Assistant Conservation Manager (Voluntary)

We are looking for volunteers for internships from 80-days to 1-year, assisting us to manage the Sainte Luce Reserve in south east Madagascar.

This is a great opportunity to join an extraordinary conservation program in one of the most beautiful places on earth, as Assistant Conservation Manager.

We need a motivated and dynamic volunteer to work directly with the founder and director of the reserve on work that is primarily focused on lemur conservation and managing reserve staff and short-term volunteers. Based at our two stunning beachfront sites in Tolagnaro (residence and office - approximately one week per month) and at our spectacular staff camp, near the coastal village of Sainte Luce, 40km north of Fort Dauphin (the reserve - the majority of the time), this position offers the chance to be involved in hands-on grass-roots habitat conservation, sometimes involving research and sometimes managing other volunteers.

This is an excellent opportunity for a recent graduate to jump right in and gain invaluable skills and field experience towards a career in conservation.

Duties and responsibilities 

The Assistant Conservation Manager will work directly with our founder & director, with our Malagasy staff and sometimes perhaps with international researchers and volunteers, on the following activities:

• Development and implementation of a conservation management programme for the primates and other biodiversity at Sainte Luce Reserve
• Management and or co-management and or supervision of all staff and volunteers of Sainte Luce Reserve (including from time to time short term volunteers)
• Implementation of the conservation rules of the reserve for staff and volunteers and creating conservation awareness tools for conservation awareness raising with the local community and wider audiences
• Managing the organisation and logistics of all activities at the reserve (which may involve coordinating transport, people, resources, activities)
• Ensuring and or monitoring and or managing integrity of any science carried out at the reserve
• Ensuring capacity of volunteers to engage in our work
• Ensuring implementation of health, safety, child protection, conservation, volunteering and other policies 
• Any other tasks for which you are adequately qualified that are deemed necessary for the good conservation management of the reserve particularly in consideration of our funding mechanisms

You personally:

• You must be an open-minded, friendly and kind person primarily and most importantly of all, if you are to fit in with our team
• You must demonstrate a sound knowledge of and keen interest in conservation issues 
• You should have a qualification in a related discipline
• You need a keen and enquiring mind
• An interest in quickly learning the Malagasy language will be vital
• A special interest in primatology and/or herpetology would be advantageous 
• Previous experience living or working in a developing country would be advantageous
• You should attempt to demonstrate your ability to work unsupervised with initiative and commitment when you apply for this job
• You will need to have (or complete before you arrive) a First Aid certificate
• GPS / GIS skills would be advantageous and useful
• The ability to maintain motivation in yourself and others on a day to day basis, in a challenging environment, in sometimes difficult conditions, will be important 
• Your application should demonstrate your capacity to organise (things, people, time, ideas), and we need you to be a good communicator both in your writing, and verbally
• You need to be keen to try to work under pressure and you must be flexible and accommodating to change 
• Your ability to work as part of a dynamic and multicultural team will be key to this role, demonstrating kindness & compassion, patience, good judgement and team building
• Physically able, considering the difficulty context of our work and locations (in and out of boats, long walks in tropical heat, climbing over fallen trees etc when negotiating the forest, squatting, etc)
• Your commitment for one year would be preferable and will get absolute priority, but, we will consider shorter placements, from an absolute minimum period of three months.
• While this role would suit a fresh graduate, we may give preference to someone with previous experience working in conservation in a developing country, especially previous experience in Madagascar

We may consider more than one person for this role depending on a number of variables including length of time that the application wishes to commit to the role, qualifications, etc.  We may also offer other roles to candidates who are not absolutely qualified for this exact role.

Pay and conditions:

You must pay for flights and travel insurance for the duration of your placement with us.  We provide your accommodation (which may sometimes include camping when in the field but will normally be in a bungalow) and food while in the field.  You pay for your food when in town (about one week per month).  All other costs (socialising, restaurant meals, medicines and personal purchases, etc) will need to be covered by you.

We are happy to answer further questions prior to receiving your application.  Please send email to admin@sainte-luce-reserve.org or APPLY with a CV and cover letter telling us how you fit our requirements.  We may also have further questions for applicants.

Please note that we now have received adequate well qualified applications for the 2015 and 2016 seasons, but, we are still interested to hear from applicants who might like to fully fund their post with us to gain field experience.  Please email us for further information.