Final Report - Asian Development Bank

TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 3
I. INITIAL POVERTY AND SOCIAL ASSESSMENT
A. Linkages to the Country Poverty Analysis
Is the sector identified as a national priority in
country poverty analysis
Yes
No
Is the sector identified as a national priority
in country poverty partnership agreement?
Contribution of the sector or subsector to reduce poverty in PRC:
The People’s Republic of China is entering a new era with the 11 th Five-Year Program 2006-2010. This builds on a gradual
shift since 2003 toward policies aimed at balanced, equitable and sustainable development. Social indicators have
continued improving in the PRC and in the aggregate poverty has moved downward. Although the PRC is one of the
leading industrial engines of the global economy, its GDP per capita in 2005 was still a modest $1,730. In 2005, the PRC
had an absolutely poor population of 26.1 million and a low income population of 49.8 million. PRC’s 11th FYP has a
stronger emphasis on rural development with a pledge to increase farmers’ incomes and enhance public services in the
countryside.
The ADB 2007-2008 Country Strategy and Program for the PRC is updated to provide an initial response to the PRC’s new
policy, social and economic environment. This update highlighted ADB’s priorities which are in line with the Eleventh FYP
and stresses its continuous efforts to support the Government to (i) sharpen its fight against poverty; and (ii) achieve the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including policy work in such areas as social protection, strengthening the role of
NGOs in reducing poverty and cooperating with the World Bank and other development partners to advance policy dialogue
on the changing nature of poverty in the PRC. Nationally, the majority of the poor live in the central and western provinces,
which lag behind the eastern provinces in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. In these regions poverty is rural
and strongly correlated to access to land and the incidence of land degradation. Growth has outpaced environmental
sustainability in many of these areas, and the environment is a major constraint to sustained economic development.
Environmental protection, ecosystem restoration, and biodiversity conservation are playing a major role in the western
development strategy. The majority of ADB’s lending, to the interior provinces seeks to create a climate for pro-poor
economic growth. Ongoing ADB-financed policy work is addressing poverty-related issues in health, education, social
protection, nutrition, land degradation, access to clean drinking water, and sanitation in rural areas. The poverty partnership
agreement, signed by the Government and ADB in September 2003, sets out strategies and interventions for poverty
reduction. The PRC and ADB will continue to cooperate on a broad range of activities related to policy and regulatory
reform and capacity building in the environmental sector, and support projects to address environmental problems. Projects
will be designed so that the poor capture some of the environmental benefits. To sharpen the poverty focus of its
environmental work, the PRC and ADB are addressing land degradation by supporting the implementation of the 10-year
PRC-Global Environment Facility (GEF) Partnership for Degradation in Dryland Ecosystems to address policy, institutional,
technical, and financing issues related to combating land degradation. It aims to reduce poverty, arrest land degradation,
and restore dryland ecosystems in the western region, to be accomplished through the GEF Operational Program (OP) 12
by introducing integrated ecosystem management and removing institutional barriers.
This project directly contributes to these objectives by introducing integrated landscape management models which
promotes market-driven biodiversity conservation, and provides sustainable livelihoods for the population of the Project
Area that can be demonstrated for, and replicated in, the wider Qinling Mountains. The Project promotes the participation
and empowerment of rural communities and sustainable livelihood improvement by means of: (i) improved agricultural and
other technology; (ii) value addition; and (iii) non-extractive use of natural resources using commercial enterprises in such
areas as eco-tourism, Chinese herbal medicines, non-timber forest products, biodiversity conservation services and
innovation in public-private-community partnerships.
The Project Area is within the Qinling Mountain range, and is a highly complex area of different geographic features,
settlement patterns and densities, multiple land uses, and multiple, overlapping land use and related management rights
among forestry and other government agencies, Zhouzhi County, and various townships, villages and households in the
Project Area. The total registered population in the Project Area is about 20,400, including 3 townships and 30
administrative villages. No ethnic minorities are living in the project area. Poverty is widespread both in the Qinling
mountains and the project area based on the national poverty benchmark, with small-scale agriculture on steep slopes, very
limited infrastructure throughout the rugged and isolated valleys, and few links to the modern economy. Zhouzhi County,
which is the only project county, is directly under Xi’an City. Its total area is 2,974 km2, including 2,200 km2 of mountain
area in the Qinling Mountains that takes up 74% of the total land area; cultivated land covers 60,000 mu and forestland
196,600 mu. GDP/capita in Zhouzhi is estimated to be only 50% of the provincial average, 30% of the average for the total
country and only 20% of the average for the Xi’an urban districts. Zhouzhi is well below the provincial and national
averages in virtually all of the main socioeconomic indicators – retail sales per capita, gross fixed investment, household
savings, and fiscal capacity. Net farmer per capita income in Zhouzhi was only CNY1,317 in 2005, which was only 40% of
the national average and 64% of the provincial average in that year. Despite its low household incomes and levels of
development, Zhouzhi has never been designated as a national or provincial poverty county under national or provincial
programs. However, about 17% of the Zhouzhi population reportedly is below the poverty line, and 103 out of 379
administrative villages in the county are considered to be poverty villages. Poverty levels are particularly high in the
1
Yes
No