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The GEF has approved a Project Preparation Grant (PPG) for Nigeria in order to produce a UNDP Project Document and a GEF CEO Endorsement Request (both using the appropriate templates) under the guidance of UNDP-GEF and working in close collaboration with key government officials, donors, NGOs, CBOs and the private sector.
The project, budgeted for $3.6 million in GEF funding and $6.2 million 5,265,000 million in co-financing to be mobilized, will conserve globally important biodiversity in Nigeria by mainstreaming biodiversity management priorities into the Niger Delta oil and gas (O&G) sector development policies and operations. This process will contribute to averting threats and risks to biodiversity linked to O&G operations in priority Niger Delta ecosystems within a spatial area of 4,600,000 hectares. This will be achieved through the following three components:
1) Governance framework for the mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation into the O&G sector in the Niger Delta
2) O&G industry and community engagement in biodiversity management in the Niger Delta
3) Financial mechanisms for O&G sector support to biodiversity conservation
The PPG process is to be implemented between May and November 2010 and will focus on the activities necessary for approving and finalizing the proposed project. The focal points for the project in government and the PPG team of consultants will work in collaboration with existing related initiatives to carry out the following activities:
1. Baseline data collection and information gap analysis
- Analyze the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan’s Biodiversity Sector Report.
- Collect and collate available ecological data on the biological and ecological diversity of the Delta (threats, impacts and barrier analysis)
- Prepare a preliminary biodiversity valuation exercise for biodiversity in the Niger Delta.
- Prepare comprehensive activity/output component and Terms of Reference for the development of an application of the IBAT for the Niger Delta that is useful to the O&G industry and useful for guiding conservation planning.
- Analyse existing legal and policy frameworks governing the O&G sector and their ability to support the incorporation of biodiversity conservation imperatives into them (concessions, EIAs, O&G siting agreements, biodiversity offsets)
- Baseline Capacity Assessment. (1) At the federal level: FMoE, NDCC, MNDA, NOSDRA and NESREA). (2) At the state level: Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers.
- Baseline Capacity Assessment at local level.
- Map and estimate the spatial mainstreaming targets will be better
2. Industry Assessment and Initial Industry Engagement Plan
- Identify and map the O&G industry players in the Niger Delta,
- Assess whether these companies have (or plan to have) CSR plans or policies, oil spill contingency plans, and their positions on biodiversity conservation; assess the adequacy of these.
- Assess companies willingness to join together in a compact to contribute to a Biodiversity Trust Fund and to establish biodiversity-maintreamed siting agreements
- Identify potential incentive mechanisms for engaging the industry in the project
- Outline a capitalization plan for the Trust Fund proposed under the project’s component 3
- Compile the Initial Industry Engagement Plan: Propose a plan with clear recommendations for the engagement of the O&G industry in the project and in its objectives
3. Delta Biodiversity Conservation Financing Assessment
- Assess relevant laws, policies, and institutional baseline for the Delta Biodiversity Trust Fund in Nigeria.
- Apply the GEF’s checklist of eligibility requirements for GEF funding of Trust Funds
- Consider how the Trust Fund could be designed (i.e. financial and administrative aspects) with measures to ensure the security of assets, from invasion, currency devaluation and attachment, and to manage investment risks.
- Confirm whether co-financing targets can be satisfied, and development of a preliminary fund raising strategy
4. Stakeholder consultation and engagement
- Identification of related projects, programmes and initiatives
- Site selection and a strategic assessment of what is required to enable local communities chosen for pilot work to become more involved in biodiversity conservation planning, monitoring and activities in the Delta area.
- Identification of groups that will be targeted to participate in training seminars
- Planning of these seminars within the framework of the project’s work plan and propose the most appropriate and cost-effective way of delivering them
- As a final result of this activity, production of a report containing a ‘Stakeholder Matrix’, a ‘Stakeholder Involvement and Capacity Building Plan’, and ‘Recommendations for the full-size project on stakeholder involvement’.
- Identification and confirmation of potential sources of co-financing, through the activities of stakeholder and industry engagement as a whole.
5. Project Scoping, Costing, Risk Assessment and M&E Planning
- Summary of the local, national and global biodiversity benefits of the project;
- A thorough analysis of the barriers to achieving the proposed project outcomes
- Appropriate scoping of the project, based on the conceptual elements outlined in the PIF and the results of the PPG studies, where comments from GEF Council, GEF Secretariat and STAP will be specifically taken into account;
- Identification of lead implementing partners and implementation arrangements, and a complementary strategy for partnerships and co-funding;
- A learning (adaptive management) plan, including potential lessons and knowledge products;
- A replication plan to ensure that project interventions are geared towards ensuring replication, following the removal of barriers;
- An analysis of project risks and risk mitigation measures, including (if applicable) climate change associated risks;
- Costing of expected project outcomes through detailed inputs-budgeting, including where applicable in-cash co-financing sources and co-financing commitments in compliance with the GEF incrementality principle;
- A cost effectiveness analysis to identify the most effective project alternatives;
- Analysis of the social, institutional, economic and financial sustainability of proposed project activities; and
- An overall project Monitoring and Evaluation Plan, with recommendations on how to track the project’s progress and effectiveness, and the baseline and target values on indicators.
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Encompassing approximately 8 weeksof work throughout the duration of the PPG, the ‘Biodiversity Conservation Finance’ Expert will report to the PPG Activity Coordinator and assess the different options for strengthening existing or developing new financial mechanism(s) to fund the protection and conservation of Delta biodiversity.
i) The consultant’s work will describe and analyze nature and potential of the existing baseline of potentially relevant funding mechanisms for biodiversity conservation in the Delta (existing protected areas, any relevant “eco funds” or other sources of funding).
ii) Based upon this analysis, the consultant will present different options for a new mechanism to increase the flows of finance for conserving, sustainably utilizing and safeguarding the Delta’s biodiversity.
iii) With assistance and collaboration from the O&G specialist, establish the project baseline with respect to the economic value of the Niger Delta’s biodiversity. This will be done by preparing a preliminary biodiversity valuation exercise for the target land and water scapes of the Delta (i.e. 46,000 km2) based on existing studies, data on fisheries, data from existing protected areas and forest reserves, as well as extrapolation exercises and proxy-data from other relevant, available sources.
Contribute to the elaboration of the IBAT–related activities under the full-size project, particularly for what the biodiversity valuation exercise is concerned.
IBAT is the 'Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool'
It is a proprietary geo-based application created and maintained by a consortium of conservation-oriented organizations where each of them provides data from databases that they created and maintain, namely Birdlife (on Important Bird Areas or IBAs), Conservation International (on hotspots, the Niger Delta is one of them), UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (from the World Database on Protected Areas - WDPA) and IUCN (from the Red List of endangered species). IBAT provides a fine-scale spatial planning tool for decision-makers using key biodiversity data sets from consortium members in an integrated manner. It can be tailored to specific geographic areas and has been successfully tested in contexts of extractive industry’s decision making processes. See in particular: www.ibatforbusiness.org.
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