REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL RFP Services Ref: JAK/QUO/14/ECO/039

Transcription

1 REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL RFP Services Ref: JAK/QUO/14/ECO/039 Legal Status Analysis of the Road Development Planned in the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra (Please quote this UNESCO reference in all correspondence) Date: 22 February 2016 Dear Sir/Madam, You are invited to submit an offer for carrying out a Legal Status Analysis of the Road Development Planned in the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, in accordance with the attached Terms of Reference (TOR). Your offer, comprising of technical proposal and financial proposal, should reach UNESCO Office, Jakarta, no later than 14 March 2016, to the following address: UNESCO Office, Jakarta Jalan Galuh (II) No. 5, Jakarta 12110, Indonesia SEALED PROPOSAL - DO NOT OPEN Or by to: jakarta@unesco.org Please quote in the subject/reference: Ref: JAK/QUO/14/ECO/039 - Legal Status Analysis of the Road Development Planned in the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra Closing Date and Time: 14 March 2016 This letter is not to be construed in any way as an offer to contract with your firm/institution. Your proposal could, however, form the basis for a contract between your company and UNESCO. On behalf of UNESCO Office, Jakarta: Shahbaz Khan Director

2 TERM OF REFERENCE Legal Status Analysis of the Road Development Plans in the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra 1. Introduction The Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra (TRHS) was designated as a Natural World Heritage site in 2004, in accordance to the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972), as a recognition of its unique natural beauty, significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of its ecosystems and the importance of its natural habitats for in situ conservation of threatened species, for present and future generations of all humanity. The Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, covering 2,500,000 ha across 7 provinces from northern to southern Sumatra, consists of 3 major national parks: Gunung Leuser, Kerinci Sablat and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Parks. From coastal to subalpine forest, the TRHS comprises all major ecosystems present in the island of Sumatra. The national parks, located along Bukit Barisan Mountain Range, harbor exceptionally high and unique biodiversity; and the mosaic of surrounding forests, including a variety of different utilization purposes, creates a buffer for the World Heritage site that double the total area of the natural forest. TRHS is also the important habitat for many endemic and the last habitat for critically endangered species, such as Sumatran orangutan, Sumatran tiger, Sumatran elephant and Sumatran rhino. Under the World Heritage Committee s (WHC) Decision 35 COM 7B.16, the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra was inscribed on the list of World Heritage in Danger in 2011, due to the long standing threats to the integrity of this site, which represent both a potential and ascertained danger to its Outstanding Universal Value in line with paragraph 180 of the operational Guidelines of the World Heritage Convention. The main threats to the integrity of the TRHS identified by the WHC and IUCN are road construction, agricultural encroachment, illegal logging, poaching, and institutional and governance weaknesses; which have been repeatedly affecting the area. As a major continuous threat is the road development plans inside the area. There is a growing awareness that road development in the conservation area has major environmental impacts, such as physical damage to the ecosystems, resettlement opportunity for large amounts of people, key-species habitat fragmentation and degradation, or demographic change in animal and human populations. In the case of TRHS, as found by the three monitoring missions carried

3 out by IUCN and World Heritage Center starting in 2006, road construction inside the property will affect the integrity of the tropical rainforest ecosystem and contribute to fragment the landscape and degrade ecosystem services. Roads crossing the property will facilitate and increase the access of encroachers and increase the frequency of illegal damaging activities. Such road construction will also go against the conclusions of the Tiger Summit held in 2010 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Global Tiger Recovery Program published in 2012 as the implementation mechanism of the St. Petersburg Declaration, considers TRHS as a world priority area for tiger survival. The joint survey by WWF and Bukit Barisan Selatan NP found that the increasing status of the Sanggi - Bengkunat road affected the presence of Sumatran rhinos as the animals move further inside the forest or away from the highway. On the other hand, the traces of other big mammal species such as tigers, elephants, and others are still found. In Gunung Leuser National Park, park s authority monitoring and investigation on October 2012 and fly over trip on November 2012, observed a macadam road built in 1998 which connect Tanah Karo - Langkat splitting up the park along ± 6 km. The ground check showed that the Local Government of Karo Regency has upgraded the road quality by using asphalt up to the border between Karo district and Langkat district (± 50 meters across GLNP border). Field staff were instructed to conduct regular patrols to monitor and deliver a routine report on the development of the road. To overcome this threat and increase conservation efforts of the site, Indonesia was requested by the WHC to finalize the Desired State of Conservation (DSOCR) for the removal of TRHS from the list of World Heritage in Danger in consultation with the WHC and IUCN, to draft the corrective measures and to complete an Emergency Action Plan. Under the Decision 38 COM 7A.28, WHC expresses their concern about the pressure to downgrade the protection status of Kerinci Seblat to a Protected Forest, which would not only expose the property to the risk of road construction and the associated potential impacts of poaching and encroachment, among others, but would also remove the legal prohibition on mining and geothermal energy development in the component of the property. In order to implement the corrective measures, under WHC s Decision 35 COM 7B.16, Indonesia has been requested to develop an Emergency Action Plan and Environmental Impact Assessment that would enable the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger. The requested strategy includes carrying out a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)* of the cumulative effects of all road development plans in Bukit Barisan Mountain Range area, where TRHS in located. In addition, under the Decision 38 Com 7A.28, Indonesia is also requested to provide information to the WHC of any plans to develop geothermal energy in areas adjacent to the property.

4 *SEA is a system or a tool for incorporating environmental considerations along with social and economic considerations into policies, plans, programmes and strategies. The aim is to ensure that environmental considerations inform and are integrated into strategic and fundamental decision-making framework in support of sound and sustainable development. SEA has the advantage of assessing impacts at a landscape and regional scale before individual projects are decided upon. It can also help to identify economically viable alternatives to avoid negative impacts on natural sites. The map below (Figure 1.) illustrates the proposed four road routes radiating out from Kerinci District (Jambi Province), representing a total length of approximately 70km. Based on the map, three of the proposed roads would be crossing the core zone of the Kerinci Seblat National Park (KSNP). The roads are entirely key species locations for Rusa Sambar (Cervus unicolor), Sumatran elephant and tiger. The proposed development projects involve the construction of disaster-evacuation roads which would penetrate into the core zone of the KSNP and dramatically increase human access to these isolated areas by providing a road link between provincial population centers. Increasing road access to isolated areas such as KSNP will increase forest loss and degradation through illegal logging and smallholder encroachment, and subsequent human-wildlife conflict. Three of four roads that shown in figure 1 are proposed as candidates for evacuation routes to enable the people from the Kerinci Valley to escape from impacts of natural disaster especially volcanic eruption of Mount Kerinci, floods and earthquakes. Marzuki Ali, speaker of the People s Representative Council of Republic of Indonesia [ (17) February 2014] said that the eruption of the Mount Kerinci in Jambi would threaten the people who living in Kerinci District and around since there is no route to evacuate the residents. The need for evacuation route is justified by the announcement from the Coordinating Minister for Peoples Welfare (Menteri Koordinator Kesejahteraan Rakyat - Menkokesra) that regions throughout Indonesia must have disaster response plans, including identified evacuation routes. Menkokesra has not specified that disaster evacuation routes need to be constructed as new routes, but in this case it seems that the evacuation argument is being used to help reignite old road plans that have long been proposed for economic and political reasons. The Provincial Government of Jambi, Kerinci District, and Kerinci community have proposed the plan to the Central Government and the Parliament to build the evacuation roads in Kerinci Seblat NP. But this request has not responded.

5 Figure 1: Map of the Proposed New Roads Construction Project in KSNP

6 Thus, the WHC urged to immediately halt all road construction plans within KSNP, and to take the necessary steps to ensure that no road shall be built through the parks comprising the property, as well as to close all existing illegal roads, and develop appropriate regulations and infrastructure on existing legal public roads to reduce the negative impacts of traffic on wildlife and to ensure ecological connectivity, as stated under WHC s Decision 34 COM 7B.14. Another important thing that based on WHC s Decision 38 Com 7A.28, WHC expresses their concern about the pressure to downgrade the protection status of Kerinci Seblat to a Protected Forest, which would not only expose the property to the risk of road construction and the associated potential impacts of poaching and encroachment, among others, but would also remove the legal prohibition on mining and geothermal energy development in the component of the property. 2. Objectives a. To identify the legal status of protected areas in Indonesia, including national reserves, national parks, geo-parks, world heritage sites and TRH. b. To analyze the national and international legal status of the 3 national parks: Gunung Leuser, Kerinci Sablat and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park within the TRHS. c. To understand why despite laws and regulations, there are still threats such as road development, agricultural encroachment, logging (legal and illegal) and forest degradation into the TRHS. d. To analyze the institutional and governance weaknesses for the sustainable management of the three national parks of the TRHS, and to propose solutions for improvement. e. To identify the existing illegal poaching, encroachment, mining concessions and the geothermal energy development in TRHS and propose legal solutions for stopping these activities. f. To identify the existing and proposed new roads development inside three national parks of the TRHS. g. To identify the legal aspect of proposed evacuation routes to enable the population of the Kerinci Valley to escape the impacts of natural disaster. h. To analyze the legal aspect (local, provincial, national) of the new roads development planned in term of Protected Areas Regulations, including zoning regulation in the national parks, the provincial and district development plans, and the World Heritage Convention Guidelines. i. To provide recommendation of alternative ways of transportation such as improving and maintain the existing legal road infrastructure. It should be scientifically proven that it will not provide negative impact on the Outstanding Universal Value of the property.

7 3. Expected Outputs The expected outputs of this activity are: a. A comprehensive assessment of the legal status of protected areas in Indonesia. b. A comprehensive study on the legal status of the three national parks of the TRHS. c. A comprehensive legal aspect description of the existing roads in TRHS. d. A comprehensive analysis of the legal aspect of the new road development plans in TRHS in terms of Protected Areas regulation, including zoning regulation in the national parks, the provincial and district development plans, and the World Heritage Convention Guidelines. e. A list of recommendations of the alternative transportation options, including infrastructure improvement for the existing road and evacuation routes, without breaking the law and without worsening the already severe impacts on the ecosystem of TRHS. f. All document and data collected within the framework of this study (hard and soft copies) should be considered as UNESCO properties and must be delivered to UNESCO at the end of the contract or upon request at any stage of the study. 4. Activities In close consultation and coordination with UNESCO, as well as the World Heritage Task Force the Contractor will be responsible for carrying out a series of tasks including: a. Submit and present to UNESCO a workplan for carrying out the Legal Status Analysis of the Protected Areas in Indonesia. b. Submit and present to UNESCO a report on the legal status of the three national parks of the TRHS (which will include the legal analysis of each park, the challenges and solutions for improvement). c. Submit and present to UNESCO the analysis on the threats to the integrity of the TRHS (illegal poaching, encroachment, mining concessions and the geothermal energy development permits, whether overlaping with the NPs demarcation or not) and proposed mitigation measures. d. Hold consultation meetings with the National Park authorities, Province Government, related District Government, Ministry of Forestry, relevant NGOs, Ministry of Public Works, Coordinating Minister for People s Welfare, The Agency of Meteorogical, Climatology and Geophysic (BMKG), The Geological Agency (Badan Geologi Indonesia) and relevant stakeholders in context for data collection and identification. e. Carry out the data collection on existing and proposed roads in the three national parks including data from digital format and GIS-layers.

8 f. Conduct analysis of legal aspects for the new routes development planned in terms of Protected Areas regulation including regulation of the national parks and World Heritage Convention, and submit and present it to UNESCO. g. Provide a list of recommendations for the alternative transportation options including existing infrastructure improvement and ways of evacuation in case of natural disaster which will not affect the Value of TRHS. h. Consult on a regular basis UNESCO Office, Jakarta to make sure the work undertaken is in line with the expected outcomes, and actively participating to all consultation meetings with other partners on the same project i. Present the findings during the final workshop organized by UNESCO 5. Inputs UNESCO will provide necessary and available data in supporting comprehensible study by the contractor. UNESCO will assist in liaising with the National Parks, the Ministry of Forestry, the World Heritage Task Force TRHS and other relevant partners to carry out the activities. UNESCO will also provide technical assistance in regards to GIS data and publication design. The detailed work plans need to be coordinated with UNESCO. 6. Timing The activities proposed supposed to take no longer than 4 months period, including report submission 7. Reporting The contractor is required to submit and/or conduct the following report and/or presentations: No. Deliverable Deadline 1 Detailed workplan of the activities 1 week after signing the contract 3 (1) Implementation/progress report in Bahasa Indonesia and English, with: - executive summary - review and analysis of legal status analysis of the road development planned in the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra (TRHS) - including reports of meeting with stakeholders 2 months after signing the contract

9 *Report should be presented and consulted to UNESCO and the World Heritage Task Force TRHS (2) Interim financial report in Bahasa Indonesia and English 3 (1) Final report on the review and analysis of the legal status of the road development planned in TRHS in Bahasa Indonesia and English, including feedback form UNESCO and World Heritage Task force (2) Digital documentation of activities carried out within this project (3) Certified financial statement in Bahasa Indonesia and English 4 months after signing the contract 8. Budget/basis fees The budget proposal should include: i. Costs associated with the identification, review, and analysis of the legal status for TRHS to achieve objectives descriptions described in sections 2, 3 and 4. ii. Costs associated with the operational and logistic costs (e.g. communication, stationeries, reproduction of materials, etc.) iii. Honorarium for the project team. 9. Eligibility/qualification/experience requirements The main requirements for the applicants are: i. A legal entity in Indonesia, valid MoU(s) with relevant institutions of the Government of Indonesia, particularly, Task Force of World Heritage (Pokja Warisan Dunia) in Indonesia is desirable. ii. A registered academic/research/consultancy institution specializing in environmental law. iii. Able to provide a project coordinator that has sent at least 6 years-experience working in the field of environmental law, policy, and involved in analysis of the legal status for illegal roads inside protected areas in Indonesia. iv. Able to provide project assistant(s) that have 3 years research experienced in analysis of legal status for illegal roads in the conservation area in Indonesia. Working experience in TRHS will be an advantage.