Czech GIS Project (P114304)

45

December 13, 2011

Russian Federation:

Forest Fire Response Project (Forest Project-2)

Environmental Management Framework

(EMF)

Contents

1 Project Context2

2 Purpose of the EMF2

3 The Russian Federation’s Legal and Regulatory Framework and World Bank Policies2

4 Environmental Screening, Assessment and Management2

5 Institutional Framework2

6 Compliance Monitoring and Reporting2

7 Review and Approval2

8 Prior and Post Review2

9 Public Consultation and Disclosure of Information2

10 Executive SummaryError! Bookmark not defined.

ANNEX 1 Environmental Baseline Conditions2

ANNEX 2 Description of Russian Federal EIA Regulations2

ANNEX 3 Template for “Checklist” EMP2

ANNEX 4 World Bank’s Policy on Pest Management (OP 4.09)2

ANNEX 5 Template for “Full Fledged” EMP2

1 Project Context

Background. The project has three components: (1) enhancing forest fire prevention, management and control; (2) building forest management capacity; and (3) project management. There will be two implementing agencies for the project: the Federal Forest Agency (FFA), which covers the extensive area forest of forest fund, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE), which will implement the project in Protected Areas (PAs).

Project objective. The World Bank is supporting the Government of the Russian Federation in the preparation of a Forest Fire Response Project that aims to improve forest fire prevention and management and enhance sustainable forest management. Specifically, the Project will support the Russian Government’s preparedness for forest fires, by strengthening the capacity for forest fire monitoring and response as well as strengthening the institutional and policy framework for forestry governance, which is also critical to the prevention of forest fires and management of areas affected by fires. Furthermore, the project will contribute to raising public awareness and education standards in forestry issues in general, with specific reference to forest fire prevention/control and forest governance issues. Given that the bulk of fires are of human origin, the latter is as important as suppression of fires underway. It is expected that project investments will lead to a decrease in the number of fires of human origin. Fires which occur will be better controlled (and hence reduced in extent and severity) as they will be detected sooner, response time will be reduced due to better communications, fire fighting capacity in terms of equipment and trained personnel will have been increased, and interagency and interregional fire-fighting coordination and cooperation will be enhanced. In addition, shortcomings identified in the forest policy and legislative framework will be addressed at both the national and pilot region level, strengthening the management of forests and landscapes, which will in turn have a positive impact on the prevalence and likelihood of forest fires.

Project components: Component 1: Enhancing Forest Fire Prevention, Management and Control. This component aims to improve the effectiveness of forest fire prevention and management by (i) strengthening the capacity of early detection and quick response to fight forest fires and (ii) reducing the number of fires of human origin through awareness raising and environmental education programs. Early fire detection is recognized as a key element in improving protection of forest from fires. Management of fires requires clear coordination across the various agencies. The project will therefore support the establishment of Inter-regional Forest Fire Centers (IFFCs) to improve detection and coordination across the various agencies. Fire prevention and environmental education will be focused on children and youth as a means to encourage long-term behavior change. In particular, this component will provide technical assistance to (i) develop fire preparedness master plans at the forest district level to determine the optimum location of different forest fire interventions; (ii) review and upgrade regional fire danger rating and fire hazard indices; (iii) improve the capacity of the early fire detection system; and (iv) develop public awareness and media/education campaigns to decrease the incidence of forest fires of human origin. In addition, investments will be made to improve fire fighting and preparedness systems and establish IFFCs.

Component 2: Building Forestry Management Capacity. Forest policy, legislation, institutions and silvicultural systems clearly have an impact on how forest is managed which in turn has multiple effects on the environment, including the likelihood, extent and severity of forest fires. This component will increase forest management capacity through (i) provision of technical assistance to help identify and address key policy and legislative issues and the institutional framework (by supporting the clear demarcation of mandates among federal and regional forest management institutions); (ii) targeted investments to improve forest regeneration and restoration, establish integrated forest management information systems, and develop model forests; and (iii) improved training opportunities for both professionals already in service and new forestry expertise.

Component 3: Project Management. A Project Implementation Unit (PIU) will work with FFA, MNRE, and each of the participating Inter-regional Forest Fire Centers to ensure effective and continuous communication with project stakeholders. This PIU will coordinate all project activities, procure works, goods, and consultants’ services for project implementation, supervise and monitor project activities, and report regularly to FFA and MNRE.

Planned project activities. The project will finance hardware, equipment and fire-fighting infrastructure, focusing on ground-based activities, and will not involve significant or large scale physical interventions or major civil works. Besides the purchase of equipment, tools, protection gear and vehicles, project funds will be used for the construction of observation towers and the rehabilitation of fire stations and warehouses for equipment and machinery. Such activities will be carried out in areas, regions or other administrative units where some fire-fighting capacity already exists, which can be enhanced and improved by the project’s activities. These civil works will have localized, minor and reversible environmental impacts, which are of a routine nature and will require only simple environmental management instruments.

The project may finance the construction of temporary access or service roads and the clearing of fire breaks that are immediately necessary to increase fire fighting effectiveness. These activities are standard forest management practice and do not cause significant impacts, either in magnitude or duration. The project will not finance airborne fire fighting, thus potential impacts from chemical agents commonly added to water dropped from fixed wing aircraft and helicopters are not expected. (Such agents commonly include retardants, which slow down water evaporation and thus increase its activity in a fire, and foam agents, which work in a similar manner and also have a smothering effect. One of the most commonly used retardants is Ammonium Phosphate, which has a fertilizing effect.)

The planned activities on the development and support of policies, legal frameworks and institutional capacities would result in a general strengthening of on the ground enforcement of laws and regulations by clarifying the rights and responsibilities of forest inspectors and rangers, as well as forest users. This would improve overall control of the authorities and reduce illegal activities, including negligent behavior or willful setting of fires.

In this context the project also aims to reduce the frequency of fires caused by arson, which appears to play a role in triggering forest fires. New regulations shall target the currently existing perverse incentives to set fire to forests intentionally to secure income from salvage logging, avoiding the complicated “red tape” associated with legally acquiring logging licenses. The project’s activities aimed at building forest management, education and training will include measures to improve outreach of forest authorities to the general public, increase awareness of the ecological and economic value of forests and build / strengthen the sense of ownership of the population living close to forest resources.

The following specific activities and measures envisaged include:

1. improving ground-based forest fire response, and the reconstruction, modernization and maintenance of forest fire stations in 3 – 5 pilot regions;

2. local forest fire brigades will be established and firefighting and communications equipment provided;

3. inter-regional Forest Fire Centers (e.g., in the Far East, Siberian, and Northwestern Federal Districts) will be established and equipped for the detection and suppression of large-scale fire outbreaks, coordination of response between regions and agencies, as well as pest treatment;

4. public awareness and education programs and products (e.g., brochures, school curricula, posters, radio and TV media, websites, blogs, etc.) will be developed to advocate forest fire safety rules;

5. early fire detection and response will be strengthened by upgrading the fire danger rating and hazard index system in pilot regions and Protected Areas and expanding the network of ground-based fire services, including fire towers and observation points in key target areas;

6. fire fighting preparedness in targeted Protected Areas will be enhanced through the upgrading of forest fire stations, constructing and cleaning fire breaks; such activities will be aligned with respective park management plans;

7. upgrading of communications systems, supply of suitable firefighting machinery, equipment, protective clothing, gear and hand-tools;

8. forest regeneration, afforestation and carbon sequestration will be improved by (i) expanding the network of laboratories to evaluate forest seed quality and origin through DNA analysis to provide genetically certified seed; and (ii) establishing innovative seed centers to upgrade forest regeneration activities through the construction of facilities and supply of equipment for seed harvesting, storage, growing and transportation and to trial modern techniques of plantation maintenance and protection (from fire and wildlife);

9. design and implementation of a centralized database with standard geospatial information that will enable all types of forest monitoring (e.g. forest fires, forest inventory and management, forest pathology, among others);

10. develop a national forest fire management strategy for Protected Areas that takes into account a differentiated approach to forest fire control depending on regional environmental and socioeconomic conditions, the environmental landscape, economic aspects and international experience;

11. develop standard operating procedures and guidelines for Protected Area zoning by fire protection level; prepare GIS-based fire management plans in the largest Protected Areas most susceptible to fires; and develop respective guidelines and standard operating procedures;

Location. While the exact project locations are not yet defined, it is expected that the physical interventions will focus on 3-5 pilot regions and select Protected Areas, which will be defined by geographic, economic, and environmental criteria. It may be assumed, that the project’s geographical focus would be on forests with high environmental or economic value which may be situated close to settlements or infrastructure, and where fires would carry the risk of human life loss, severe human health impacts, substantial damage to infrastructure or substantial loss of economic assets or valuable ecological resources (e.g. national parks).

Project safeguards category and triggered policies. The project is classified as environmental category “B” under the World Bank’s operational policy (OP) 4.01, as the environmental impacts are expected to be largely positive and negative impacts will be limited in scope and geographical extent, and readily mitigatable. Further environmental safeguards policies triggered are OP4.09 (Pest Management) and OP4.36 (Forests). The social policy OP4.12 on Involuntary Resettlement was triggered as well but will be treated by separate safeguards instruments.

2 Purpose of the EMF

This EMF serves as detailed guidance for environmental management during project design and implementation. As the exact project locations have not yet be determined, design will not be sufficiently detailed to produce implementation ready EMPs before the project is appraised. This EMF will become a legally and contractually binding document for the Borrower, designers and Contractors.

The EMF describes the environmental baseline conditions within which the project will be implemented, identifies the overall range of impacts, and designs generic mitigation, management and monitoring measures. It will also describe environmental management implementation arrangements and the legal framework based on which the project interventions will be implemented and monitored. The EMF itself will be part of the designer’s TOR for detailed project design, and will be incorporated into all tender packages for project implementation contracts. The key safeguards instruments for project implementation – the specific environmental management plan (EMP) and the “checklist version thereof – are described in this general EMP which provides guidance on roles and responsibilities for designers and contractors once concrete projects have been identified, designs are available and contracts for implementation works signed. Depending on the type of investment the responsibility for producing the specific EMP will fall to the Designer or Contractor.

3 The Russian Federation’s Legal and Regulatory Framework and World Bank Policies

The project will be required to comply with both Russian federal legislation and the World Bank’s policies applicable to this project. In the case of significant discrepancies, the more stringent of the 2 sets of guidelines will prevail.

Though the Forest Code of the Russian Federation does not contain any specific requirement to undertake environmental impact assessment (EIA) in areas classified as forests, such a safeguard is established in other laws and regulations. In particular, in accordance with Federal Law # 174-FZ of November 23, 1995, on Environmental Review, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report should be prepared for all engineering and technical operations. A state environmental review covers project documents, including environmental documents, with an EIA report being one of them.

Federal Law # 7-FZ of January 10, 2002, On Environmental Protection sets forth that:

1. Environmental impact assessment shall be undertaken for planned economic and other activities which may directly or indirectly affect the environment, regardless of organisational and legal patterns of ownership of the implementation entities for the economic and other activities.

3. Requirements to environmental impact assessment documents shall be established by federal executive authorities effecting state environmental management (Article 32: Environmental Impact Assessment).

Federal Law # 174-FZ of November 23, 1995, on Environmental Review sets forth that comprehensive nature of environmental impact assessment of economic and other activities and their implications shall be a principle of the environmental review is (Article 3: Principles of environmental review).

According to Article 14 (State Environmental Review Procedures) of the same Federal Law, the documents to be reviewed shall include reports on environment impact assessment of those economic and other activities which are subject to state environmental review.

Documents on facilities to be constructed or reconstructed on lands of federal protected areas (provided construction or reconstruction of such facilities on lands of protected areas is allowed in accordance with the federal and regional legislation) shall be reviewed if the documentation submitted for review includes reports on environmental impact assessment of the facilities to be constructed, reconstructed or renovated/rehabilitated within protected areas, for the respective protected areas; opinions of non-governmental environmental reviews if such are undertaken; information about consultations on the facilities/sites covered with the state environmental reviews with the general public and civil society organisations (associations) and local self-governance bodies.

The Regulation on Environmental Impact Assessment of Economic and Other Activities in the Russian Federation was developed to implement Federal Law # 174-FZ of November 23, 1995, on Environmental Review and governs processes of environmental impact assessment of intended economic and other activities and preparation of respective documents which serve as a basis for the development of documentation to justify the scope of state environmental reviews.

The Regulation on Sections to be Included in Project Documents and Requirements to their Contents establishes the sections to be included in project documents and requirements to their contents and is meant to guide the preparation of project documents for various sites of capital construction as well as selected phases of construction, reconstruction and renovation/rehabilitation of capital development sites/facilities. This regulation requires an environmental management section which, in particular, should present the results of environmental impact assessment of the capital development site as well as the list of measures to prevent and/or mitigate potential adverse environmental impact of intended economic activities and to ensure sound use of natural resources during the period of construction and operation of the capital development site.

World Bank’s Environmental Due Diligence Process. Based on the Bank OP 4.01, the project’s operational principles for environmental due diligence and the instruments to address the triggered environmental safeguards policies (OP4.09, OP4.36) are laid out in this EMF (environmental management framework). This document defines the general nature of project impacts, how investments are screened and classified according to their potential environmental and social impacts, which mitigation measures are generally available, and how environmental and social management procedures for design and implementation will practically be mainstreamed into each individual investment.

In view of the expected limited scale of the physical works and the overall small to moderate scale of potential negative impacts, the team suggests producing an EMP for each defined investment which has been determined to have environmental impacts warranting management and mitigation. The screening EIA should be a concise exercise focused on establishing the environmental baseline conditions (which in a more generic manner are described in this EMF), the environmental sensitivities and vulnerabilities of a given project area, the expected potential negative impacts of the planned activities, and if and how the planned project activities could affect sensitive habitats or protected areas.

For minor interventions, such as reconstruction, rehabilitation or small scale construction works in insensitive areas, the implementation of environmental good practices would be achieved by simplified “checklist” EMPs.

All environmental documents produced for specific investments will become part of the tender documents and construction contracts for the planned activities, structures or facilities.[footnoteRef:1] . [1: In addition Russian federal legislation may warrant the implementation of domestic safeguards instruments, such as an OBOC (OVOS), the Russian EIA equivalent.]

In some of the potential investments dealing with forest regeneration activities the use of herbicides may be envisaged to repress weed competition in newly planted areas, and potentially pesticides to treat or prevent mass pest outbreaks in fire damaged forest and to protect saplings from insects. The Borrower will for such project activities prepare a pest management plan (PMP) in accordance with the World Bank’s OP4.09, which will include clear specifications of allowable pesticide and herbicide products, to the effect that: (a) they must have negligible adverse human health effects; (b) they must be shown to be effective against the target species; (c) they must have minimal effect on non-target species and the natural environment; (d) the methods, timing, and frequency of pesticide application are aimed to minimize damage to natural enemies; (e) pesticides must be demonstrated to be safe for forest users and animals in the treated areas, as well as for personnel applying them; (f) their use must take into account the need to prevent the development of resistance in pests; (g) the Bank requires that any pesticides it finances be manufactured, packaged, labeled, handled, stored, disposed of, and applied according to standards acceptable to the Bank.

4 Environmental Screening, Assessment and Management

It should be noted that the number of investments will not be very large. It is envisaged that 3-5 pilot regions and a select number of Protected Areas in the Russian Federation will participate. All of the investments proposed by the Borrower for support by the project will be screened to identify specific (i) environmental/social baseline situation, (ii) severity impacts, (iii) availability and required effort for mitigation measures. The screening will be performed by the Borrower’s implementing agencies, specifically MNRE, which has staff with the required skills and experience.

Potential environmental impacts. Investments in forest fire prevention activities and establishment of fire watch systems are not expected to cause adverse environmental and social impacts. They are expected to have a net positive effect due to the reduction of forest ecosystem degradation and the incremental reduction of emissions caused by forest fires. The investments are expected to decrease the number, frequency and average size of forest fires.

Potential adverse environmental impacts relate mainly to the potential construction and reconstruction activities and could include the following:

· dust, generation combustion emissions and noise due to construction;

· generation of solid and liquid construction wastes and their proper disposal;

· local destruction of topsoil and vegetation around construction sites, erosion of soils and silting of rivers;

· habitat fragmentation and disturbance due to fire roads and breaks;

· potential accidental spillage, and need for regulated and diligent disposal of machine oil, lubricants, hazardous substances etc.;

· some of the potential investments dealing with forest regeneration activities may use herbicides to repress weed competition in newly planted areas, and potentially pesticides to treat or prevent mass pest outbreaks in fire damaged forest and to protect saplings from insects.

However, these impacts are minor and / or the risk of them occurring low. They will be manageable during project implementation with tested standard technology and mostly within good housekeeping practice for construction activities.

Expected safeguards categories: Under the project only such individual investments are expected that would correspond to the World Bank’s safeguards categories C and B, typical investment examples are described below:

Category C: Investments involving the implementation and operation of GIS, communication and monitoring systems, meteorological stations, procurement of equipment, training etc, will in most cases be qualified as Category C. It is expected that a significant part of the project activities will fall into this environmental category.

Category B investments would be attributed mostly to construction of new buildings (however, it should be noted that new building construction is not anticipated under the project) and watchtowers, fire roads, fire breaks, and reconstruction, renovation and upgrading of more significant scale in which construction waste, potentially including hazardous construction waste (e.g. asbestos) may be generated, as well as any construction activities in fringe zones of or near protected areas, or close to natural habitats as defined by the World Bank’s OP4.04.

Environmental screening and assessment process: The purpose of the Environmental Assessment (EA) process is to identify the specific environmental impacts of individual investments (both positive and negative) and design measures to prevent, minimize, mitigate or offset adverse impacts.

a) For Category C investments no specific environmental documentation is required, as significant negative impacts are not expected.

b) The safeguards documentation for Category B investments will be covered by two alternative sets of instruments: either simplified environmental management plans, which may be of a checklist nature (see Appendix 3) or, in case of more complex investments, following the standard structure and contents for an EMP suggested by the World Banks operational policy OP4.01 (see www.worldbank.org/safeguards). Environmental impact assessment (EIA) may be required for all engineering and technical operations to comply with the Law on Environmental Review (Federal Law # 174-FZ of November 23, 1995, on Environmental Review). EIA coincides with many requirements of the World Bank on environment assessments, is a potential area of junction/coincidence between the environmental legislation of the Russian Federation and Operational Policies of the World Bank.

The screening and application of safeguards instruments would be undertaken by MNRE staff with assistance and supervision from the Bank’s environmental safeguards specialist(s) assigned to the project. The potential project activities, and which safeguards categories and instruments they will trigger, is summarized in the table below.

Table 1: Safeguards arrangements for the Russia Forest Fire Response Project

Expected impact

WB SG category

Safeguards instruments

Examples of project activities

very low or none

C

no specific safeguards instruments, general compliance with international standards and practice ensured

· establishment of local forest fire brigades, provision of fire-fighting and communications equipment;

· development of public awareness and education programs and products (e.g., brochures, school curricula, posters, radio and TV media, websites, blogs, etc.);

· upgrading of communications systems, supply of suitable fire-fighting machinery, equipment, protective clothing, gear and hand-tools;

· design and implementation of a centralized database with standard geospatial information for multi-channel forest monitoring (e.g. fires, radiation, pathology);

· development of national forest fire management strategy for Protected Areas, incl. regional environmental and socioeconomic conditions, economic aspects and international experience;

· development of standard operating procedures and guidelines for Protected Area zoning by fire protection level; prepare GIS-based fire management plans; and develop respective guidelines and standard operating procedures;

· strengthening of early fire detection and response capabilities by upgrading fire danger rating and hazard index system in Protected Areas

low

B

(low range)

“checklist EMP”

· expansion of network of DNA laboratories for forest seed quality and origin to provide genetically certified seed;

· reconstruction and rehabilitation of existing fire stations;

· establishment of seed centers to upgrade forest regeneration activities through construction of facilities and supply of equipment; trials of modern techniques of plantation maintenance and protection (from fire and wildlife);

moderate

B

screening EA and EMP are required; these projects might require a Russian EIA, which might be used synergistically;

the Borrower will prepare PMPs )pest management plans) for financed activities involving the use of herbicides or pesticides

· construction and equipping of inter-regional forest fire centers (e.g., in the Far East, Siberian, and Northwestern Federal Districts) for the detection and suppression of large-scale fire outbreaks, pest and plant treatment;

· expanding network of ground-based fire services in Protected Areas, including access roads, fire breaks, observation and fire towers in key target areas;

· enhancing fire fighting preparedness in targeted Protected Areas through upgrading of forest fire stations, constructing and cleaning fire breaks;

· Replanting and re-forestation of burnt out areas, where herbicides and pesticides may be used to foster forest re-growth;

Environment Management Plans: For Category B projects (with expected moderate environmental impacts), a site- or investment-specific EMPs will be prepared, taking into consideration: (i) the identified type, magnitude, geographic scope, duration and reversibility of potential environmental impacts; (ii) an appropriate set of responses to potentially adverse impacts, i.e. measures to avoid, minimize, mitigate, offset or compensate the negative impacts; (iii) requirements for ensuring that those responses are made effectively and in a timely manner; and (iv) the means for meeting those requirements, especially the required staff, financial resources, responsibilities and competencies.

The standard format for an EMP recommended by the World Bank is attached as Annex 4 (see also Annex C of OP4.01 for suggested format and contents).

For investments with low-risk/low-impact construction activities an alternative may be used to the “full text” EMP format, which is commonly used for larger-scale projects. The goal is to provide a more streamlined approach adjusted to the scale of the expected impacts to enhance environmental management of minor construction and rehabilitation. This checklist-type format (“EMP Checklist”, see Annex 3) has been developed by the World Bank to provide “pragmatic guidance for good practice” and designed to be user friendly and compatible with safeguard requirements. The checklist-type format attempts to cover typical preventive and mitigation approaches to common civil works contracts with localized impacts. It is anticipated that in the project context this format provides the key elements to meet Environmental Assessment requirements of the World Bank (under OP4.01).

5 Institutional Framework

The FFA (Federal Forestry Agency, also RozLezKhoz) is the main federally responsible institution for the management of the country’s forests as an economic resource. The Agency plays a fairly insignificant role in environmental safeguard management of forest areas. FFA itself does not have an environmental department or staff responsible for environmental due diligence. While there is a person in charge for public relations, there is little regard in communication for topics such as sustainable forest management, the ecological significance of forest systems, and good environmental practice in forestry operations and when using forests for recreational purposes. FFA to date has not launched large scale communication campaigns on a federal level, carrying messages about forest fire prevention and general environmental good practice in forests to the broad public. FFA has delegated much of the responsibility for education and awareness building to the Regions, without, however, having much enforcement capacity or influence on the scope and content of such campaigns.

The MNRE (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation) - in the context of this project. The MNRE is in charge of federal protected areas (nature reserves and national parks). The MNRE is responsible for 98 nature reserves and 42 national parks. These functions are performed by about 9,500 people in the Ministry’s staff, including 3,600 PA inspectors (vested with enforcement powers). The personnel of nature reserves and national parks implement activities to ensure fire safety and are directly involved in forest fire fighting. In some cases, other resources are mobilised for firefighting on a contractual basis; these are primarily forest fire enterprises in Russian regions, and teams of the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief of the Russian Federation, which have needed human, technical and resource capacity for firefighting.

The FFA and MNRE are members in the Government’s Committee for Emergency Prevention and Management and Fire Safety headed by S.K. Shoigu, Minister of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief of the Russian Federation, and effecting interagency coordination.

In the candidate pilot regions (see Attachment 2 to Annex 1), which are, e.g., for MNRE: Vladimir and Ryazan Oblasts (in the Central Federal Okrug), Republic of Karelia and Arkhangelsk Oblast (in the North Western Federal Okrug), Republic of Mariy El, and Nizhniy Novgorod, Orenburg and Samara Oblasts (in the Volga Federal Okrug), Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk Oblasts (in the Ural Federal Okrug), Trans-Baikal and Krasnoyarsk Krays (in the Siberian Federal Okrug), Khabarovsk Kray, Amur Oblast and Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Far East Federal Okrug), a list of projects (including information about project goals and activities) will be prepared and publicised to ensure free and informed consultations prior to finalisation of the project content and implementation commencement of project activities. To raise public awareness of the project among local communities, mass media will be involved to inform them about the project before the implementation commencement of project activities. The FFA and MNRE will establish a hotline (by phone and through a web-page) to provide needed information and receive possible complaints.

Project Implementation Unit (PIU) will be competitively selected by a committee consisting of officials from the FFA, MNRE, MOED and MOF as the lead agency for the project implementation. The PIU will cooperate with the FFA, MNRE and each of the participating Interregional Forest Fire Centres to ensure effective and continuous exchange of information among all project partners. The PIU will coordinate all project activities, procure works, goods and consultant services for the project implementation, undertake supervision and monitoring of project activities and submit, as scheduled, reporting to the FFA, MNRE, MOED and MOF. Environmental reviews and environmental management will draw upon capacity of the MNRE which has comparatively abundant experience with environmental assessments, environmental management and legal and regulatory requirements. If needed, the PIU will avail of services of an independent expert on environmental assessment to prepare an EMP and/or an EMP check list.

6 Compliance Monitoring and Reporting

A general ex-post verification review of 5% of all category C investments, 15% of lower end category B projects, and 30% of “proper” category B investments is planned. This would involve a compliance review of the compliance with the design, a verification of the project results on site and an environmental review. The environmental review will focus on the quality of environmental due diligence documentation, the obtaining of all required permits an on project implementation following the procedures and parameters specified in the EMPs.

The actual monitoring procedures to be carried out physically on selected project sites will mostly rely on visual inspections and review of routine construction site records (e.g. built as drawings, waste disposal records). Aside from the physical aspects verified during site visits it will be ascertained that appropriate environmental documentation has been produced in acceptable quality (i.e. EMPs commensurate with good international practice) and duly implemented. Concrete monitoring parameters will be defined as part of the design and preparation of the specific EMPs. Parameters will commonly include visual observation of construction waste management, dust control and economic land use, of overall good housekeeping (e.g. storage and management of fuels and other hazardous substances), erosion control and vegetation preservation, as well as post construction re-cultivation. In special cases chemical and physical parameters may be included to monitor impacts on surface water (turbidity, pollution by fuels and lubricants), groundwater (pollution by fuel and lubricants) and air (dust, soot, combustion gases).

The responsibility for project monitoring will lie with the Borrower’s implementing agencies, likely MENR will play the key role in safeguards compliance monitoring. A review both of the documentation of individual investments or activities, and of the physical interventions and impacts in the field will be undertaken synchronous with the Bank’s standard supervision frequency, i.e. every 6 months. The Bank team will during project supervision undertake a number of 5-10 joint field visits to sup-projects of all three categories (C, low B, B) to verify implementation on the ground and provide practical implementation support.

7 Review and Approval

Category B: The PIU will review and approve:

· A copy of the official letter indicating a “Positive Decision” by relevant environmental authorities;

· Russian language Executive Summary of EIA/OVOS;

· Completed Russian language version of the EMP/OVOS;

· other supporting documentation and evidence that all environmental licenses, permits, approvals for this activity are valid, and document the expiration dates for these requirements; and

· Minutes of Public Consultation.

The following Russian Language documentation will be sent to the Bank for ex-ante review and “No Objection”:

· Executive Summary of EIA/OVOS (for projects subject to EIA/OVOS),

· EMP or checklist EMP,

· A copy of the official letter indicating a “Positive Decision” by the relevant authorities (EA/OVOS is approved),

· Documentation of any special requirements, conditions, or qualifications which accompanied the “Positive Decision”, and

· Minutes of Public Consultations.

The same documentation will be provided to the Bank for ex-post reviews of the sub-projects. Details of prior and post review process are presented in Section 8 “Prior and Post Review” below. The Bank may request English Language translations of selected documentation for review. Such requests will be followed up and responded to by Gazprombank.

Category C: Random checks of Russian Language documentation – e.g. a copy of the official letter indicating a “Positive Decision” by relevant environmental authorities, and Executive Summary of OVOS – will be provided to the Bank for ex-post review of the subprojects (see also the following Section 8 below).

8 Prior and Post Review

Site-specific EMPs for the Category of “High B” subprojects or EMP checklists for the Category of “Low B” subprojects will have to be prepared prior to the commencement of works in form and substance satisfactory to the Bank. Prior review of site-specific EMPs will be undertaken for at least the first three B subprojects. Depending on the quality of the reviewed EMPs the Bank reserved the right to review further documents as considered advisable to ensure an acceptable level of environmental due diligence and oversight.

The same principle will apply to the checklist EMPs produced for Low B subprojects. Category C subprojects will be randomly selected for post-review only. Post-review of Category C project will involve checking adequacy of subproject categorization based on documentation mentioned in Section 7 above.

9 Public Consultation and Disclosure of Information

Consultations are generally governed by various parts of Russian environmental regulation and carried out on a routine basis for every construction project of significant scale. Where activities that could have a negative impact on the environment are implemented depending on the scale a Public hearing is compulsory, besides wide ranging consultations with sectoral authorities (water, fire safety, construction, monument protection, and environment) as prescribed by the law "On Ecological Expertise".

To comply with the World Bank’s environmental policies (specifically OP4.01) the draft EMF is disclosed and the public consulted before its finalization, as commensurate with a category B project. For this purpose at least one consultation meeting open for the public will be organized in Moscow, and additional consultations in the Regions which are identified for project implementation. In the Regions consultations will either take place in the regional capital, or, depending on the geographic scope and focus of the investment, in (a) location(s) deemed the most accessible for all affected stakeholders.

Not all individual activities will require disclosure of consultation measures. Individual investments that would, stand-alone, be classified as “C” (see Table 1) will require no safeguards instruments and thus neither disclosure nor consultations. Low “B” projects will require the public disclosure of the checklist EMF, but not a formal consultation meeting (unless there is explicit demand for such a meeting conveyed to the Borrower’s PMU). Proper category B projects (according to Table 1) would require the disclosure of the EMP for a period of 30 days and the organization of a public hearing in the Region where the project is located, usually in the community or those communities expected to be most affected by project implementation.

ANNEX 1 Environmental Baseline Conditions

Project activities will be implemented presumably in 3-5 regions in the forest estate (part A of the project А, FFA) and in 15 regions in protected areas (part B of the project, MNRE).

Forest estate

According to the National Forest Register, as of January 1, 2010, the total area of land under Russian forests was 1,183.7 million ha, including the area of the forest estate (1,143.6 million ha).

The forest estate land does not include the land under forests of defence and urban forests (6.1 million ha), land under forests of protected areas (26.9 million ha), land of other categories (7.1 million ha), including areas of forest estate land which earlier were under ownership of agricultural organisations (4.6 million ha).

Land of the forest estate includes forest land (land covered with forest vegetation and land which is not covered with forest vegetation but designated for its restoration, i.e. cutover areas, burnt forest areas, open stands, glades, etc.) and non-forest land designated for forest management (rides, roads, bogs, etc.). The forest land accounts for 75.4% in the total area of forests; 67.4% of the forest land is covered with forest vegetation, and 8.0% is not covered with forest vegetation. The share of non-forest land is 24.6 %.

All forests growing on land of the forest estate are classified into protection forests (26.0%), production forests (52.2%) and reserved forests (21.8%).

Overall baseline conditions and characteristics: Forests are the most prevalent type of the vegetation cover for almost 46% of Russia’s area, and occur in locations where average monthly temperatures for July exceed +10° С, and humidity is sufficient or excessive. As one is moving from the west to the east, the climate is getting more continental, the relief is changing, reflecting the differences in the history of its development, and the soils, vegetation and wildlife are also changing. This diversity preconditions variations in the images of natural zones, their arrays and geographic positions. There are five longitude sectors in Russia: the Western European Sector (with widespread forest zones), Eastern European Sector (where zones of forest landscapes are receding with the latitude to give place to forest steppes and steppes), Western Siberian Sector (with its landscape zones varying from tundra to desert), Eastern Siberian Sector (the most continental sector with tundra, open forests, taiga and ‘islands’ of steppes and forest steppes in taiga), Far East Sector (including various zones from tundra to mixed coniferous/broadleaved forests with significant shares of meadow soils in flatland landscapes). Most of forests are concentrated in eastern parts of the country, i.e. in the Siberian and Far East Federal Okrugs as well as in the North Western Federal Okrug.

Pursuant to Article 15 of the Forest Code of the Russian Federation, eight forest site-specific zones were identified in 2006; each of them includes forests with relatively homogeneous site characteristics (forest site zoning). These 8 zones are: i) pre-tundra forests and sparse taiga; ii) taiga; iii) coniferous/broadleaved forests; iv) forest steppe; v) steppe; vi) semi-deserts and deserts; vii) North Caucasian mountains; and viii) South Siberian mountains. Within the forest site zones, there are 34 forest regions with relatively similar conditions for forest utilisation, protection against fire and pests and forest renewal (Figure 1.1).

About 40% of Russian forests grow in severe climatic conditions, accounting for their low yield and low economic attractiveness. Nevertheless, they are of enormous value owing to their protection, water conservation and climate regulation functions, which must be safeguarded, in particular, in view of intensive exploitation of northern oil and gas deposits.

Figure: Forest site zones and forest regions:

1 – pre-tundra forests and sparse taiga; 2 – taiga: 2.1 – northern taiga sub-zone; 2.2 – middle taiga sub-zone; 2.3 – southern taiga sub-zone; 3 – coniferous/broadleaved forests; 4 – forest steppe; 5 and 6 – steppes and semi-deserts (zones 7 and 8 are not depicted in the Figure; they are, respectively, North Caucasian mountains and South Siberian mountains)

The average forest cover of the Russian Federation is 46.6% which is the ratio between the area of stocked forest land and the total terrestrial area of the country (see the Figure). Forests are unevenly distributed over the country’s area, depending on climatic and anthropogenic factors (the Figure). The greatest forest cover (over 80%) is found in the Perm Kray, Republic of Komi and Central Siberia while the least forested areas (with forest cover below 1%) are located in the Republic of Kalmykia, part of the Stavropol Kray, Astrakhan, Rostov and Volgograd Oblasts. Recent years have seen a trend towards significant increase in the forest cover primarily owing to natural afforestation of abandoned agricultural land.

In Russia, 86% of forests grow in the boreal zone. Predominant forest tree species are larch, pine, spruce, Siberian pine, oak, beech, birch, aspen (see the Figure). They account for about 90% in the area of the land covered with forest vegetation, including conifers (68.4%), hard-wooded broadleaved species (2.4%) and soft-wooded broadleaved species (19.3%). Other tree species (pear, chestnut, walnut, Manchurian nut, etc.) occupy less than 1% of the area; and the remaining part of stocked forest land is covered with shrubs (dwarf Siberian pine, bushy birch, etc.). Tree stands of larch, pine, and birch occupy, respectively, 35.8%, 15.6%, and 15.0% of stocked forest land.

Figure: Geographical distribution of tree species in the Russian Federation

(No forest,

Pine

Spruce, fir

Larch

Siberian pine

Dwarf Siberian pine

Oak

Beech

Birch

Aspen

Linden

Other species)

Source: Государственный доклад «О состоянии и использовании лесных ресурсов Российской Федерации в 2002 г.» [National Report on the Status and Utilisation of Forest Resources in the Russian Federation]

The coniferous group includes a significant part of mixed forests managed for the development of stands with prevailing conifers. The FAO estimates the share of mixed stands in Russia at 45% of the stocked area in the forest estate (ECE/TIM/SP/18).

Coniferous (taiga) forests are divided into dark coniferous forests (where spruce, fir and Siberian pine are the dominant species) and light coniferous (i.e. pine and larch) forests. Dark coniferous forests occur in areas with moderately cold and rather humid climate; they prevail in taiga of the East European and Western Siberian Plains and are fairly widely spread in mountains in the Caucasus, Urals and Sikhote-Alin as well as in some parts of Altai and the Sayan Mountains. Spruce forests occupy over 50% of the area under the dark coniferous taiga. In light coniferous forests, the predominant species are the Siberian larch, Dahurian larch, and Scots pine. Larch forests dominate in Middle and North-Eastern Siberia, Baikal and Trans-Baikal areas. Pine forests stretch from the White See to the lower reaches of the Don River, and from western borders of the country to Central Yakutia and the Aldan Mountains.

The areas of forest stands have been fairly stable for several recent decades. The area of spruce forests has got reduced since 1988 due to clear cutting and fires in spruce stands, slower rates of artificial reforestation and natural regeneration of this species. In 2010, the area of spruce stands sharply increased, but the reasons for such an increase remain unknown.

Increases in the area of soft-wooded broadleaved species are attributed to the natural succession of conifers by deciduous trees in cutover and burnt areas as well as to low demand for timber of these species.

As regards hard-wooded broadleaved species, about half of their area is occupied with the Stone birch, with its five varieties growing in Eastern Siberia and in the Far East. The most valuable species are the tall oak and beech - they occupy about ¼ of the area under hard-wooded broadleaved species. The area of hard-wooded broadleaved species remains unchanged owing to their coverage with the protection categories.

The age distribution of the main forest species is as follows: young stands - 17.1%, middle-aged stands – 28.5%, premature stands – 10.7%, mature and overmature stands – 43.8%. About 50% of the conifer area is occupied with mature and overmature stands. But their accumulation chiefly occurs in remote and poorly accessible areas and on soils with excessive humidity.

As officially reported, Russian forests contain over 180 native forest tree and bush species. The species diversity is growing from the north to the south, and reaches its highest level in the North Caucasus. The greatest number of forest tree and shrub species (36) were identified in the Sochi National Park (in the Krasnodar Kray), with the fewest species (2–5 species) found in Kalmykia, Karelia, South Taimyr and some areas in Yakutia.

Timber resources. According to the 2010 forest account, the total growing stock of the Russian forest estate is 80 billion m3. The average growing stock per 1 ha is 132 m3 in mature and overmature forests (without shrubs), and 165 m3 in forests suitable for commercial wood harvesting. The mean annual increment in volume is rather low: it does not exceed 1.23 m3 per ha on land covered with forest vegetation.

More than half of Russian forests grow on permafrost soils (Siberia and the Far East) in severe climatic conditions which account for their low yield and fragmented patterns of tree stands. Only 45% of the forest area is accessible for timber harvesting, but most of these forests (located in the European North, Urals and along the Trans-Siberian Transport Corridor) are significantly depleted as a result of intensive exploitation. The economic accessibility of mature forests is even lower. Therefore, the share of productive mature and overmature coniferous stands does not exceed 16%.

Non-timber, nutritional forest resources and medicinal plants: According to the Forest Code of the Russian Federation, forest uses include: harvesting and collection of the non-timber forest resources (stumps, birch bark, tree and shrub bark, dry branches, twig forage, spruce, larch, and pine branches, spruce trees or trees of other coniferous species for the New Year season, moss, forest litter, cane, reed, and similar forest resources); harvesting of food forest resources and gathering of medicinal plants; game management, farming (hey-making, cattle grazing, bee-keeping, reindeer herding, cultivation of agricultural crops and other agricultural activities) and other forest uses.

In many Russian regions, harvesting of nutritional forest resources (fruit, berries, nuts and mushrooms), collection of medicinal plants and their sale are nowadays a main source of subsistence means for rural people. Biological and harvesting capacity of many non-timber forest resources is significant and sometimes they are very abundant.

Forests are intensively used for farming purposes, especially for hey-making and cattle grazing as well as for bee-keeping.

In Russian forests, melliferous plants of the tree and shrub storeys (linden, maple, willow, Robinia pseudoacacia) are widely used in bee-keeping as a source of nectar and pollen. These species occupy fairly large areas.

For purpose of reindeer herding, pre-tundra forest and sparsely forested taiga and taiga areas are used as deer pastures. The total area of deer pastures is over 300 million ha.

In many Russian regions, forest utilisation for game management purposes is of great economic and asocial importance.

Adverse impact on forests

Forests may be adversely affected with weather and soil conditions, disease, other non-pathogenic abiotic factors, pernicious insects, fire and anthropogenic factors.

Forest weakening and mortality rates vary by year and are expressly cyclic. In recent decade, the forest mortality rate became 1.5 times higher compared with the previous period: in 1990-1999, the area of stands perished during that time amounted to 3,017,600 ha, whereas in 2000-2009, it approached 4,347,800 ha.

According to data (including remote sensing data) of the forest health monitoring conducted by the Russian Forest Health Centre, the total area of forest stands perished in 2010 was 1,392,600 ha. It is 7 times more than in 2009. The death rate of forest stands reached their highest level over the entire period of observations since 1989 (according to the National Forest Register, as of January 1, 2010, it was 756,000 ha). In addition, damage of varying degrees was inflicted upon forest stands on 2,144,000 ha.

In the Russian Federation, the most severe damage to forests is caused by forest fires (in 2010, their contribution was 80.2%). Since 2004, burnt forest areas have been steadily growing. The year 2010 saw forest fire emergency situations in many Russian regions. According to Rosstat, in 2010, the burnt area reached 2.5 million ha, including 1.6 million ha of stocked forests. The number of fires was 34,800. According to the National Forest Register, the area of perished forests amounted to 550,400 ha, and that of damaged forests with different degrees of die-back was 804,000 ha. According to the Russian Forest Health Centre, the area of stands lost to fire in 2010 was 1,196,400 ha. The greatest number of fires occurred in the Central, Volga and Ural Federal Okrugs (20.4%, 23.5% and 29.6%, respectively), whereas in previous years, about 50% of fires occurred in Asian Russia.

Fires of 2010 affected (to different degrees) stands in 69 Russian regions in all the Federal Okrug. As regards regions with the forest cover above 40%, the most severe damage was inflicted upon forests in the Ryazan, Nizhniy Novgorod, Sverdlovsk, Magadan, Vladimir Oblasts, Republic of Mariy El, and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. As for scarcely forested regions, the greatest damage was caused to forests in the Lipetsk, Voronezh, Tambov, Saratov, Orenburg, Samara and Volgograd Oblasts, Republics of Mordovia, Kalmykia and Chuvashia. The least affected forests were those in the North Caucasian Okrug.

The main cause of forest fires (especially, in European Russia) was, as in previous years, careless handling of fire in forests. As officially reported, people’s behaviours in forests and uncontrolled agricultural burnings accounted for more than 70% of all ignitions.

The adverse weather and soil conditions, first of all, wind damages, were the second most important cause of forest destruction in 2010 (16.1%). This factor hit, most of all, forests in the Vologda Oblast (8,100 ha), Novgorod Oblast (5,900 ha), Yaroslavl Oblast (3,500 ha) and Leningrad Oblast (1,900 ha).

Adverse soil and climatic conditions were the second and the third among the most important contributors to forest death in the recent decade. In 2010 the area of forests lost to these factors was 155,680 ha (versus 120,000 ha as of January 1, 2010, according to the National Forest Register).

In 2010, diseases killed forests on an area of 27,800 ha, including 23,400 ha of coniferous forests (versus 26,000 ha as of January 1, 2010, according to the National Forest Register). Forest deaths from disease were recorded in all Federal Okrugs (in 50 regions: from the Kaliningrad Oblast to the Khabarovsk Kray). The highest rates of death from disease were recorded in the Siberian, Far East and Central Federal Okrugs (13,000 ha, 5,400 ha and 5,100 ha, respectively, or 46.8%, 19.4% and 18.3% of all stands lost to disease in the country).

Protected Areas (PA)

The project may be implemented in 15 nature reserves and 11 national parks located in 15 Russian regions (see Attachment 2 to Annex 1). The project geography covers a broad range of natural zones typical of the Russian Federation. The PAs referred to above are located in the following five forest site zones: the taiga zone (the middle taiga region in European Russia, Middle Ural taiga region, and far east taiga region), zone of coniferous/broadleaved forests (the region of mixed coniferous/broadleaved forests in European Russia, Amur/Primorye coniferous/broadleaved region), South-Siberian mountainous zone (Altai/Sayan mountainous taiga region), forest steppe zone (the forest steppe region in European Russia, Southern Urals forest steppe region, Trans-Baikal forest steppe region), steppe zone (the steppe region in European Russia). The zone diversity is matched with the diversity of environmental (climatic, geological, soil and other) conditions.

In PAs, wilderness ecosystems, flora and fauna are typical of respective natural zones and regions; and preserve their natural status owing to minimized anthropogenic impact.

The land of nature reserves is set aside and withdrawn from economic uses; and there is practically no human population within their borders (with rare exceptions). In national parks, economic activates are substantially restricted, and the forests are used primarily for recreation and ecotourism. The legislation provides for functional zoning: national parks may include various functional zones such as:

a) strict protection zones where any economic activities and recreation uses are forbidden;

b) specially protected zones designated to create supportive conditions for conservation of wilderness ecosystems and sites; and to permit only strictly regulated visits;

c) educational tourism zones meant for environmental education of the public and sightseeing in national parks;

d) recreational zones, including zones for leisure activities, physical exercise and sports;

e) historical/cultural site protection zones where adequate conditions are created to preserve such sites;

f) zones of visitor services designated to provide overnight lodging, places for camps and other tourist services and also cultural, consumer and information services for visitors;

g) logistic zones for management activities needed to support the operation of the national parks.

National parks may include land of other users which are incorporated into the area within the parks’ borders without its withdrawal from economic uses; in most cases, this refers to agricultural land and land of populated areas. Such areas may include places of permanent residence for fairly many people who have the right to harvest wood for their subsistence, collect mushrooms, berries, etc. Their residents are engaged in agriculture or other activities compatible with the special protection regime established for a given functional zone in the national park. At the same time, natural resources of national parks are practically never used by local communities for commercial purposes.

Overall, there are no noticeable anthropogenic changes in wilderness ecosystems of nature reserves and national parks due to their agricultural or recreational uses. But it is careless handling of fire, and violations of fire safety rules which are the main cause of forest fires.

Existing environmental impacts due to forest fires: There is no exact quantification of “environmental” damage, the figures will relate directly to the nature of ecosystems on the lands that were burnt and downstream impacts below fire affected catchments. The short and long term effects and potential for recovery will determine the environmental “costs” which, however, are likely to be quite large.

Some ecosystems may never recover or may require several millennia. An example is the peat land in Western Russia, that was artificially drained and which burnt severely, including destruction of the vegetation on the peat soil. Most forest areas would eventually recover from a fire to the original vegetation and species associations. However, the forest that regenerates after fire can often be different from the one that was there before. Light demanding species such as birch and aspen will tend to dominate the forest, whereas the original forest may have been mainly spruce. The more shade tolerant species may take longer than one cycle to become re-established. Also, ecosystems based on peat where the supporting and growing medium is destroyed may require even longer time frames for regeneration.

Fires deplete the variety of species in forest ecosystems, endanger habitats by fragmentation and can severely reduce the populations of mammals, birds and reptiles. In post-fire areas the run-off properties are affected, decreasing the watershed’s storage capacity and increasing hydrological variability (a 10% change in forest cover causes about 1-5% change in runoff). Fire scars in forests are often exposed to increased erosion and soil deterioration, especially in areas with steep topography and disadvantageous geological conditions.

Fires also often lead to subsequent clear-cutting, as burnt out areas are often released for salvage logging. Many forest fires are likely triggered by arson, either for economic reasons (the permitting procedure for post-fire salvage logging is much simpler than to apply for a normal logging license) or resentment of the local population due to a lack of access to forest resource use.

Such PAs as nature reserves and national parks (which are in the jurisdiction of the MNRE) also suffer from forest fire. In Russia, the total area of nature reserves is about 33.8 million ha, including their terrestrial area with internal water bodies (27.3 million ha), and the total area of national parks is about 9.1 million ha, including their terrestrial area with internal water bodies (8.3 million ha); and some of them suffer from forest fire every year. In 2010, forest fires affected much more areas in PAs compared with the average for previous years with the heaviest damage caused to western parts of Russia where over 50% of the forests in PAs were lost to fire. The MNRE’s strategy does not provide for artificial reforestation, but instead relies exclusively on natural regeneration of forests destroyed with fire. However, in principle, it is permitted to remove damaged wood from some of PAs though with certain restrictions, especially pertaining to sale of wood from cutting-related operations.

A special type of fires occurs in peat bogs. These peat fires have been an important contributing factor to the catastrophic situation of the summer 2010, especially in Western Russia. Peat bogs are a naturally occurring phenomenon in significant areas of Russian forests and part of the natural ecosystem. Up to 1990 peat bogs were economically exploited, the peat being mined as fertilizer and soil conditioner for agriculture and horticulture. This industry collapsed after 1990, which lead to a regeneration of the bogs and an increase of their stored biomass. Also, due to climate and weather conditions, sometimes aggravated by irrigation, the groundwater table has dropped in many areas of Russia, leaving parts of the peat layers dry[footnoteRef:2]. Dry peat can be ignited easily by campfires, cigarette stubs, lightening or sparks from engines and then often smolders underground, thus being very hard to extinguish. Burning peat creates large amounts of dense smoke and thus contributed significantly to the smoke clouds engulfing Moscow in August 2010. Burning peat also often triggers above ground forest fires. [2: After August 2010 a Government program has been created to restore the water balance in peat areas, initially ca. 300 Million Rubles (ca. 10 Mill USD) were assigned. . ]

ANNEX 2 Description of Russian Federal EIA Regulations

The core laws and regulations of the Russian Federation to guide EIA are listed below:

Federal Law # 7-FZ of January 10, 2002, On Environmental Protection

Federal Law # 174-FZ of November 23, 1995, on Environmental Review

Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation # 87 of February 16, 2008 On Sections to be Included in Project Documentation and Requirements to their Contents

Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation # 698 of June 11, 1996 On Approving the State Environmental Review Procedures

Decree of the State Committee of the Russian Federation on Environmental Protection # 372 of May 16, 2000, On Approving the Regulation on Environmental Impact Assessment of Intended Economic and Other Activities in the Russian Federation

Codes of the Russian Federation:

Land Code of the Russian Federation # 136-FZ (as amended on June 30, 2003, June 29, October 3, December 21 and 29, 2004, March 7, July 21 and 22, December 31, 2005, April 17, June 3, 30, July 27, October 16, and December 4, 18, and 29, 2006)

Urban Planning Code of the Russian Federation #190-FZ of December 29, 2004 (as amended on July 22, December 31, 2005, June 3, July 27, and December 4, 18, and 29, 2006)

Water Code of the Russian Federation #74-FZ of June 3, 2006 (as amended on December 4, 2006)

Forest Code of the Russian Federation # 200-FZ of December 4, 2006

Criminal Code of the Russian Federation # 63-FZ of June 13, 1996 (Articles 236, 237, 243, 246, 250, 251, 252, 254, 255, 259, 260, 261, and 262)

Attachment 1 to Annex 1

Extracts from the Federal Law On Environmental Review:

Article 11: Documents subject to state environmental review of the federal level (as worded in Federal Law # 232-FZ of 18.12.2006)

The following documents shall be subject to state environmental review of the federal level:

1) draft technical regulations and guidelines in the area of environmental protection to be approved by federal public authorities;

2) draft federal targeted programs envisaging construction and operation of facilities which make environmental impact to review location of such facilities taking into account the protection modes for wilderness sites;

3) draft product sharing agreements;

4) licensing justification documents for selected activities which make adverse impact on the environment and are licensed by federal executive authorities in accordance with Federal Law # 128-FZ of August 8, 2001, On Licensing Selected Activities (further on referred to as the Federal Law on Licensing Selected Activities (except for licensing justification documents for waste management, including waste collection, utilisation, neutralisation, transportation and disposal) and legislation regulating on the use of nuclear energy;

(paragraph 4 as worded in Federal Law # 309-FZ of 30.12.2008)

5) draft technical documentation for new equipment/machinery and technologies if their use may have environmental impact as well as draft technical documentation for new substances which may affect the natural environment;

6) reports on comprehensive environmental surveys for parts of areas to justify awarding these areas the status of federal PAs, the status of environmental disaster zones or environmental emergency zones;

7) the documents subject to state environmental review referred to in Federal Law # 187-FZ of November 30, 1995 On Continental Shelf in the Russian Federation, Federal Law # 191-FZ of December 17, 1998 On the Exclusive Economic Zone in the Russian Federation, Federal Law # 155-FZ of July 31, 1998 On the Internal Sea Waters, Territorial Sea and Adjacent Zone in the Russian Federation;

7.1) project documents for facilities to be constructed, reconstructed or renovated/rehabilitated within federal PAs as well as project documents for particularly hazardous, technically sophisticated and unique facilities, defence and security facilities to be constructed, reconstructed or rehabilitated within regional and local PAs, if their constriction, reconstruction and rehabilitation within PAs are allowed in accordance with the federal and regional legislation in the Russian Federation;

7.2) project documents for facilities related to disposal and neutralisation of wastes of hazard classes I - V;

(paragraph 7.2 was introduced by Federal Law # 309-FZ of December 30, 2008)

8) documents for facilities subject to state environmental review referred to in this Article and earlier approved through issuance of a positive state environmental review opinion if:

They have been revised to incorporate the comments of the earlier state environmental review;

Implementation deviates from the documents approved through issuance of a positive opinion of the state environmental review and/or if such documents have been revised;

The validity period of the positive opinion of the state environmental review has expired;

Documents approved through issuance of a positive opinion of the state environmental review have been revised.

Article 12: Documents subject to state environmental review pf the regional level (as worded in Federal Law # 232-FZ of December 18, 2006)

State environmental review of regional projects shall be undertaken by regional authorities following the procedures as established by this Federal Law and other laws and regulations of the Russian Federation. The following documents shall be subject to state environmental review of the regional level:

1) draft technical regulations and guidelines in the area of environmental protection to be approved by regional public authorities;

2) draft regional targeted programs envisaging construction and operation of facilities which make environmental impact to review location of such facilities taking into account the protection modes for wilderness sites;

3) licensing justification documents for selected activities which are licensed by regional executive authorities in accordance with the Federal Law on Licensing Selected Activities (except for licensing justification documents for waste management, including waste collection, utilisation, neutralisation, transportation and disposal) and legislation regulating on the use of nuclear energy);

(paragraph 3 as worded in Federal Law # 309-FZ of 30.12.2008);

4) reports on comprehensive environmental surveys for parts of areas to justify awarding these areas the status of regional PAs;

4.1) project documents for facilities to be constructed, reconstructed or renovated/rehabilitated within regional and local PAs, except for those referred to in paragraph 7.1 of Article 11 of this Federal Law, in accordance with the federal and regional legislation;

(paragraph 4.1 was introduced by Federal Law # 75-FZ of May 16, 2008).

5) documents for facilities subject to regional state environmental review referred to in this Article and earlier approved through issuance of a positive state environmental review opinion if:

They have been revised to incorporate the comments of the earlier state environmental review;

Implementation deviates from the documents approved through issuance of a positive opinion of the state environmental review and/or if such documents have been revised;

The validity period of the positive opinion of the state environmental review has expired;

Documents approved through issuance of a positive opinion of the state environmental review have been revised.

Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation # 401 of July 30, 2004 On the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Oversight.

Attachment 2 to Annex 1

PROPOSED Federal PAs to be included in the Forest Management Reform and Forest Fire Response Project (Forest Project-2)

Central Federal Okrug

1

Vladimir Oblast

1

Meshchera NP

2

Ryazan Oblast.

2

Okskiy NR

3

Meshcherskiy NP

North-Western Federal Okrug

3

Republic of Karelia

4

Vodlozerskiy NP

4

Arkhangelsk Oblast

4

Vodlozerskiy NP

Volga Federal Okrug

5

Republic of Mariy El

5

Bolshaya Kokshaga NR

6

Mariy Chodra NP

6

Nizhniy Novgorod Oblast

7

Kerzhensky NR

7

Orenburg Oblast

8

Buzulukskiy Bor NP

8

Samara Oblast

8

Buzulukskiy Bor NP

9

Zhigulevskiy NR

10

Samarskaya Luka NP

Ural Federal Okrug

9

Sverdlovsk Oblast

11

Visimskiy NR

12

Denezhkin Kamen NR

13

Pripyshminkiye Bory NP

10

Chelyabinsk Oblast

14

Ziuratkul NP

15

Taganay NP

Siberian Federal Okrug

11

Trans-Baikal Kray

16

Alkhanay NP

17

Sokhodinskiy NR

12

Krasnoyarsk Kray

18

Sayano-Shushenskiy NR

19

Stolby NR

20

Shushenskiy Bor NP

Far East Federal Okrug

13

Khabarovsk Kray

21

Bureinskiy NR

22

Komsomolskiy NR

14

Amursk Oblast

23

Zeyskiy NR

24

Norskiy NR

25

Khinganskiy NR

15

Jewish Autonomous Oblast

26

Bastak NR

ANNEX 3 Template for “Checklist” EMP

BORROWERMinistry of … / AGENCY

Specific Investment: ……

Environmental Management Plan (EMP) Checklist for Small Scale Civil Works

General Guidelines for use of EMP checklist:

For low-risk construction projects, such as minor roads rehabilitation works or the construction of bicycle paths, the ECA (Europe and Central Asia) safeguards team developed an alternative EMP (environmental management plan) format to provide an opportunity for a more streamlined approach to mainstreaming the World Bank’s environmental safeguards requirements into projects which (a) are small in scale or by the nature of the planned activities have a low potential environmental impact, (b) are located in countries with well functioning country systems for environmental assessment and management. The checklist-type format has been developed to ensure that basic good practice measures are recognized and implemented, while designed to be both user friendly and compatible with the World Bank’s safeguards requirements.

The EMP checklist-type format attempts to cover typical key mitigation measures to civil works contracts with small, localized impacts or of a simple, low risk nature. This format provides the key elements of an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) to meet the minimum World Bank Environmental Assessment requirements for Category B projects under OP 4.01. The intention of this checklist is that it offers practical, concrete and implementable guidance to Contractors and supervising Engineers for simple civil works contracts. It should be completed during the final design phase and, either freestanding or in combination with any environmental documentation produced under national law (e.g. EIA reports), constitute an integral part of the bidding documents and eventually the works contracts.

The checklist EMP has the following sections:

Part 1includes a descriptive part that characterizes the project, specifies institutional and regulatory aspects, describes technical project content, outlines any potential need for capacity building and briefly characterizes the public consultation process. This section should indicatively be up to two pages long. Attachments for additional information may be supplemented as needed.

Part 2includes a screening checklist of potential environmental and social impacts, where activities and potential environmental issues can be checked in a simple Yes/No format. If any given activity/issue is triggered by checking “yes”, a reference to the appropriate section in the table in the subsequent Part C can be followed, which contains clearly formulated environmental and social management and mitigation measures.

Part 3represents the environmental monitoring plan to follow up proper implementation of the measures triggered under Part B. It has the same format as required for MPs produced under standard safeguards requirements for Category B projects.

Part 4contains a simple monitoring plan to enable both the Contractor as well as authorities and the World Bank specialists to monitoring due implementation of environmental management and protection measures and detect deviations and shortcomings in a timely manner.

Part 2 and 3 have been structured in a way to provide concrete and enforceable environmental and social measures, which are understandable to non specialists (such as Contractor’s site managers) and are easy to check and enforce. The EMP should be included in the BoQ (bill of quantities) and the implementation priced by the bidders. Part 4 has also been designed intentionally simple to enable monitoring of key parameters with simple means and non-specialist staff.

28 November 2011Page 2

ContentS

Part 1General Project and Site Information

Part 2Safeguards Information

Part 3Mitigation Measures

Part 4Monitoring Plan

PART 1: General Project and Site Information

INSTITUTIONAL & ADMINISTRATIVE

Country

Poland

Project title

Warsaw Urban Transport Project (specific investment loan – SIL)

Scope of project and activity

Small construction works for roads rehabilitation and bicycle path construction

Institutional arrangements

(Name and contacts)

WB

(Project Team Leader)

Project Management

Local Counterpart and/or Recipient

Implementation arrangements

(Name and contacts)

Safeguard Supervision

Local Counterpart Supervision

Local Inspectorate Supervision

Contactor

SITE DESCRIPTION

Name of site

Describe site location

Attachment 1: Site Map [ ]Y [ ] N

Who owns the land?

Description of geographic, physical, biological, geological, hydrographic and socio-economic context

Locations and distance for material sourcing, especially aggregates, water, stones?

LEGISLATION

Identify national & local legislation & permits that apply to project activity

PUBLIC CONSULTATION

Identify when / where the public consultation process took place

INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING

Will there be any capacity building?

[ ] N or [ ]Y if Yes, Attachment 2 includes the capacity building program

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PART 2: safeguards SCREENING AND Triggers

ENVIRONMENTAL /SOCIAL SCREENING FOR SAFEGUARDS TRIGGERS

Will the site activity include/involve any of the following??

Activity/Issue

Status

Triggered Actions

A. Roads or building rehabilitation

[ ] Yes [ ] No

If “Yes”, see Section A below

B. New construction of small structures or infrastructure

[ ] Yes [ ] No

If “Yes”, see Section A below

C. Impacts on surface drainage system

[ ] Yes [ ] No

If “Yes”, see Section B below

D. Historic building(s) and districts

[ ] Yes [ ] No

If “Yes”, see Section C below

E. Acquisition of land[footnoteRef:3] [3: Land acquisitions includes displacement of people, change of livelihood encroachment on private property this is to land that is purchased/transferred and affects people who are living and/or squatters and/or operate a business (kiosks) on land that is being acquired. ]

[ ] Yes [ ] No

If “Yes”, see Section D below

F. Hazardous or toxic materials[footnoteRef:4] [4: Toxic / hazardous material includes but is not limited to asbestos, toxic paints, noxious solvents, removal of lead paint, etc.]

[ ] Yes [ ] No

If “Yes”, see Section E below

G. Impacts on forests and/or protected areas

[ ] Yes [ ] No

If “Yes”, see Section F below

H. Risk of unexploded ordinance (UXO)

[ ] Yes [ ] No

If “Yes”, see Section G below

I. Traffic and Pedestrian Safety

[ ] Yes [ ] No

If “Yes”, see Section H below

PART 3: Mitigation measures

ACTIVITY

PARAMETER

MITIGATION MEASURES CHECKLIST

0. General Conditions

Notification and Worker Safety

(a) The local construction and environment inspectorates and communities have been notified of upcoming activities

(b) The public has been notified of the works through appropriate notification in the media and/or at publicly accessible sites (including the site of the works)

(c) All legally required permits have been acquired for construction and/or rehabilitation

(d) The Contractor formally agrees that all work will be carried out in a safe and disciplined manner designed to minimize impacts on neighboring residents and environment.

(e) Workers’ PPE will comply with international good practice (always hardhats, as needed masks and safety glasses, harnesses and safety boots)

(f) Appropriate signposting of the sites will inform workers of key rules and regulations to follow.

A. General Rehabilitation and /or Construction Activities

Air Quality

(a) During excavation works dust control measures shall be employed, e.g. by spraying and moistening the ground

(b) Demolition debris, excavated soil and aggregates shall be kept in controlled area and sprayed with water mist to reduce debris dust

(c) During pneumatic drilling or breaking of pavement and foundations dust shall be suppressed by ongoing water spraying and/or installing dust screen enclosures at site

(d) The surrounding environment (side walks, roads) shall be kept free of soil and debris to minimize dust

(e) There will be no open burning of construction / waste material at the site

(f) All machinery will comply with Polish emission regulations, shall well maintained and serviced and there will be no excessive idling of construction vehicles at sites

Noise

(a) Construction noise will be limited to restricted times agreed to in the permit

(b) During operations the engine covers of generators, air compressors and other powered mechanical equipment shall be closed, and equipment placed as far away from residential areas as possible

Water Quality

(a) The site will establish appropriate erosion and sediment control measures such as e.g. hay bales and / or silt fences to prevent sediment from moving off site and causing excessive turbidity in canalization and nearby streams and rivers

Waste management

(a) Waste collection and disposal pathways and sites will be identified for all major waste types expected from excavation, demolition and construction activities.

(b) Mineral construction and demolition wastes will be separated from general refuse, organic, liquid and chemical wastes by on-site sorting and stored in appropriate containers.

(c) Construction waste will be collected and disposed properly by licensed collectors

(d) The records of waste disposal will be maintained as proof for proper management as designed.

(e) Whenever feasible Contractor will reuse and recycle appropriate and viable materials (except when containing asbestos)

B. Impacts on surface drainage system

Water Quality

(a) There will be no unregulated extraction of groundwater, nor uncontrolled discharge of process waters, cement slurries, or any other contaminated waters into the ground or adjacent streams or rivers; the Contractor will obtain all necessary licenses and permits for water extraction and regulated discharge into the public wastewater system.

(b) There will be proper storm water drainage systems installed and care taken not to silt, pollute, block or otherwise negatively impact natural streams, rivers, ponds and lakes by construction activities

(c) There will be procedures for prevention of and response to accidental spills of fuels, lubricants and other toxic or noxious substances

(d) Construction vehicles and machinery will be washed only in designated areas where runoff will not pollute natural surface water bodies

ACTIVITY

PARAMETER

MITIGATION MEASURES CHECKLIST

C. Historic building(s)

Cultural Heritage

(a) If construction works take place close to a designated historic structure, or are located in a designated historic district, notification shall be made and approvals/permits be obtained from local authorities and all construction activities planned and carried out in line with local and national legislation.

(b) It shall be ensured that provisions are put in place so that artifacts or other possible “chance finds” encountered in excavation or construction are noted and registered, responsible officials contacted, and works activities delayed or modified to account for such finds.

D. Acquisition of land

Land Acquisition Plan/Framework

(c) If expropriation of land was not expected but is required, or if loss of access to income of legal or illegal users of land was not expected but may occur, that the Bank’s Task Team Leader shall be immediately consulted.

(d) The approved Land Acquisition Plan/Framework (if required by the project) will be implemented

E. Toxic materials

Asbestos management

(a) If asbestos is located on the project site, it shall be marked clearly as hazardous material

(b) When possible the asbestos will be appropriately contained and sealed to minimize exposure

(c) The asbestos prior to removal (if removal is necessary) will be treated with a wetting agent to minimize asbestos dust

(d) Asbestos will be handled and disposed by skilled & experienced professionals

(e) If asbestos material is be stored temporarily, the wastes should be securely enclosed inside closed containments and marked appropriately. Security measures will be taken against unauthorized removal from the site.

(f) The removed asbestos will not be reused

Toxic / hazardous waste management

(a) Temporarily storage on site of all hazardous or toxic substances will be in safe containers labeled with details of composition, properties and handling information

(b) The containers of hazardous substances shall be placed in an leak-proof container to prevent spillage

(c) The wastes shall be transported by specially licensed carriers and dispo