An environmental assessment of SAPARD rural development plans

1
An environmental assessment of SAPARD rural
development plans
Presentation given during the CONFERENCE on the
use of EU pre-accession funds and their
environmental and social implications Billions
for Sustainability? Lessons learned from the use
of pre-accession funds (25-26 November 2002)

• Zoltán Waliczky

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Threats to IBAs in Central Eastern Europe
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Priority birds in farmland habitats in the CEECs

• Red-breasted Goose (100)
• Corncrake (97)
• White Stork (80)
• Red-backed Shrike (63)
• Lesser Grey Shrike (92)
• Saker (97)
• Red-footed Falcon (100)

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SAPARD Process timetable

• 1999-2000 Development of RDPs
• Sep 2000 BirdLife report launched
• Sep Nov 2000 Approval of RDPs by the EU
• 2001 Signing of multi-annual financing
  agreements
• 2001-02 Setting up paying agency, accreditation
  of first measures
• 2002-02 first and second Commission reports

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Main areas of BirdLife review

• Quality of prior appraisals
• Budget allocation between measures
• Integration of environmental considerations
• Analysis of measures chosen by each country
• Compatibility of RDPs with EU and national
  legislation
• Contribution of environmental authorities and
  NGOs
• Procedures for monitoring and analysis

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Assessment of the final SAPARD Rural Development
Plans

• Environment section included in all, quality
  variable
• SWOT analyses include environment and natural
  resources
• Prior Appraisals done, usually only summary
  presented (except Romania)
• Budget most funding (60-70) goes into
  increasing competitiveness
• Overall objectives usually mention environment
  protection and/or sustainable development as
  second axis
• Measure objectives usually have reference to
  environment protection, although in a broad sense
  only

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Assessment of the final SAPARD Rural Development
Plans (cont.)

• Generic and specific eligibility criteria usually
  include reference to environment/EIAs
• Indicators very rarely refer to the environment
  and biodiversity
• Training usually includes environment
• Technical assistance includes reference in
  environmental studies in some
• Monitoring Committees include NGOs in five RDPs
• Polder improvement, Water management and Forestry
  are the biggest potential conflict area

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Agri-environment measures proposed in SAPARD RDPs

• Nine RDPs include A-E measures (except Slovenia)
• Proportion of SAPARD funds 1-4.5
• Measures include organic farming, traditional
  breeds, maintain landscape, maintain
  biodiversity, arable, grassland, orchard and
  wetland schemes
• All include biodiversity among their objectives
  and indicators
• 2-15 pilot projects on 30,000 400,000 ha

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Role of environment NGOs in implementing SAPARD

• Sitting in Monitoring Committees
• Collecting biodiversity baseline data across
  farmland
• Monitoring key bio-indicators on selected
  farmland sites
• Consultation in mid-term review in 2003
• Public awareness raising
• Training on wildlife-friendly farming
• Expertise in EIA studies
• Identification of pilot areas for A-E schemes

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Second annual report from the Commission (July
2002)

• Key issues
• Seven countries secured conferral of management
  decisions (now all)
• Measures accredited did not include
  agri-environment (now Czech complete)
• 42 million Euro payments
• Low number of approved projects (270 in two
  countries)
• Preferred measures for applications vary by
  country (investment, marketing/processing,
  diversification, land improvement, etc.)

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Second annual report from the Commission (July
2002) (cont.)

• Key issues
• Monitoring Committees set up in all countries
• Four Commission seminars organised in 2001
• Guidance paper on agri-environment issued by
  Commission

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What BirdLife Partners think

• Frustration and mistrust due to delays in
  implementation
• Few people apply because of strict administrative
  requirements
• Access to documents/issued in Monitoring
  Committees to NGOs is variable, usually weak
• Agri-env. measure approved only in CZ
• National agri-env. programmes in three countries
  (EE, HU, SI)
• PL thinks of delaying agri-env. easure

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The future new RDPs

• Improved funding for rural development
• Package includes funding for agri-environment,
  environmental LFAs, semi-subsistence farms
• Integrating the environment needs further
  strengthening (ie. Indicators)
• More attention to environmentally damaging
  projects (forestry, irrigation)
• Strengthening the role of env. NGOs