Minutes of EIA/SEA Thematic Working Group meeting held in March 2011

[Dgr...@worldbank.org]

Please find attached the minutes of the TWG Meeting on EIA/SEA held in March. Please note that the presentations mentioned below are available on the group site at http://sites.google.com/site/vietnameia. If there are other interesting documents to share on EIA/SEA, please send to me for posting.



Thematic Working Group on Strategic Environmental Assessment and Environmental Impact Assessment

Minutes of Meeting Held on March 17, 2011

Participants: MONRE EIA Department (Thanh Dung, Nam Anh Dung, Le Hoai Nam), MOIT Appraisal Department; JICA (Trang), AusAID (Uyen), EU Delegation (Thanh), WB (Jennifer Sara – SD Manager, Douglas J. Graham, Ly, Nguyen, Giang), ADB (Phuc, Lauren Sorkin).

Introductory remarks were made by Jennifer Sara (World Bank) and by Mr. Dung (MONRE-DEA Director).

Introduction to the Group (D. Graham)

· TWG is under Aid Effectiveness Forum (AEF, co-chaired by MPI and Finland), effective use of ODA in Viet Nam
· 1 of 10 WGs is on SEA/EIA – it became part of AEF only 9 months ago, prior to AEF’s creation, it was a working group chaired by ADB under a similar mandate
· Forum for coordinating assistance on EIA
· Forum for exchange between government ministries, donors, NGOs
· Group work plan (see also more complete document archived on Google sites page) is developing to include:
o More regular meetings (3 times per year)
o Information sharing – EIA Google Group has been created as well as a website for document storage (http://sites.google.com/site/vietnameia/)
o Communications of the TWG will only be distributed to members of Google Group (http://groups.google.com/group/vietnameia/). Anyone can join, read messages posted to group, or send messages to group. For those who are not gmail.com members, you can be added as group member by writing to Vietn...@gmail.com
o Enhanced support to Government of Vietnam
o Building capacity and training

MONRE Presentations

· SEA (see PowerPoint presentation with more details archived on Google site page)
o Development of SEA legislation – introduced into Law on Environmental Protection (2005) including, ex ante principle, Decree 80/2006, Circular 005/2008
o Budget for SEA – Decision of Minister MPI 2-3% of plan making ($1000-$1500 budget, too small) updating now
o New Decree on SEA and EIA is being prepared -- two types of SEA, full and simple for sectors with large impact and little impact, respectively. Decree includes a list of sectors subject to the full SEA and requirements of full and simple SEA.
o Joint MONRE MOF circular to be prepared concerning finance, scale of SEA based on sector/needs
o SEA Guidelines indicate 8 steps: scoping, determining issues and objectives, identification of key stakeholders, analysis of environmental trends (SEA implies heavy burden for research)
o SEA projects have been supported by Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, WB, ADB, UNDP
o SEA training carried out and pilot approaches to SEA in Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Construction, MPI and MARD
o Challenges include poor quality, lack of awareness, lack of coordination ex post approach
o Need to move from all technical to include more coordination and participation, need to promote use of SEA outcomes in decision making
o Lack of resources for continued capacity building on SEA
o Next steps: improve SEA legislation in new Law on Environmental Protection 2011-2013 including: types of EIA, responsibilities, enforcement, stakeholder involvement, categories of policies programs and plans needing SEA
o Within NTP RCC – integrate climate change into sector plans through the SP-RCC
o Promote SEA information sharing
o Promote transboundary SEA - SEA protocol convention to the Espoo Convention on Transboundary SEA;
o Five year road map on SEA capacity to be developed by MONRE by June 2011

· EIA
o Updated draft Decree has been prepared and has received government comments
o MONRE Minister has the revised draft which is waiting for PM’s office for signature
o Circular on SEA, EIA and environmental protection commitment (EPC) is being prepared
o Editing group working on SEA, EIA and environmental protection planning (EPP)
o Full SEA required for all five year strategies, plans, projects
o EIA
§ Details that project owners must be responsible to formulate EIA for their investment or consultancy hired by project owner
§ Details who must be contacted in the case of projects, those directly affected and People’s Committee in the area (no stakeholder consultation in Ocean/Coastal where no PC exists nor in areas zoned for development)
§ EIA report approved before project commences operations
o EPC simple written EPC, concretized by project owner
o EPP special scope and elaboration
§ Circular preparation ongoing
o Future priorities
§ Capacity building for local government, line ministries, consultancy and training
§ EIA technical guidelines for sectors – e.g., nuclear power
§ EIA examples and technical guidelines for TbEIA – trans boundary
§ Continue decentralization for local government and line ministries to review and approve EIA report
§ Improve the quality of EIA report and quality of review

Q & A

· Lauren (ADB) – what is the current status of the circular?
· MONRE: hope PM will sign Decree at the end of this month. MONRE has prepared the draft circular and had consultations on zero draft and comments have been incorporated. Next draft will be finished within the week. It will be posted on the MONRE website and circulated to the line ministries and DoNREs for comments. Would like to submit to the government within a few months.
· Phuc (ADB) – public consultations are a big gap between GOV and international standards. Consultations should focus on the affected people. How could donors better support filling this gap?

· Ly (World Bank) – WB requires information from public consultations with participation of affected people to be documented as part of safeguard document. During review we pick up issues raised by the community to see if they are addressed adequately by the EMP.

· Trang (JICA) – agree with issue of consultation. Consultations need to go beyond the PCs. Affected peoples may not have access to information given to the PC.

· Mr. Dung – Its very difficult to get information to affected peoples. Sometimes if the project spans various districts it has the same challenges as a transboundary issue.

· Phuc (ADB) – does the new Decree supersede the former Decrees? What is required by the SEA? MONRE says yes, it will.

Lauren and Phuc (ADB): Presentation of Equivalence of Assessment of VIE and ADB Safeguards

See full Power Point presentation archived on Google site page

Round-up of Donor Activities

World Bank:

· SEA strengthening (Decree revision) is required under the PIR DPL (Public Investment Reform budget support operation)
· Under PIR two sector SEAs carried out and four regional SEAs
o WB to support forestry SEA for 3 provincial masterplan, which provide initial input for future national Forestry Sector Master Plan.
o Power Sector Plan (PMP 7) – MOIT involved and ADB
· Recent major works completed with support from WB: EIA/EMP for Trung Son hydropower Project, Danang – Quang Ngai Expressway, Hai Phong Urban Transport Development Project. All safeguards projects disclosed on WB website
· WB training on safeguards will be carried out Apr. 27-28 for World Bank task teams, PMUs, and consultants

EU:

· Requests from EU countries to develop screening for projects if needed; however most are on capacity building
o Supporting trade policy and investment
o Health project

AusAID:

· Requirement of Gov Australia
· Supporting NTP II for Water Sector, using government system
· Rural Sanitation with GIZ in Kien Giang, using government system
· Cao Lanh bridge – used ADB project

JICA:

· Use government policy and systems
· Technical assistance through PRSC support SEA technical guidelines for socio-economic master plan
· There is a possibility that JICA can support the development of guidelines for nuclear power

ADB :

· Mentioned Country Safeguard System (CSS) assistance planned and reiterated request for feedback on plans
· Power Development Master Plan (PDP) 7 SEA carried out by ADB’s Greater Mekong Subregion Environmental Operations Center (GMS-EOC – www.gms-eoc.org) with plans to continue work on SEA in phase II of their program (beginning in 2012), mentioned EOC is well positioned to help with trans boundary issues
· Mentioned benefit sharing TA to help harmonize practices for compensation of affected peoples with Decree 99 (signed in January 2011) on Payment for Forest Ecosystem Services (PFES)
· Mentioned climate change planning work ongoing in Mekong and Red River Deltas

MOIT:

· Feels there are challenges in evaluating projects
· Face difficulties running SEA because of lack of human resources and consultants working on this area – unable to run satisfactory training of trainers on SEA
· Need SEA circular

MONRE:

· MPI is preparing guidelines on SEA technical guidelines – MONRE agreed to provide a copy to the group in English.
· Needs of MONRE are great, biggest need is carrying out a big training program to build capacity of the EIA and SEA system at a national scale
o Training plan and support with costs
o Sectoral guidelines for priority sectors – based on partner portfolio size e.g. ADB for transport and energy
o Continue the preparation of circular on EIA/SEA and circular on the EPP – nearly complete but, needs some additional assistance
o Long- term need to assess and prepare new law
o Line ministry capacity development

_________________________

Douglas J. Graham
Environment Country Sector Coordinator
Sustainable Development, Hanoi, Vietnam (EASVS)
East Asia and Pacific Region
World Bank

[pqpham.c...@adb.org]

Dear Doulags et al,

We are pleased to inform you that ADB has approved a grant for the subproject of Capacity Development for the Implementation of the New Environment Decree. This subproject is under ADB's funding package TA 7566: Strengthening and Use of Country Safeguard Systems. The subproject will focus on supporting Government for the development of General Circular which will be replaced for existing Circular 05 and strengthening the implementation of the related Decree and the Circular at National and Provincial levels. Next event of this subproject implementation is a Consultation Workshop for the draft of the General Circular will be taken in Nha Trang from 26- 28 of May. We would like very much to invite all members of TWG on EIA/SEA attending this workshop and contribute for the draft of the Circular.

Mr. Dung, may I ask you to arrange the invitations for TWG members attending this workshop.

Best regards
Phuc