FBEAMonitoring EvaluationPlanGeneralAugust2005.doc

FORESTRY AND BIODIVERSITY ASSESSMENT (FBEA )

MONITORING AND EVALUATION PLAN

All activities described in general in the Forestry and Biodiversity Assessment Plan (FBEA) are presented in detail in the individual action plans prepared by each FBEA partner. The monitoring and evaluation of these activities are assumed by these partners, and the cost of this process is included in the general budget of each activity. CTOs oversee compliance with the FBEA Plans, including the monitoring and evaluation component.

Monitoring and evaluation activities by each partner are presented in greater detail in the following paragraphs.

WWF – CEDEFOR

WWF submitted the final version of its Environmental Impact Mitigation Plan for the CEDEFOR Program in May 2005. It included the monitoring and evaluation activities that are presented in the following paragraphs. Subsequently, following an activity evaluation conducted by WWF and given USAID serious budgetary limitations, WWF and USAID agreed to shorten CEDEFOR’s implementation period by one year through December 2006, and to reduce accordingly, the amount of USAID resources assigned to the Activity. This will imply that the number of forest management units that will be assisted towards the international certification process will be significantly reduced, and will only be limited to those concessions and native community forests with greater potential for success.

CEDEFOR applies the same monitoring and evaluation methodology to its certification initiatives, whether referring to community forest management units or concessions. Each initiative signs an agreement that stipulates all actions to be undertaken to lead the forest management unit towards certifiable standards, and each action has one or more responsible persons assigned to it. Most of these actions are directed at changing the attitudes and practices of operators and managers alike, from that of conventional loggers to responsible forest managers, and thus contribute to the reduction of negative environmental and social impacts. Each action plan has a member of the CEDEFOR project personnel assigned to it. He is responsible for the progress of the action plan and will be frequently monitored by another member of the staff who is responsible for another action plan.

Progress is discussed internally in each region on a monthly basis, while at the project level this will be done on a semi-annual basis, at which time necessary adjustments will be made in action plan or project implementation.

The results of all action plans (progress and impacts) will be evaluated by an external agent (accredited certifier) within 06 months after completion, and some may be evaluated during implementation. Based on this evaluation new action plans will be developed to assure that the forest management units maintain and improve their standards. Thus, environmental impact mitigation is one of the main activity of the project, is continuous and integrated into all project activities, making it difficult at times to specifically assign a time period or a budget to a specific mitigating measure.

In addition, at different intervals, MSc students will be contracted to evaluate the progress towards sustainability of a selection of forest management units. These evaluations will include environmental and socio-economic parameters and will be directed at identifying factors (internal or external to the operations) that positively or negatively influence sustainability of the operations. The results of these evaluations will be taken into consideration at subsequent planning exercises. The first study is projected to be completed in December 2006.

It should be taken into account, that the results of an analysis of environmental impacts depends largely on the reference situation: the situation if there wasn’t a project. In most areas of CEDEFOR’s interventions this situation is one of uncontrolled harvesting and uncontrolled land settlement. The biggest impact of these activities before project implementation was the clearing of forest areas for roads and agricultural activities (including cattlebreeding). The CEDEFOR project aims at reducing those impacts to less than half of the impacts that would have been caused were the initial situation to continue without project interventions (no more or minimal land clearing for non-forest purposes and adequate planning and implementation of road networks).

Although any harvesting will cause some impacts, at the low intensity that has been common in Peru (<4 m3/ha), it will cause insignificant impacts on the habitats and species, as long as Reduced Impact Logging techniques are applied within a framework of sustainable forest management planning (Finegan et al 2004) . Thus, emphasis will be on proper planning, implementation of RIL techniques, and monitoring of changes in the environment.

Adverse impact: Conflict between land use capability and present use

a. An environmental monitoring system is being developed that has different components at different scales:

· A network of one-hectare permanent sample plots (66 have been established so far in 17 concession areas) has been designed to assess the impact of logging on forest dynamics. Supervision of this network will be transferred to a national partner (IIAP or CDC) while the results of continuous assessment will be incorporated into the forest management plans of the certification initiatives.

· Environmental and social impact of each certification initiative will be assessed based on a set of criteria and indicators to be developed for that purpose, and based on existing standards used for that purpose in Mexico, Central America and Brazil. This monitoring will be linked to each action plan, and will be performed by trained personnel of a different regional office than where the action plan was generated. Within 3-6 months of completing each action plan, an internationally accredited certifier will complement the results of this monitoring, applying internationally accepted standards for sustainable forest management.

· At the watershed level, data on employment, value of forest production and changes in forest cover will be collected and entered into our database. In addition, a monitoring system is in implementation in the Saposoa watershed to assess changes in water quality and quantity due to changes in land use. The socio-economic data is collected by our regional business administration officers, data on forest cover by our SIG officer in Lima, and data on the water quality in Saposoa by a DGIS-assistant expert, who will transfer the monitoring system to our regional GIS officer in Tarapoto towards the end of 2006.

· Semi-annually, project staff will engage in an self-evaluation and planning exercise, during which available results of monitoring will be discussed and taken into consideration.

Adverse impact: Decreased biological diversity/potential loss of genetic resources

a. Permanent Sample Plots have been installed and their management will be transferred to a scientific organization (IIAP or CDC) between July 2005 and June 2006. Its role will be to improve species identification, perform frequent re-measurements and analyze existing and future data relevant for forest management. The organization will also have to analyze the relevance of the PSP in terms of representation of forest types and forest management types. Where necessary, the PSP network will be expanded to include relevant under- or non-represented forest or management types.

b. In coordination with national research and education centers, training courses in tree identification will be performed annually and directed at local tree identifiers and inventory supervisors, prioritizing personnel of certification initiatives and partner organizations.

c. In all certification initiatives, exploratory forest inventories will be performed to establish local baseline data.

d. In all certification initiatives, High Conservation Values will be identified and forest management unit specific mitigation measures will be proposed, following guidelines developed by Proforest (2003) and Finegan et al (2004)

e. During 2006, a research and training partner will be selected that will be contracted to take over diagnosis and monitoring activities.

f. Biological data will be made available through the WWF website, following consultation with the managers of the different forest management units.

Adverse impact: Health and sanitary risks among local population and workers

A consultant will develop a health and safety plan as well as publish a general health and safety manual. Implementation of this plan will be the joint responsibility of the partners in the technical assistance agreement (i.e. WWF, forest manager and possible third partner). Its compliance and impact will be monitored by WWF staff, with an evaluation 3-6 months after completion of the plan by an accredited certifier.

Adverse impact: Potential impacts on the hydrologic regime of the watersheds

In one target watershed (Saposoa) a pilot hydrological monitoring system is being developed by a Dutch international cooperation (DGIS) assistant expert. This system is low-cost and involves local people in its implementation and interpretation of the results. It includes rainfall measuring stations as well as flow measuring stations and its results will be interpretated in the context of the actual and potential land uses and changes in the watershed. Based on its results, the integrated forest management plan of the area will be adjusted as necessary. After validation of the system, partners will be sought for implementation of similar systems in the other target watersheds.

Adverse Impact: Illegal loggers invade forest concessions to extract valuable forest species.

Under pressure of foreign governments, in particular from the European Union member countries, INRENA needs to show that it is capable of monitoring and controlling all trafficking of mahogany that is destined to the international market. To assist INRENA in complying with these requirements, CEDEFOR gives direct support to their field operations.

CEDEFOR will also support the establishment of committees that frequently patrol the forest management areas.

Also, it will support the establishment of Responsible Buying Agreements with timber buyers. These agreements are accompanied by monitoring of the field operations in regular intervals, taking into account the legal, social and environmental indicators established within the general phased approach towards certification, applied in all certification initiatives.

CHEMONICS – ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

A recently completed evaluation of the Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for the Alternative Development Program, notes that the ADP Program is using international standards for the preparation of its forest management plans. However, it also indicates that as of this date, there has not been any monitoring or external evaluation on the application of these standards. Consequently, procedures have not yet been established for adequately monitoring and evaluating the environmental impacts produced by these forest management practices.

Chemonics-ADP has concluded that the most practical, rapid and reliable manner to conduct the monitoring of the forest management practices through the contracting of an independent certifying firm recognized by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This firm would then be charged with the responsibility for verifying whether Chemonics-PDA is actually using management standards which ensure the sustainable management of forests.

In order to prevent impacts resulting from its forest management activities, Chemonics is proposing to develop and implement the management plans in accordance with international standards, which may even lead to the certification of the forest activities to using these plans.

In order to ensure the application of these international standards, the PDA Program will apply the following process:

1) Prepare a list of the forest management projects funded by the ADP Program..- This list will include name, location, size and owner of the forest management units. It will also indicate the current stage of development. The initial list includes the development of six forest management plans, three of then in native communities forests; the establishment of seven local forests, all in process; the establishment of other 13 local forests in the area of influence of the Juanjuí-Tocache road, four of them in communities with eradication agreements, and the evaluation of other nine communities which appear to have potential for the establishment of local forests, but that have not yet eradication agreements; five projects of reforestation and three of installation of agroforestry systems; five modules of rubber (caucho) plantations management; and three modules of forest products utilization.

2) Preparation and approval of Terms of Reference for the selection of the certifying firm. The objective of this firm services is to assess compliance with USAID environmental regulations including Sections 118 and 119 of FAA and determining the level of compliance with the Peruvian standards and with FSC’s principles, criteria and standards. ToR will be developed by October 15.

3) Contracting of the certifying firm. Once the selection process is completed, Chemonics will proceed to the contracting of the selected certifying firm. However, this is being schedule due to INRENA’s delays in approving local forests and management plans. Given the pressures that INRENA is now receiving to speed up the process, it is now estimated that the firm will start with its certification work at the beginning of Year 2006.

4) Provision of services by the certifying firm. The firm will proceed with a rapid field evaluation following normal procedures for a forest certification at the international level. The units to be evaluated will be selected at random, but USAID may request the inclusion of some selected forest units or some specific forest units or some specific subjects.

5) Reports. These will be primarily used by the owners of the forest units, but they will also be distributed to USAID, INRENA, DEVIDA or any other partner of the ADP Program. Based on the evaluation reports and recommendations, ADP will take any required corrective action.

The proposed process has at a minimum three clear advantages: a) the activities are evaluated on the basis of international standards; b) the evaluators will be professionals with ample experience and their recommendations will definitely improve the quality of operations; and c) the early use of FSC standards will facilitate and eventually lead to the certification of the forest units.

The application of this monitoring and evaluation process to the PDA forest management activities, will be based on the forest management plans prepared by PDA for the farming and native communities included in the program. PDA is also assisting the communities to complete their management and operation plans and in obtaining INRENA’s approval. As of this date, there are seven local forests going through the process of recognition. ADP also plans to work with several communities within the area of influence of the Juanjui-Tocache road which is being rehabilitated with USAID’s support. The establishment of local and protection forests for these communities will be an effective measure to mitigate the indirect environmental impacts of road rehabilitation.

Estimated budget.-The estimated cost of the monitoring and evaluation activities is in the order of $100,000. This includes the support for the preparation, processing and approval of the management plans and the cost of contracting the services of the certifying firm.

CHEMONICS – PRA

Forest Concessions.- The work that PRA is performing in support to forest concessions is limited providing assistance to four concessionaires, that have received their concession rights from INRENA in areas classified as appropriate for forest production. The assistance to three of the concessionaires, primarily consists of support for obtaining an international certification from the Forest Stewardship Council (FCS). This will allow them to export their products to the most demanding international markets.

The FSC international certification is very strict and comprehensive and encompasses all environmental, social and economic factors required to ensure attainment of all sound environmental and social practices recommended by the FBEA. The concessionaire is responsible for compliance, while the certifying organization is responsible for supervision and monitoring and of issuing periodic progress reports. All of the areas identified as areas of possible conflicts will be addressed in the certification process.

Fragmenting at large scale of forestry areas: If there is a protection area close to the concession, that may be affected by the forestry activity, it will be identified by the certification plan and the required measures will be taken.

Conflicts between land use capability and present use: The FSC certification process includes the solution of this type of problems. In the certification handbooks delivered to the concessionaires, this topic is included and the concessionaire will be responsible to implement it as part of the Business Plan.

Reduction in biodiversity: A baseline on biological resources will be prepared and a system of permanent sample plots will be established as a prerequisite to forest certification. The control of endangered species is also a task planned for the certification process.

Overexploitation of traditional timber species: PRA works in the development of new species only to the extent that this constitutes a bottleneck identified by the client. With regard to the provision of support to the communities on forest management, this may be given when an articulation has been established between the community and a concessionaire which has facilitated the market insertion and funded the extraction and the management plan.

Health and sanitary risks to the local population and workers: The FCS certification also covers some of these aspects, but the main responsible agency is the Ministry of Health. .

THE NATURE CONSERVANCY (TNC) – PARKS IN PERIL

SELVA CENTRAL

For monitoring and evaluation purposes, the Project uses the approved Site Consolidation Scorecard, which determines progress towards the consolidation of the protected areas supported by the PiP Program.

A biological and threats monitoring system will be established based on a plan with a baseline and indicators. This will detect changes of use and status of ecosystems.

The Project will also support INRENA for improving its technical capabilities for control, supervision, and law enforcement. A record will be maintained on the illegal extraction activities reported. Information will be disseminated on the implications of illegal hunting, fishing and logging. A record will be maintained on the number of publications and diffusion events in media.

The project plans to establish two municipal or regional conservation areas in the Oxapampa Province, for increasing the number of protected habitats. Land and natural resource planning will be supported in two micro watersheds contiguous to the protected area and will have as progress indicator, the percentage of the provincial surface that has land-use plans.

PACAYA SAMIRIA

The Site Consolidation Scorecard will also be used to evaluate the progress in the conservation and management activities supported by the project in this protected area.

Data bases and changes identified by satellite images will monitor changes in land use. A training program in monitoring systems will be delivered to local leaders. A biodiversity health monitoring program will also be developed for both, the PA and the buffer zone. One river turtle management plan and four fisheries management plans will be developed. A minimum of two publications and two management resources experiences will be disseminated within the National Reserve or at a regional level

Scorecard for Pacaya-Samiria

Category/Indicator

A. Strategic planning

B. Basic protection activities

C. Long-term financing

D. Site constituency

Scorecards for Central Selva Project

Yanachaga Chemillen National Park (PNYCH):

Current

of Project

A. STRATEGIC PLANNING

A.1. Project area zoning

B. BASIC PROTECTION ACTIVITIES

B.2. On-site personnel

B.3. Training Plan for Project area

C. LONG‑TERM FINANCING

D. SITE CONSTITUENCY

D.3. Stakeholder and Constituency Support for Project Area

D.6. Institutional Leadership

Yanesha Communal Reserve(RCY):

Current

A. STRATEGIC PLANNING

A.1. Project area zoning

B. BASIC PROTECTION ACTIVITIES

B.2. On-site personnel

B.3. Training Plan for Project area

C. LONG‑TERM FINANCING

D. SITE CONSTITUENCY

D.3. Stakeholder and Constituency Support for Project Area

D.6. Institutional Leadership

San Matias – San Carlos Protection Forest (BPSMSC):

Current

A. STRATEGIC PLANNING

A.1. Project area zoning

B. BASIC PROTECTION ACTIVITIES

B.2. On-site personnel

B.3. Training Plan for Project area

C. LONG‑TERM FINANCING

D. SITE CONSTITUENCY

D.3. Stakeholder and Constituency Support for Project Area

D.6. Institutional Leadership

FIELD MUSEUM OF CHICAGO (FMC) – PROTECTION OF CORDILLERA AZUL NATIONAL PARK

The Cordillera Azul activity has undergone a major change in the scope and objectives of the program. As of May 2005 the program will focus on park protection activities only. The activities that previously focused on economic ecological opportunities (diversification of chacras, agroforestry, reforestation, forest plantation) and that began in August 2004 will no continue to be implemented.

The park protection activities are oriented to address current existing threats to the National Park (illegal logging, illegal hunting, illegal fishing, illicit crops, disorganized migration, etc) through park protection infrastructure, hiring of park guards, construction of park control posts and activities to improve the engagement of local communities in conservation as improvement of awareness, environmental education and technical capacity for land zoning and planning for the local authorities. The Cordillera Azul activity is implemented with the Protected Areas Intendency of INRENA and CIMA. It is also aimed at working with the decentralization process in management of natural resources, working with the local governments and the 4 Park Management Committees focusing specifically on the long-term sustainability of institutional alliances and on the effectiveness of these alliances to reach shared goals with USAID Mission.

The park protection activities will contribute to provide local and regional authorities with tools to understand the core principles of resource management and to implement policies for the proper use of natural resources for the long term.

To ensure the long term successes of the conservation activities, FMC have also developed an environmental education program which objectives include:

· to create a critical mass of local schools that both adopt a conservation education agenda (through the UGELs) along with a vision towards sustainable use of resources and explore the direct connection between conservation of natural resources and quality of life. CIMA is currently working with three schools (at all grade levels) in the three major urban centers around the park (Tarapoto, Tocache, and Contamana)

· to launch an extension program for rural communities neighboring the park to teach about practices that make the sustainable use of natural resources a reality

· to initiate programs in rural schools, based on adaptations of material for the two programs above

Field Museum of Chicago has developed a Performance Monitoring Plan that responds to the activities implemented after the modification of the scope. The indicators that will be tracked are as follows:

Habitat fragmentation

FMC will monitor land use cover change with satellite information, provide direct support to Park’s administration and zoning efforts, implement activities of protection of critical areas, support to the local surveillance and technical capacity to Park management committees as well as develop awareness and communication campaigns and environmental education program.

Accelerated loss of wildlife To address this issue FMC will provide direct support to the Park’s administration by implementing a system of biological monitoring and of threats, support to local surveillance and park support committees, and training to Park’s Management Committees. Additionally, FMC will systematize experiences on over-exploitation and disseminate appropriately with an environmental awareness campaign.

Illicit crop cultivation

FMC will work jointly with INRENA and DEVIDA to support mapping of illict crops in the National Park and identify through satellite imagery information potential areas that the GOP agency will need to eradicate.

� PSP are 1 ha plots established in harvested and non-harvested forests, within which all trees (with diameter at breast height of over 10 cm) and a sample of other plants are identified and measured with a bi- or triannual frequency, in order to define forest composition and structure as well as growth-, regeneration- and mortality rates and the effect of logging on these characteristics.

� Proforest 2003 The High Conservation Value Forest Toolkit

� Finegan, B., Haynes, J.,Delgado, D., Gretzinger, S., 2004. Monitoreo del manejo forestalen el trópico húmedo. WWF Central America

� In Fiscal Years 03 and 04 the actual and target scores corresponded to the average of the three protected areas.

� In Fiscal Years 03 and 04 the actual and target scores corresponded to the average of the three protected areas.

� In Fiscal Years 03 and 04 the actual and target scores corresponded to the average of the three protected areas.

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