Environmental Information System - EIS
Awareness Raising - AWARE
Strategic Action Program - SAP
Water Survey - SURVEY
Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis

A regional TDA can only be formulated with the committed participation of national bodies. In this TDA, national committees (SAP planning units) were formed through the initiative of the national GEF focal points in each of the five countries. Headed by a coordinator, each national committee was tasked to prepare a national report that would substantively provide a country-based analysis of international waters and biodiversity related problems and concerns. At the Inception Workshop in Beijing (22-23 August 2000) the Lead Agent and Partner Institutions for the TDA component were nominated. Working in close cooperation with the Project Coordination Unit and international consultants the Lead Agent (Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences) developed the outline of the national reports. This outline was discussed and accepted by representatives from all member countries at the TOP Workshop (27 November - 1 December 2000). Besides eight sector reports were identified and distributed among participants of the project:

The first draft national reports were presented at the meeting in Vladivostok (4-5 April 2001). During this meeting the national/regional priorities were declared by every country. The Lead Agent and Project Coordination Unit provided their comments on national reports. Revised reports were submitted to PCU/LA in May 2001 and were accepted.

The identified regional concerns and principal issues became the foci for the preparation of the sector reports and outline for the regional Transboundary diagnostic analysis, which like the outline for the national reports, was deliberated upon and accepted by the national coordinators. Along with the preparation of the TDA outline, the substance of the strategic action plan was likewise discussed at the Council Meeting in Beijing (28-29 May 2001).

A few weeks later the new TDA strategy was developed by PCU. According to this strategy the TumenNet project territory was extended on Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (China) and Chitinskaya Oblast (Russia). Total task of the TDA preparation was disaggregated on four parts (zonal TDAs):

The Lead Agent for the TDA component prepared cluster analysis for every zone that included short description of the special socioeconomic features of the zone, short description of major environmental assets (resources), and grouped threats to the environmental assets into clusters. The participants of the TDA Workshop and Technical Meeting (Vladivostok, 29-31 August 2001) discussed, prioritized and amended issue clusters, agreed priorities, identified gaps and carried out gap analysis, assembled list of local stakeholders, constraints, enabling measures that may be required for the implementation of the SAP, and advised for preparation of the grounds for a politically feasible, scientifically accurate, socially responsible and financially implementable causal chain and stakeholder analyses disaggregated by the specific zones. Besides new outline and timeline for the TDA preparation were agreed. The Lead Agent signed subcontracts with Task Managers for all zones and authorized Pacific Institute of Geography to coordinate the preparation of zonal TDAs and finalize regional TDA. Four advisors hired by UNOPS helped writing teams to prepare high-quality documents that were discussed at the stakeholder meetings holding in October-November 2001.

The participants of the second Council Meeting (29-30 November 2001) approved the findings and conclusions from zonal TDAs presented by the Lead Agent and provided recommendations for regional TDA finalizing.

The national reports, the sector reports, the Transboundary diagnostic analysis and the strategic action program are the key elements in a project development activity under the GEF Biodiversity and International Waters Portfolio. It is hoped that a project would be developed in this analytical and participatory process that will provide mechanisms for the implementation of actions addressing the major biodiversity and international waters related issues in the Tumen River Area, at the appropriate governance scales.