Project Identification Form (PIF)
Project Type:
the GEF Trust Fund
Submission Date: November 13, 2007
Re-submission Date: December 12, 2007
Indicative CalendarMilestones / Expected Dates
Work Program (for FSP) / N/A
CEO Endorsement/Approval / January 08December 07
GEF Agency Approval / January 08
Implementation Start / FebruaryJanuary 08
Mid-term Review (if planned) / N/A
Implementation Completion / FebruaryJanuary 11
part i: project IDentification
GEFSEC Project ID[1]: 3044
gef agency Project ID: P056941
Country(ies): Regional: Zambia and Namibia
Project Title: Open Africa North South Tourism Corridor (OANSTC)
GEF Agency(ies): , ,
Other Executing partner(s): Open Africa
GEF Focal Area (s): ,,
GEF-4 Strategic program(S): SO #2, SP# 5
Name of parent program/umbrella project:N/A
A. Project framework
Project Objective:PDO: Community members living with the OANSTC Project corridor entered the economic mainstream by leveraging their tourism opportunities.
GEO: Biodiversity is mainstreamed into tourism by communities along the OANSTC routes.
Project Components
/Indicate whether Investment, TA, or STA**
/ Expected Outcomes /Expected Outputs
/Indicative GEF Financing*
/ Indicative Co-financing* / Total ($)($)
/%
/($)
/%
1. Biodiversity - focused Routes / Investment / Better biodiversity management through mainstreamed biodiversity in tourism route planning, management and marketing / 8 new and 3 up-graded biodiversity-rich tourism "routes" (branded destination-level partnership clustering tourism attractions) locally designed and established.A participatory conservation plan is developed for 50% of the route flagship species identified. / 331,545 / 73 / 124,087 / 27 / 455,632
2. Targeted Marketing and Communication / Investment and TA / Promotion of biodiversity-rich tourism routes contributes to increased interest in the OA network, and income for tourism route members. / Effective marketing and communication tools for 8 new and 3 up-graded tourism routes developed and applied. / 118,478 / 60 / 79,232 / 40 / 197,710
3. Enhanced Monitoring and Evaluation / TA in support of Investment / Reliable information and lessons generated as well as individual and institutional capacity-building measures improve local and national decision-making processes & facilitating replication. / Effective M& E system (based on concept of flagship species) designed and implemented in year 1 to track the biodiversity indicators and results.
Awareness raising (including capacity building) and technical advice on biodiversity values provided to number of stakeholders. / 43,219 / 39 / 66,788 / 61 / 110,007
4. Project management / Overall coordination and implementation support through the Open Africa Organization. / 2,208 / 0.6 / 365,391 / 99.4 / 367,599
Total project costs / 495,450 / 44 / 635,498 / 56 / 1,130,948
* List the $ by project components. The percentage is the share of GEF and Co-financing respectively to the total amount for the component.
** TA = Technical Assistance; STA = Scientific & technical analysis.
B. Indicative Financing Plan Summary For The Project ($)
GEF / 50,000 / 495,450 / 54,545 / 599,995
Co-financing / 117,169 / 635,498 / 752,662
Total / 167,169 / 1,130,948 / 54,545 / 1,352,657
* A PPG (former PDF-A) in the amount of USD 50,000 was approved under GEF-3 on 03/31/2006 and closed on 04/04/2007
C. Indicative Co-financing for the project (including project preparation amount) by source and
by name (in parenthesis) if available, ($)
Project Government Contribution / (select)GrantSoft LoanHard LoanGuaranteeIn-kindUnknown at this stage
GEF Agency(ies) / (select)GrantSoft LoanHard LoanGuaranteeIn-kindUnknown at this stage
Bilateral Aid Agency(ies) / (select)GrantSoft LoanHard LoanGuaranteeIn-kindUnknown at this stage
Multilateral Agency(ies) / (select)GrantSoft LoanHard LoanGuaranteeIn-kindUnknown at this stage
Private Sector* / (select)GrantSoft LoanHard LoanGuaranteeIn-kindUnknown at this stage
NGO / Cash and (select)GrantSoft LoanHard LoanGuaranteeIn-kindUnknown at this stage / 635,498
Others* / (select)GrantSoft LoanHard LoanGuaranteeIn-kindUnknown at this stage
Total co-financing / 635,498*
* An additional amount of US$ 0.5 million is expected to be leveraged from the private sector and others (NACOBTA, OA support companies and Peace Park Foundation) during the course of the project towards project cofinancing.
D. GEF Resources Requested by Focal Area(s), agency (ies) share and country(ies)*
GEF Agency / Focal Area / Country Name/Global / (in $)
Project Preparation / Project / Agency
Fee / Total
(select)World BankUNDPUNEPAsDBAfDBEBRDIADBFAOUNIDOIFAD / (select)BiodiversityClimate ChangeInternational WatersLand DegradationOzone Depletion SubstancesPersistent Organic PollutantsNDI/CSPSGP/CB/LDC-SIDS Support / Namibia / 100,000
(select)World BankUNDPUNEPAsDBAfDBEBRDIADBFAOUNIDOIFAD / (select)BiodiversityClimate ChangeInternational WatersLand DegradationOzone Depletion SubstancesPersistent Organic PollutantsNDI/CSPSGP/CB/LDC-SIDS Support / Zambia / 499,956
Total GEF Resources / 50,000** / 495,450 / 54,545 / 599,955
* No need to provide information for this table if it is a single focal area, single country and single GEF Agency project.
** The preparation money could not be split and thus only totals per country are reflected.
part ii: project JustiFication
A. State the issue, how the project seeks to address it, and the expected global environmental benefits to be delivered:
The Open Africa supported route-based tourism[2] proposed under this project is ecosystem-based and stretches from northern Zambia to Namibia. This corridor will become part of Africa’s largest transfrontier conservation area, the emerging Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) initiative, comprised of a network of 36 national parks, game reserves, community conservancies and game management areas spanning over 287,132 km2 containing the largest contiguous population of the African elephant (approx. 250,000) in the continent. Within KAZA, the project will influence biodiversity conservation in 5 conservancies and 3 National Parks in Namibia as well as 6 Game Management Areas and 3 National Parks in Zambia. The KAZA TFCA aims to become a world-class transfrontier conservation area and tourism destination in the Okavango and Zambezi river basin regions, bordering Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe by 2010 owing to its rich diversity of wildlife such as elephant, buffalo, lechwe, cheetah and wattled crane, and a cultural wealth that includes cave paintings dating back 30,000 years. Even though only Namibia and Zambia are covered under the project, it is likely to become an important local building block to that TFCA. Actualy, it is in Open Africa’s long term plan to expand in other countries for full coverage of that TFCA. The corridor extends to northern Zambia into the Bangweulu and upper escarpment part of the Luangwa ecosystem where is will influence conservation in 3 National Parks and up to 5 GMAs. The Bangweulu and Luangwa are high priorities in the Zambia Biodiversity Strategy as transition from miombos to wetland ecosystem with a variety of unique plant species and wildlife of unique global value such as the shoe bill stork.
In both countries, the preparation phase identified three major threats to biodiversity conservation throughout the corridor, each of which are accounted for in the OANSTC process with a view to their reduction and eventual elimination: (i) Species: Over-utilization of flora and fauna resources including shooting of birds, hunting and fishing; (ii) Habitats: Reduction, change and/or destruction of wetland, grassland and forest habitats through unsustainable land uses leading to deforestation and over-abstraction of water and (iii) Management barriers: Unsustainable land management practices through agriculture and mining and marketing barrier to enhance biodiversity-friendly tourism products. The main root causes of and barriers to these threats leading to unsustainable pressure on natural resources was seen to be a lack of or insufficient alternative income-generating opportunities for rural communities; unfavorable land tenure settings; inadequate local participation in land use planning and management as well as a general lack of adequate knowledge and capacity of involved stakeholders.
The OANSTC project goal is to contribute to mainstreaming biodiversity into pro-poor tourism by communities along the OANSTC routes through removing these barriers. The expected slowly progressing tourism market change will be shaped by the project's incentive-based and unique "partnership tourism route" approach, enhanced awareness, training and capacity-building for current and future local business operators. The project will focus particularly on bridging the gap between local communities and business operators in the tourism market. This will be done through supporting the institutionalization of local route development and the implementation of local biodiversity centered tourism strategies in symbiosis with conservation plans, together with ME centered around route specific flagship species. The project design is structured around four components which will help achieve the objectives in a corridor that passes through an area that is both biodiversity rich and threatened:
Component 1:“Biodiversity-focused Routes” covers the development, through a series of well crafted and standard workshops, and aftercare, through regular but not obtrusive visits and trainings, of eight new biodiversity-focused tourism routes and "greening" of three existing tourism routes resulting in better biodiversity management. GEF support focuses on the “new” route development and follow-up approach (developed and tested during MSP preparation) on mainstreaming biodiversity into route planning, management, marketing and monitoring and evaluation. The approach builds on the knowledge of each country, local agencies and affected parties - government, NGO and private - concerned with biodiversity conservation in each of the eco-regions identified.
Component 2: “Targeted Marketing and Communication” addresses barriers to sustainable tourism marketing and promotion for the OA network and specific routes resulting in effective marketing and related increased income for the route members within the OANSTC corridor. GEF funds will be used to integrate the mainstreaming of biodiversity into the enhanced Open Africa marketing and communication model and cover the costs of marketing previously not undertaken by Open Africa. In real terms this requires the contracting a high level designer of marketing product that fits the model, attendance to tourism and conservation fairs, "greening" amnd improving the effectiveness of the web sites as well as development of route-specific local marketing instruments at the level of the route themselves.
Component 3 “Enhanced Monitoring and Evaluation” establishes a local biodiversity and tourism monitoring and evaluation system at route level based on the concept of flagship species, providing reliable information for tracking results, drawing lessons and informing decisions. GEF support will be used to (i) develop biodiversity monitoring tools (MOMS), (ii) appoint local biodiversity mentors and monitors, (iii) appoint a OA biodiversity networker, (iv) install a MIS, (v) introduce a participant certification and tracking system, (vi) carry out route forum knowledge sharing seminars and capacity building activiies and (vii) compile a replication plan.
Component 4 “Project Management” provides for overall coordination and implementation support through the Open Africa Organization. GEF incremental funds include only a small proportion of time in respect of existing staff, savings here being made possible through economies of scale and the existing functional organization in respect of staffing, equipment, and know-how, and will result in compliance with World Bank audit and WB/GEF reporting requirements.
Overall the proposed GEF project will stimulate better biodiversity management in some of the biodiversity hotspots in the two countries and the key benefit expected would be that 80 % of the routes in the corridor will identify and monitor a flagship species and in 60 % of these routes, participants will have factored better biodiversity management in their mode of existence and in the use of biodiversity resources. The flagship concept has been carefully selected as a simple but effective "unifiying" theme for community tourism enterprises and private investor to share a common goal. It is expected that this common gola toward improvement of the status of a single species will carry these stakeholder far further into conservation and local habitat management. Consequently, the main global environmental benefits expected will stem from reduced threats to biodiversity in key ecosystems throughout OANSTC corridor, improved management and monitoring of flagship species at local level, increased public and private sector awareness on biodiversity values, management and monitoring as well as the development of a sustainable and biodiversity-friendly tourism product (route), all of which will be documented and made available for replication elsewhere. The monitoring and maintenance of route-specific flagship species is the key feature to achieve global biodiversity outcomes. This enables positive conservation spill-over effects on other species and habitats. In particular, a more caring attitude by both communities and travelers towards biodiversity resources, improved knowledge and awareness of their status and value at all levels, prevention of over-use of tourism related biodiversity resources, and the timely introduction of flagship species conservation plans and actions is expected through monitoring at local level.
B. Describe the consistency of the project with national priorities/plans: Each of the two participating countries has identified nature-based tourism as a key sector for economic development based on their endowment with globally significant ecosystems and biodiversity. Namibia and Zambia have both recognized the conservation and sustainable use of these natural assets as vital in further developing sustainably the potential of the tourism sector and have developed national strategies and interventions for responsible and sustainable tourism and participatory community-based conservation of biodiversity. The project will enhance the linkages between many programs and plans pertaining to national poverty reduction strategies via support for community-based pro-poor tourism and national biodiversity conservation strategies. It will support environmental and tourism policy priorities and development strategies and strengthen regional tourism initiatives within SADC through concrete interventions on the ground. As an online marketing and information platform, the project is expected to help disseminate local biodiversity conservation actions that respond to the guidance issued by the CBD. The proposed project supports in particular the establishment of the recently agreed Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, involving Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe as two identified OANSTCP routes would fall in this conservation zone. The project is expected to contribute strongly to the success of the KAZA TFCA through (i) improving management of the resource base by mainstreaming biodiversity into tourism including using a flagship species approach, (ii) facilitating collaborative management and planning by establishing route forums, (iii) supporting sustainable tourism by ensuring adherence to the new OA charter principles, and (iv) contributing to a cross-border framework for partnerships between investors, government and other institutions to interact with communities. In Namibia, the OANSTCP supports the implementation of the CBNRM policy framework, the Community-Based Tourism Policy, the Tourism industry's transformation charter to facilitate access to the industry to all Namibians, recommendations of the recent Tourism Satellite Account (2006) report, the Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (2001-2010) and long-term Vision 2030 objectives and actions. In Zambia, the OANSTCP enhances the implementation of the National Tourism Policy (1999), the Tourism Development Framework (1999), the Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, the Draft National Policy on Environment (2005) and the Fifth's National Development Plan and the PRSP. It builds on strategic and operational priorities expressed by the Zambian Tourism Board, the Tourism Council and the Zambian Wildlife Authority. Each of the two countries are active members of the Regional Tourism Organization of Southern Africa (RETOSA).