Introduction
Guizhou Province is located in southwest China and is known for its large rural population and underdeveloped economy. Poverty reduction has thus become a priority of the province’s socioeconomic development strategy. The Guizhou Provincial Government has adopted policies to promote tourism development of the province’s natural and cultural heritage, for the ultimate economic benefit of the local people. The Provincial Government also recognizes the need to balance the economic benefits from tourism development with environmental protection and heritage conservation.
The proposed Guizhou Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection and Development Project will develop local resources of cultural and natural heritage in a sustainable manner. This will promote economic growth and create employment opportunities, and improve the living conditions of the local population.
Overview of EIA
In July 2007, the World Bank Project Office of Guizhou Province contracted the Guiyang Hydropower Investigation Design & Research Institute (GHIDI), a subdivision of the China Hydropower Engineering Consultation Group Corporation (CHECC), to undertake the Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA) for the proposed project.
Based on the requirements of the Environmental Impact Assessment Law of PRC, the Decree on Construction Project Environmental Protection (also known as State Council Decree No.253) and relevant World Bank safeguard policies, a full set of EIA documentation has been prepared. The Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) – the overall administrative agency for the project’s EIA evaluation – requires that an integrated environmental impact assessment report be prepared given the nature of the project, which contains a large number of components in rural areas. This document is prepared for the review and approval of the Guizhou Provincial EPB, and also for the clearance of the World Bank
The EIA will provide a solid ground to optimize project design and management so that the project environmental benefits can be maximized and the potential adverse impacts minimized.
This report follows the guidelines of the World Bank OP4.01 and the relevant technical EIA guidelines in China. The outline is summarized below:
Chapter 1, Introduction: describes the project background and gives a brief introduction of the report structure
Chapter 2, EA Preparation: presents applicable standards, scope of analysis, basis for EA and other technical criteria used in the EA process
Chapter 3, Project Description: provides information on project content for each of the components (including location maps where appropriate) to help understand the project. It includes the necessary details to assess project impact, including main project scales, quantity of engineering works, component costs budget and implementation schedule
Chapter 4, Policy and Legal Framework: presents a description and analysis of associated policies and legal and institutional context
Chapter 5, Baseline Conditions: briefly describes the environmental and social baseline information within the project areas.
Chapter 6, Environmental Impacts and Mitigation: is the main section of the report, which summarizes environmental impacts and mitigation measures. It presents a general matrix of the components that have similar impacts or specific impact analysis, and then offers mitigation suggestions for the components that may cause a significant impact
Chapter 7, Heritage Conservation Plan: presents a plan to conserve any heritage that would be affected by the project
Chapter 8, Alternative Analysis: presents alternative analysis by components, with comprehensive comparison for all feasible alternatives in terms of environmental, social, technical and financial considerations, including maps with captions where appropriate.
Chapter 9, Public Consultation and Information Disclosure: describes the public consultation process applied during the EA and summarizes details in tables (i.e. dates, places, approaches, number of participants, main issues expressed, and responses in EIA/design). The chapter also describes the mechanism applied for information disclosure.
Chapter 10, Environmental Management Plan: presents a set of serious programs and measures to be taken during project implementation, including (1) Environmental Management and Supervision for each component, (2) Summary of Mitigation Measures, (3) Institutional Capacity Building/Training Plan and (4) Monitoring Plan.
EIA Preparation
EIA Classification
The proposed project will finance a number of small-scale developments of tourist attractions at many locations across Guizhou Province. Although the environmental impact caused by most project components is considered insignificant, several components are located within areas that are classified as either national level geo-parks or national level scenic areas; it is here where the project might cause significant impact due to the nature of these sites. These areas include 2 provincial scenic areas, 2 national scenic areas, 2 national geological parks, 1 national cultural relic protection unit, 1 provincial cultural relic protection unit and some minority cultural protection areas and regions (see Table 2.1-1) which are located in 2 municipalities and 2 prefectures respectively in Guizhou province (see Figure 2.1-1). According to Operational Policy 4.01 of the World Bank, this project falls into Category A for EA preparation, and thus a full set of EA documents are required to prepare given the features of the project.
Table 2.1-1 Summary of Affected Areas
Name of Component
|
Site Location
|
Sensitive Area
|
Classification Level
|
Date of Establishment
|
Administration
Opinions
|
Shamu river cultural and natural heritage protection
|
Shibing county, Qiandongnan prefecture
|
Wuyanghe national scenic area
|
National
(Huangping Jiuzhou Town is a National Cultural Relics Protection Unit)
|
1998
|
The Guizhou Provincial Construction Agency has already approved construction that will take place in these sensitive regions in principle with an official letter
|
Huangping Jiuzhou ancient town heritage protection
|
Jiuzhou town, Huangping county, Qiandongnan prefecture
|
Wanfenglin scenic area cultural and natural heritage protection
|
Xinyi county, Qianxinan prefecture
|
Malinghe canyon-Wanfeng lake national scenic area
|
National
|
1994
|
Zhaoxing Dong cultural heritage protection
|
Zhaoxing town, Liping county, Qiandongnan prefecture
|
Liping Dong village national scenic area
|
National
|
2004
|
Tianlong fortress cultural heritage protection
|
Tiantai mountain, Tianlong town, Pingba county, Anshun city
|
Tiantai mountain-Shila river provincial scenic area
|
Provincial
|
2003
|
Longli ancient town heritage protection
|
Longli town, Jinping county, Qiandongnan prefecture.
|
Jinping Sanbanxi-Longli ancient town provincial scenic area
|
Provincial
|
2001
|
Guanling national geological park heritage protection
|
Tan mountain, Xinpu village, Guanling county, Anshun city
|
Guanling national geological park
|
National
|
2003
|
The Guizhou Provincial Land Resource Agency has already approved construction that will take place in these sensitive regions in principle with an official letter
|
Xingyi national geological park and Dingxiao Guizhou dragon heritage protection
|
Dingxiao development district, Xingyi county, Qianxinan prefecture
|
Xingyi national geological park
|
National
|
2004
|
Sanmentang cultural heritage protection
|
Sanmentang village, Tianzhu county, Qiandongnan prefecture
|
Sanmentang ancient buildings cultural relic protection unit
|
National
|
2002
|
The Guizhou Provincial Culture Agency has already approved construction that will take place in these sensitive regions in principle with an official letter
|
Danzai Shiqiao paper manufacture cultural heritage protection
|
Shiqiao, Nangao village, Danzai county, Qiandongnan prefecture
|
Shiqiao-white-paper-workshop cultural relic protection unit
|
Provincial
|
2005
|
Figure 1.2-1 Location of the components in Guizhou
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