Based on the nature of the Project Strategic Ecosystem Management of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden it has been it has been decided that some of the Project’s components need an Environmental Social Framework Study “ESMF”. The most relevant components of the project with the ESMF are components 1 and :
- Strengthening the principles of marine managed areas through stakeholder driven MPA implementation
- Strengthening coastal affected communities to use incentive based approaches to improve fisheries management and achieve other marine resource benefits
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The other two components address Regional Environmental and Socioeconomic Monitoring Network Supporting Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) and Community Benefits, as well as project management. It is not expected that these components would result in social impacts, and therefore they are not considered in this ESMF.
Methodologies involved in the preparation of the environmental social safeguard studies were based on Social Assessment (SA) through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), in addition to desktop literature review and public consultation with stakeholders to identify project’s potentially affected persons and environmental impacts. The aim of public consultations was to discuss the proposed project with stakeholders and identify project potentially affected persons and environmental impacts, report on their perception on the project, as well as identify some of the likely livelihood alternatives. Three stakeholder consultation missions have been conducted in preparation and finalization of the ESMF studies in Sudan. These have been conducted in June, August and December 2012. The last was the most comprehensive and is detailed below.
