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| Title | ECPTA Stewardship Ecologist |
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| Description |
IMPORTANT: This Advertiser has requested that applicants MUST be National Residents / Valid Work Permit-holders. Other applicants need not apply.
The GEF-5 Project themed Improving Management Effectiveness of the Protected Area Network Project is supported by GEF through the UNDP and DEA. SANParks is the Implementer for the GEF-5 Project and is in partnership with five agencies, one of which is the Eastern Cape Parks & Tourism Agency (ECPTA). The project seeks to expand representation of globally important terrestrial habitats by establishing new protected areas (PAs) covering 197,000 ha. The current Protected Area estate does not effectively represent the full range of globally important species and habitats in the three biodiversity hotspots in South Africa (Succulent Karoo, Cape Floral Kingdom and Maputaland Pondoland Albany Hotspot); and as a result, key critical biodiversity areas within these remain under-protected and are at risk of loss or degradation of habitat from several factors. Traditional PA expansion through land purchase is no longer cost effective given the shrinking budgets of conservation agencies. Hence, the project focuses on using low cost mechanisms for land acquisition and management in order to rapidly expand the PA network to secure globally important biodiversity. The project utilizes contractual and stewardship arrangements with private and communal landowners, as well as transfers and formalization of conservation tenure of state land to rapidly expand the PA network. This is done both at a site level, and also across the PA network. The ECPTA is tasked with implementing component 1.5 of the GEF 5 project. This component seeks to establish new Protected Areas (30,000 ha) in upland areas of the higher altitude montane areas of Katberg-Amathole and the North East (NE) Grasslands which are part of the Maputaland Pondoland Albany hotspot, through the stewardship arrangements. To this end, two contractual Stewardship Facilitators have been appointed. Further to this, the Project seeks to appoint a qualified Stewardship Ecologist to provide ecological decision support and conservation planning in these two project sites. |