................................................................................................... 28 VI. Project Results Framework .............................................................................................................................. 30 VII. Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Plan ........................................................................................................... 34 VIII. Governance and Management Arrangements ................................................................................................ 38 IX. Financial Planning and Management ............................................................................................................... 43 X. Total Budget and Work Plan ............................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. XI. Legal Context ................................................................................................................................................... 49 XII. Risk Management ............................................................................................................................................ 50 XIII. Annexes ............................................................................................................................................................ 52 Annex A: Multi Year Work Plan ............................................................................................................................... 53 Annex B: GEF Tracking Tool at baseline .................................................................................................................. 55 Annex C: Overview of Technical Consultancies ....................................................................................................... 56 Annex D: Terms of Reference of Project Management Staff .................................................................................. 67 Annex E: UNDP Social and Environmental Screening Template ............................................................................. 70 Annex F: Stakeholder Engagement Plan ................................................................................................................. 81 Annex G: Gender Analysis and Action Plan ............................................................................................................. 86 Annex H: UNDP Risk Log .......................................................................................................................................... 91 Annex I: Project Theory of Change .......................................................................................................................... 94 Annex J: System of Protected Areas in Georgia (2017) ........................................................................................... 97 Annex K: Institutional arrangements of the PA system in Georgia ......................................................................... 99 Annex L: Summary of KBA criteria applicable to target Protected Areas in Georgia ............................................ 101 Annex M: Biodiversity profile of target Protected Areas in Georgia ..................................................................... 103 Annex N: Approach towards strengthening domestic revenue streams for target PAs in Georgia ................ 109 Annex O: Monitoring Plan ..................................................................................................................................... 117 Annex P: Evaluation Plan ....................................................................................................................................... 121 Annex Q: Project Quality Assurance Report, completed in UNDP online corporate planning system ................. 121 Annex R: HACT assessment of CNF ....................................................................................................................... 121 Annex S: Letter of Agreement for Support Services.............................................................................................. 121 3 I. ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS APA Agency of Protected Areas AWP Annual Work Plans BMZ German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development CAS Capacity Assessment Scorecard CBD Convention on Biological Diversity CI Conservation International CO Country Office CNF Caucasus Nature Fund CzDA Czech Development Agency ECP Eco-region Conservation Plan for the Caucasus EOP End-of-project ERC Evaluation Resource Center ESMP Environmental and Social Management Plan ESV Ecosystem Services Valuation EU European Union FFI Fauna and Flora International FIF Financial Investment Funds GDI Gender Development Index GEF Global Environment Facility GGI Gender Gap Index GII Gender Inequality Index GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit