ESMF for the project "Strengthening the National Protected Area System of Honduras"

Honduras receives funding to support the country’s National Protected Area System through the CBD LifeWeb Initiative from KfW. With this support, the management effectiveness of 17 coastal and marine protected areas (PAs) is to be improved. AAE is preparing the Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) to ensure that all work happening under this project will be in line with KfW’s Sustainability Guideline and the World Bank Environmental and Social Standards.

Main tasks:

• Stakeholder analysis, field visits and stakeholder consultation;
• Environmental and social due diligence for all 17 PAs;
• An analysis of existing Policies, Laws and Regulations (PLR) in the context of applicable safeguards requirements;
• Development of the ESMF and annexes (see main outputs), with gender considerations mainstreamed throughout;
• Updating of the Operative Manual for the project based on findings. 

Main outputs:

• Action Plans for all 17 PAs;
• An ESMF that includes all necessary content and annexes, such as
  • Stakeholder Engagement Framework;
  • Project-specific Grievance Redress Mechanism;
  • Indigenous Peoples Planning Framework;
  • Process Framework dealing with access restrictions;
• Updated Operative Manual for the overall project.

The international experts on the team provide knowledge of safeguards and ESMF development in general, Indigenous Peoples and Honduras’ PLRs, which gets complemented with profound knowledge of the national team on the PAs included in the project, their socio-economic context, history and challenges.