Tanzania - Marine and Coastal Environment Management Project

Page 1 PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) CONCEPT STAGE Report No.: AB1294 Project Name Marine and Coastal Environment Management Region AFRICA Sector General agriculture, fishing and forestry sector (100%) Project ID P082492 Global Supplemental ID P084213, PO88967 GEF Focal Area B-Biodiversity Borrower(s) GOVERNMENT OF TANZANIA Implementing Agency Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, mainland Tanzania and Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Cooperatives, Zanzibar Environment Category [ ] A [X] B [ ] C [ ] FI [ ] TBD (to be determined) Safeguard Classification [ ] S 1 [X] S 2 [ ] S 3 [ ] S F [ ] TBD (to be determined) Date PID Prepared December 21, 2004 Estimated Date of Appraisal Authorization January 31, 2005 Estimated Date of Board Approval June 15, 2005 1. Key development issues and rationale for Bank involvement The rationale for Bank involvement in this project is that it supports directly or indirectly all key elements in the PRS, but with a regional focus on the coastal areas. The coastal districts remain among the poorest in Tanzania, and MACEMP provides an opportunity to target these populations directly through acting concurrently on their environmental and economic vulnerability. The underlying development hypothesis is that sound management of coastal resources, many of which are currently open access and are thus over-exploited or sub-optimally utilized, will contribute directly to improved incomes and to reduced vulnerability to external shocks. A second hypothesis (acting in a reverse causal direction from the first), is that increased local empowerment, through enhancing community management of the resource base and through better definition of coastal and marine property rights and responsibilities, will in turn lead to more sustainable use of the resource base through, for example, improved commercial fish stocks, reduced by-catch wastes, and reduction in destructive fishing practices. These two causal links are mutually reinforcing, contributing over time to a concurrent reduction in poverty and improvement in the quality of the resource base. The project could alternatively have addressed only one of these two hypotheses through, for example, focusing on resource protection alone or on local empowerment alone. But such a single pronged focus would have left potential positive feedback effects to chance. The two pronged approach is thus also a risk management mechanism. International donors have been active in this sector for about one decade. USAID has supported coastal district planning and the development of the National Integrated Coastal Environment Page 2 Management Strategy (NICEMS) on mainland Tanzania, adopted officially in December 2003. The European Commission (EC) has concentrated on str engthening URT