* 21264 OCIAL DEVELOPMENT NOTES ENVIRONMENTALLY AND SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT NETWORK Note No. 40 December 1998 Putting People's Perspectives into Environmental Action in Caspian Sea Communities This note summarizes the key findings of a * Propose a monitoring and evaluation social assessment (SA) carried out in Caspian Sea framework, including social impact communities in Azerbaijan. The SA was carried monitoring, for the management of the out within the framework of the government's environmental agency and for environmental National Environment Action Plan (NEAP). The projects. Caspian Sea SA helped identify social assessment stakeholder perspectives and has important While six stages were originally proposed to implications for the government's National meet the SA objectives, due to budgetary Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) and follow- constraints only two stages were carried out: up investment project. A grant from the Swiss Government, facilitated by the Swiss Executive 1. Develop an understanding of environmental Director's Office of the World Bank provided priorities of communities affected by the institutional and financial support to this social rising level of the Caspian Sea assessment. 2. Organize stakeholder workshops to integrate The SA process originally set out to: social development and sustainable participation concerns into the NEAP. * Systematically identify social development and participation issues affecting segments of the Participatory Process and the NEAP population suffering from environmental problems The NEAP process was carried out by a joint team of Azerbaijani professionals, international * Define a sustained participation framework to consultants, and World Bank staff, and was ensure that stakeholder needs are integrated supervised by a high-level government steering into environmental planning and management committee. During the process a multi- disciplinary team of local experts prepared * Identify appropriate institutional mechanisms environmental and natural resource sector to ensure that environmental action is studies and analyzed environmental issues inclusive and responds to the needs of the within their physical, sectoral, and institutional poor and the vulnerable contexts. Experts from the Committee of This note was prepared by Ayse Kudat and Bulent Ozbilgin of the World Bank, and Ahmed Musayev of the Sorgu Sociological Research Center in Baku, Azerbaijan. For more information on the social assessment, contact Ayse Kudat, The World Bank, 1818 H St., NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA, Fax: 202-522-2510, E-mail: akudat@worldbank.org. To view other Social Development Notes on social assessment, please visit the World Bank's website at: http:// www.worldbank.org, and click on the "Social Assessment" section in "Development Topics." Thie views expressed in this note are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policies of tle World Bank. Ecology, other government and The participatory approach helped incorporate nongovernmental organizations, the Academy of citizens' needs and priorities into the national Sciences, and representatives of local planning process and promoted greater administrations, industries, ministries, media, ownership of NEAP objectives and follow-up universities, and regional authorities were action. The process also increased the visibility closely involved throughout the development of of environmental institutions within the the NEAP and, in particular, during the government, and in the country as a whole. In identification and discussion of national addition environmental awareness was environmental priorities and criteria for ranking enhanced and the capacity of institutions dealing those priorities. with environmental issues was strengthened. Within the NEAP about 50 different actions During NEAP preparation media coverage of were recommended to be undertaken to address environmental issues increased and civil society existing environmental damage and prevent new organizations, including national associations of problems in the Caspian communities. Carrying women, took greater interest in environmental out all of these actions would have been beyond protection. However, ensuring sustained the financial means of the government; thus, participation of stakeholders in environmental setting priorities assumed great importance. The issues will be an ongoing challenge, given the SA assisted the NEAP team in using three main pressing economic and political problems facing criteria to prioritize these actions: (a) the extent the Republic. of adverse social and human damage, (b) danger of loss of irreplaceable natural resources, and (c) Project Implications adverse employment conditions, loss of income, and other economic hardships suffered by To ensure that implementation of the most impacted populations. pressing actions would not be delayed until the NEAP was finalized, an Urgent Environmental Using these criteria, the SA pointed to the Investment Project was initiated in 1997, following priority actions: financed by the World Bank and other donors. This project represented a first step toward * Relocation of households in the affected NEAP implementation in Azerbaijan, addressing regions of Neftchala, Lenkoran, and Astara the following components: (a) Sumgayit City mercury cleanup, (b) sturgeon hatchery * Prevention of secondary polluson of the sea development, (c) oil pollution mitigation, and from oil-related activities (d) institutional strengthening. The SA's * Restoration of some sea-based industries and contribution was limited to work on the re-creation of jobs lost as a result of damage sturgeon hatchery, but an earlier SA on the Baku to these industries Water Supply and Sanitation Project had, in 1994, called attention to oil pollution problems. * Restoration, relocation, or protection of infrastructure of national importance, such as The sturgeon hatchery component included in critical land-based transportation links. the Urgent Environment Investment Project was designed to help address the decline in sturgeon Box 1. Changes in the Caspian Sea Since 1996 stock and provide relatively high-income jobs for a number of people in one of the most Since the onset of the NEAP in 1996, the water economically depressed regions of the country. level in the Caspian Sea has declined slightly. The service and manufacturing industries This has significantly altered the relative order of supporting fishing and caviar production would priorities in the NEAP, as protection measures also be strengthened. Thus, in the long tcrm, the became less urgent and time was gained to component would improve the sustainability of develop a coastal zone protection plan before sturgeon fishing and caviar production, thus new areas are flooded. Nonetheless, damages helping to preserve sturgeon's historic already incurred are pervasive, with substantial importance to Azerbaijan's culture and economy. social, environmental, and economic costs. Additional benefits included increasing the Moreover, damage is ongoing in some areas commercial value of sturgeon, protecting because of wave action and significantly higher sturgeon from extinction, and preserving the groundwater levels. value of sturgeon as a source of medicine. 2 Social Development Concerns most unemployment is perceived to be related to the sea-level rise because it was The key social development concern was for responsible for destroying the sturgeon vulnerable populations, including those hatcheries and fishing in that region. displaced by armed conflict who had returned- Consequently, almost 90 percent of the people or intended to return-to their original homes, in this region view the rising level of the and those displaced or otherwise impacted by Caspian Sea as a priority concern. In the environmental disaster caused by the rising Lenkoran and Astara, in contrast, where only level of the Caspian Sea. The concerns of the a few households suffered economic harm, internally displaced populations were addressed rising sea levels are not perceived as a through a comprehensive process of SA, hazard. Unlike many of the residents of initiated in 1994 and completed in 1998 Neftchala, the people of these regions have (onathan Brown, "Listening to People in alternative means of survival, such as Azerbaijan, Post-Conflict Reconstruction: A subsistence farming. User's Perspective," Washington DC: World Bank, 1998) and through the Azerbaijan Pilot * Residents of coastal settlements are experiencing Reconstruction Project, financed by the World severe problemsfrom exposure to poor sanitary and Bank and other donors. The concerns of people health conditions as a result of rising sea levels. affected by the Caspian Sea disaster were Most residents indicate that their health has incorporated in the NEAP and in the follow-up deteriorated since sea levels began to rise; 71 Urgent Environment Investment Project. While percent of Neftchala residents think that their steps were taken to strengthen national and health was better before the rise in sea levels, regional institutions overseeing relevant and 36 percent indicate that their current environmental actions, social impact monitoring health situation is poor; the situation is was not incorporated in the Project's monitoring similar in other regions. In all of these regions and evaluation component. cases of asthma, tuberculosis, and rheumatism have been reported. Lenkoran and Astara, in In early 1996 a team of local social scientists particular, have experienced an increase in and Bank social assessment specialists visited the snakes and bugs around houses due to a Caspian Sea communities and carried out a rapid proliferation of swampy areas formed by assessment consisting of ten focus-group receding sea water. meetings and a large number of semistructured individual interviews. The team also visited * The sea-level rise has serious, indirect impacts on local government representatives and central the level and quality of education available in these government institutions. Subsequently, a team of three regions, mainly because of the damage to local social scientists and members of the local transportation and communication lines. Association of Women in Development was Although the majority of educational facilities trained to carry out surveys and focus-group were not directly affected by rising sea levels, meetings in affected areas. The findings were many roads are blocked and communication presented to concerned government agencies among settlements is, at best, irregular. and shared with the NEAP team. The findings Consequently, it has become extremely were also presented at the national stakeholder difficult to find teachers willing to go to these seminar organized to establish environmental action priorities for Azerbaijan. Box 2. A Dedication to Prof. Ahmed Musayev Main Findings The social assessment described in this note is dedicated to Professor Ahmed Musayev, The main findings of the SA were: who died at an early age in December 1997. Professor Musayev was director of the Sorgu Income and employment are the most important Sociological Research Center of the Institute for concerns for local people living in the coastal Social Management and Political Sciences at settlements of Neftchala, Lenkoran, and Astara. the University of Baku, and founder of the The rising sea level is perceived as a priority only Azerbaijan Social Science Network. His when it is recognized as a main cause of contributions to many social assessments of unemployment. In Neftchala, for example, Bank projects have been invaluable. 3 areas. The declining quality of education example: further salinization of the land, lack further erodes the base on which new local of transportation, lack of basic infrastructure, development initiatives can be started. Until and lack of opportunities for alternative roads are improved and local educational employment). institutions start functioning, the future could imply further economic decline in the coastal * Most people trust the central government and think settlements. that their problems can only be solved through government intervention. Favoritism, together * Basic infrastructure has deteriorated, due mainly to with adverse conditions caused by both rising the effects of rising sea levels, but also to poor sea levels and overall economic conditions, construction. Electricity is the only source of have caused people to lose trust in local energy for most people, but supply is administrations. They would prefer to give unreliable. Good quality drinking water is local governments a limited role in further usually not available. In each of the three impact mitigation. They expect the central regions surveyed, moreover, rising ground government to take the initiative with regard waters have had a significant effect on the to mitigation measures, in collaboration with water supply. In most cases, clean water is international organizations experienced in not available. People usually have to fetch such activities. water from a distance, and in most cases, they must pay for it. Most households that * Because the adverse impact of the rising sea levels cannot afford to pay must use poor quality varies widelyfrom region to region, a case-by-case water. assessment of affected communities is necessary to achieve maximum protection. In some * Households in the city of Baku are not directly settlements, for example, almost half of the affected by rising sea levels. Very few houses in villages were destroyed by the sea, while in the suburbs of Baku were affected by the rise others, only a small number of households in sea level. Most concerns stem from the was directly affected. In designing mitigation economic and environmental effects of the strategies, therefore, it is important to assess sea-level rise, such as blockage of sewerage the extent of damage in each settlement. lines and deterioration of productive enterprises. * There is a clear needfor timely and accurate information regarding the cyclical nature of the rise * For most households in the affected communities, in sea levels, expected sea-level changes, andfuture migration to other regions is not viewed as a mitigation measures. Although people are desirable option. But a large percentage of the somewhat aware of the cyclical nature of sea- directly affected population would be willing to level rises, some believe that the sea has move to other areas of the same village. Relocation stopped rising and is now regressing. This efforts thus far have been limited in scope perception, coupled with the desire to stay in and usually do not meet the real needs of their birthplaces-which in some cases are affected people. People are unwilling to move located on valuable parcels of seaside land- for a variety of reasons, including a cause people to stay in heavily affected areas perception that those relocated are not faring and undertake limited measures to survive well. Relocation would be acceptable if until the sea returns to its former level. livelihoods in the new locations were Recognizing the uncertainties surrounding the sustainable. Relocation policies should take rise in sea levels, residents in all three regions into consideration the issue of long-term expressed a need for forecasting the sea-level sustainability with respect to further rise through scientific methods, requiring the (indirect) impacts of sea-level rise (for involvement of international organizations. 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