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1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 ITCAMP and the CEP The Caspian Environment Programme (CEP) is a regional umbrella programme established by the Caspian Littoral States and aided by the international agencies. CEP includes a number of priority areas of activities and among them is the Integrated Transboundary Coastal Area Management Planning (ITCAMP). Implementation of CEP will be achieved through the National Intersectoral Coordinating Functions and the institutions and agencies contributing to the Caspian Regional Thematic Centres (CRTCs), which have been established for each priority area and are distributed amongst the five Caspian littoral states. The CRTC for ITCAMP has been established in the Islamic Republic of Iran to coordinate and assist the development and application of the philosophy and approach of ITCAMP. By facilitating the exchange of information and sharing of experience, the Centre will ensure a harmonious approach to coastal area management around the Caspian periphery and the avoidance or resolution of transboundary problems. In its promotion of the ITCAMP approach, the Centre will develop an integrated, participatory and comprehensive planning process at the local level which recognizes the special characteristics of the Caspian environment. ITCAMP will plan for the management of the Caspian environment and its resources, balancing human needs, protection of land and water and ecological conservation. It will optimize the multiple use of resources through the integration of social, economic and ecological information. It will promote intersectoral cooperation and coordination to address complex development issues and formulate integrated strategies for the expansion and diversification of economic activities. According to the Work Plan, the Centre will coordinate the preparation of a series of national Coastal Profiles from which will arise the Caspian Regional Coastal Profile. Having assessed the situation through the Profiles, the Centre will organize training courses in Coastal Planning and Management and develop draft guidelines and procedures. The draft guidelines will be tested in the field through pilot projects. These pilots will result in functional coastal management plans for the selected localities as well as serve to indicate any necessary refinements before the draft guidelines can be incorporated into the Handbook for Integrated Coastal Area Management Planning in the Caspian Region. In collaboration with the Data & Info CRTC and the PCU, the Centre will develop the methodology and the technical specifications for Planning Information Management in GIS format. In collaboration with the PCU and with the support of the NCPs, the Centre will develop the conceptual approach, overall scope, overall design and technical specifications for the Caspian Atlas of Coastal Resources which will comprise 6 volumes, one for each country and a regional volume. Subject to the availability of co-funding, the Centre will facilitate the publication of one or more volumes. The Centre will also coordinate input to the SAP by identifying regional or common issues that arise from the planning process throughout the Region. 1.2 Mission Terms of Reference Role of the Consultant The role of the consultant will be as the advisor to the Caspian Regional Thematic Centre for Integrated Transboundary Coastal Area management Planning based in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. The consultant will assist the Centre fulfill its overall objective of adoption on a region-wide basis, of an effective transboundary Integrated Coastal Area Management Planning process resulting in reduced environmental degradation, enhanced human health and development, protection of coastal habitats and preservation of global biodiversity. In the forthcoming six months (1 July 2000 – 31 December) the consultant shall provide consultancy services to the Centre in the following tasks:
The above tasks are specified in detail in the CRTC’s workplan approved at the March meeting of the CEP Steering Committee in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The consultant, in addition to assisting with the above tasks, will provide support to the Director of the ITCAMP CRTC in the overall management of the component, including drafting of consultant ToRs. The consultant shall produce mission reports within three weeks of return to his home office. Working Place and Period The present contract will cover the period from 1st July 2000 until 31st December for up to 45 working days, of which approximately 35 days will be for missions to the Caspian and 10 days will be for home office work. The first mission to the Caspian will be from 24 July to 10 August 2000, a total of eighteen days. Further contract extension will be subject to negotiation, based on the needs of the Programme Coordinator and the CEP. Preliminary Inputs The following inputs are envisaged for the above tasks:
Contract revision Agreement was obtained by the Programme Coordinator from UNOPS for a revision of the contract and terms of reference. The changes bring in an additional task – prime responsibility for drafting the Guidelines for Coastal Planning, and extend the contract by a further 5 days. I am pleased to report that with this second mission, the above terms of reference including the tasks envisaged in the contract revision, have been satisfied. 1.3 Acknowledgements I am greatly indebted to the many persons who helped me in different ways during this mission. The support and assistance given me by staff at the I.R. Iran Department of the Environment and in the ITCAMP CRTC in Tehran, was greatly appreciated. They and their colleagues in the ERACL and ER CRTCs, welcomed me and shared with me their invaluable local knowledge and experience. Through the ITCAMP CRTC I was also provided with invaluable electronic connectivity. I am grateful to all in the Office with special thanks to Dr Parvin Farshchi, Director ITCAMP CRTC, for her advice and support and her boundless hospitality. I am also grateful for their time, their positive response to requests for help and their advice, to officials of the Austrian Embassy and the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Tehran. Colleagues in the UNDP Office in Tehran and the PCU in Baku were most helpful with the logistic arrangements for this mission. Their support and assistance is greatly appreciated.
2. MISSION ACTIVITIES I arrived in Tehran late during the night of 28-29 October. I spent most of the time based at the ITCAMP CRTC with occasional meetings at UNDP and a visit to the Austrian Embassy. I also participated in the Second ITCAMP Workshop and acted as Rapporteur, responsible for the Workshop Report which is annexed to this Mission Report. I departed Tehran in the morning of Saturday 18 November. A full list of persons met and consulted is to be found in Annex 1. 2.1 Second ITCAMP Workshop The Second ITCAMP Workshop was held in Tehran from 14 to 16 November. I assisted some of the work leading up to the Workshop such as the drafting of the agenda and complementary documentation. I also had the leading responsibility for the sessions on the Coastal Planning Guidelines, the Coastal Planning Process and the Pilot Projects. In addition, I acted as Rapporteur, producing the Draft Workshop Report in collaboration with Ms Babran of the CRTC. The Workshop Report is annexed to this Mission Report as Annex 2. 2.2. Coastal Profiles 2.2.1. National Coastal Profiles Having provided the necessary advice and guidance to the NCPs on the scope, contents and technical specifications for the National Coastal Profiles, I was available for consultations electronically as required in the intervening period between the two missions. In the event, I responded to requests for assistance from the NCP for Turkmenistan. 2.2.2. Caspian Regional Coastal Profile The lead responsibility for drafting the Regional Coastal Profile which will be based primarily on the National Profiles but also on the National Reports prepared for the TDA Framework, has been assigned to Dr Farshchi. My role is to provide whatever advice and support is required by Dr Farshchi to ensure a document that will be as useful as possible to the compilers of the TDA. To date, I have helped with setting the scope and prescription of the Regional Profile as well as provide a ‘model’ for the threats analysis matrix which will synthesise the problems, their immediate and root causes, potential solutions and barriers to the application of the solutions. It had been planned to have a first draft of the Regional Profile by mid-November for discussion at the Second ITCAMP Workshop. Unfortunately, due to its dependence on the National Profiles, little progress has been made on the Regional Profile. 2.3 Guidelines for Caspian Coastal Planning The Guidelines for Caspian Coastal Planning will reflect the situation described in the National Coastal Profiles and collated in the Regional Coastal Profile. The Guidelines will then serve as the precursor of the Handbook on Integrated Coastal Area Management Planning for the Caspian Coast. They are therefore a crucial stage in the progression towards the tangible legacy of the ITCAMP CRTC. I have now been assigned the lead responsibility for drafting the Guidelines and a preliminary first draft was presented at the Workshop. Following the discussion at the Workshop, I will continue developing the draft over the coming weeks and it will be finalized and made available for translation by mid-February at the latest, ready to be tested in the field through the Pilot projects in March. 2.4 Pilot Projects Prior to the mission I had discussions in Vienna with colleagues from the Austrian Research Centres (Seibersdorf) exploring the possibility of Austrian support (funds and expertise) to one or more of the proposed Pilot Projects around the Caspian periphery. It is possible that support can be provided to the Pilot Project in I R Iran and maybe also to that in Turkmenistan. Following discussions with the Regional Coordinator it was agreed that the ITCAMP budget be revised to allow core funds to be allocated for some Pilot Project activities, wherever they are being implemented. This is seen as a very appropriate use of funds particularly in view of the extensive training component that the Pilot Projects will comprise. Additional funds may be made available from resources earmarked for public participation activities and managed by the PCU directly. Of the proposals received so far, only the Iranian and Turkmeni ones are sufficiently advanced to be developed further. 2.4.1 Pilot Project in Gilan Province in I R Iran My discussions in Vienna regarding funding support for the Iran Pilot Project were followed up in Tehran through the Austrian Embassy and it appears very likely that the funding support will eventuate. A formal request has been written by the Department of Environment and colleagues at the Austrian Research Centres (Seibersdorf) are now negotiating with the Austrian Ministry of Research which has an MoU on research collaboration with the Iranian Government. In addition, the previous approach to the Dutch Embassy in Tehran has been followed up and it is also very likely that funding support will eventuate from this source as well. The Iranian Pilot Project now appears quite secure in terms of funding support and the Project Brief provides a good basis for final planning. However, I still have some concerns regarding support for the project at local level. This matter has been discussed with Dr Farshchi and she will be arranging further consultations with local offices of various ministries, the Provincial Government of Gilan Province and relevant municipalities as well as any appropriate NGOs and CBOs. To assist with this consultation process, I have prepared a PowerPoint slide presentation for her use. It is necessary to obtain letters of support from as many of these organizations as possible, as an indication of their commitment to becoming involved in the Project. Finally, some concern has been raised regarding the size of the area originally proposed to be covered by the Pilot Project. This is also something that will need to be discussed and resolved according to local knowledge and advice, bearing in mind the dual objectives of having sufficient challenge to test the Guidelines effectively, but at the same time ensuring that the scale of the project remains within the limitations of time, resources and available capacity. 2.4.2. Pilot Project in Krasnovodsk Bay in Turkmenistan The proposal received from Turkmenistan is a good one but the implementation of a Pilot Project on the Turkmeni coast will pose a number of difficulties – financial support will not be easy to obtain; administrative support will also be difficult; communications are likely to be a problem; and, in spite of the letters of support from local organizations it is probably necessary to clarify further the objectives and the process of the Pilot Project. It is difficult to overcome these difficulties without a direct visit, discussions with the Government, discussions with the UNDP country office, discussions with bilateral donors and the private sector, etc. I am prepared to provide such assistance but I wonder if there is sufficient time to overcome all the hurdles especially without a direct face-to-face encounter. I therefore wish to suggest that if Dr Farshchi is available, she could travel to Turkmenistan with Dr Ghaffarzadeh and attempt to set up this Pilot Project. 2.4.3 Pilot Project in Atyrau/Aktau Oblast in Kazakhstan It has been indicated that funding from the petroleum industry and other sources may be available for a Pilot Project on the Kazakhstan Caspian coast. However, I am concerned with the proposals presented at the Workshop by the delegates from Kazakhstan. Even if they follow the advice they received at the Workshop to consolidate their efforts into one single proposal and build it up according to the criteria provided, I feel they will still need assistance to overcome their apparent misunderstanding of what the objectives of the Pilot Projects are. I am prepared to provide such assistance but I wonder if there is sufficient time to overcome all the hurdles especially without a direct face-to-face encounter. I therefore wish to suggest that if Dr Farshchi is available, she could travel to Kazakhstan with Dr Ghaffarzadeh and attempt to set up this Pilot Project as well. 2.4.4 Pilot Project centred on Nyeftchala in Azerbaijan The proposal received by the CRTC for a Pilot project in Azerbaijan was very preliminary and simply noted the proposed location. Since then, a more detailed presentation was made during the Workshop which indicated that more work had been undertaken and the proposal is now much stronger. However, a great deal more work is required. In particular there is a need to follow up the positive leads for funding support which were indicated at the Workshop. It is also necessary to hold discussions with Government and the UNDP country office to agree on the objectives of the Pilot Project and local commitment to it. These discussions could be undertaken by the PCU with the support of Dr Farshchi. 2.4.5 Pilot Project in Lagan region in Kalmykia, Russian Federation The presentations made at the Workshop indicated a high degree of interest in a Pilot Project in Kalmykia, coupled with potential funding support. However, a lot of planning work remains to be done before such a Project is secure. The CRTC awaits the written proposal for this Project which should be formulated according to the criteria provided. I would be happy to assist with the evaluation of this proposal.
3. TASKS AND DATES FOR THE NEXT FEW MONTHS The next few months will be very busy for the ITCAMP CRTC as the work moves towards the operational implementation of the Pilot Projects. The focus of activities will be on finishing the two major documents in hand at the moment namely, the Caspian Regional Coastal Profile and the Caspian Coastal Planning Guidelines. Substantial consolidation work is also required to ensure the commencement of the Pilot Projects by March 2001 at the latest. The finalization of the Regional Profile will lead to the ITCAMP contribution to the TDA (by February as required). The finalization of the draft Guidelines will enable the commencement of the Pilot Projects which will test the Guidelines in a field situation. More specifically, the tasks in hand and time plan for the CRTC are as follows, with an indication of my expected involvement (based on 3 Pilot Projects being implemented):
In parallel with the above, I am happy to assist with the formulation of the NCAPs, as discussed. It would be desirable to schedule my field involvement when I am already in the region by adding additional days to the missions proposed above.
Annex 1. List of persons met CEP Programme Coordination Unit (PCU) I.R. Iran Department of the Environment ITCAMP Thematic Centre (CRTC) United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Office in
Tehran Austrian Research Centres (Seibersdorf), prior to
arrival on mission Austrian Embassy in Iran ExxonMobil Exploration
Annex 2. Report of the Second ITCAMP Workshop Annex 3. Other material produced during the mission
Dr Philip Tortell, Environmental Management Limited |
Up-coming Activities
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