Habitat Restoration Specialist for Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) Project

PROJECT TITLE: BIODIVERSITY FINANCE INITIATIVE – PHILIPPINES

Project Description

Since 2014, The United Nations Development Program through its Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) Project, has been supporting the Philippine Government in articulating the financial resources it needs to maintain a healthy biodiversity portfolio in-country. In particular, BIOFIN in collaboration with Department of Natural Resources Biodiversity Management Bureau has conducted the following assessments:  1) Policy and Institutional Review (PIR); 2) Public and Private Biodiversity Expenditure Review (PPBER); 3) Assessment of financial needs (cost and gap analysis of implementing Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (PBSAP)).  These assessments significantly contributed to the development of a Biodiversity Finance Plan.

Based on insights gained from the results of the three BIOFIN assessments, this Plan acknowledges the importance of tapping additional financing to support the biodiversity agenda of the Philippines, mainly through its National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (PBSAP), referred to henceforth in this Plan as the Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (PBSAP). This Plan is cognizant of the parallel challenges that could not be addressed by generating financing alone: thus, the Plan transcends the focus on generating additional resources and also identifies a range of “finance solutions” that leverage finance, fiscal and economic tools and strategies to improve the outcome of biodiversity objectives in the country. Financing solutions include a range of transformative actions: generating more financing to fund the PBSAP or associated planning documents; appropriate attribution of biodiversity expenditures in the budget; attaining cost effective budget execution by eradicating overlaps in biodiversity functions; eradicating expenditures that continue to or aggravate dissipation of biodiversity resources; and paving the groundwork for a responsive policy environment through greater awareness on biodiversity and biodiversity financing and enhancing institutional support towards monitoring of PBSAP.

One of the finance solutions that is being implemented is the Investment Program for Protected Areas.  Included here is assistance to the  Mts. Iglit-Baco Natural Park (MIBNP) in implementing selected activities in the protected area management plan (PAMP) and the Tamaraw Conservation and Management Action Plan (TCMAP).

The TCMAP aims at guiding decision makers and conservationists to ensure that the number of tamaraws increases across Mindoro and that each subpopulation reaches a viable level.

In Mts Iglit-Baco Natural Park, this means to expand the existing area available for the species from where it is currently confined inside the core zone of the monitoring (GOAL 5) through increased protection (GOAL 8), habitat restoration (GOAL 6) and developing sustainable land-use system and traditional practices with residing Taubuid communities concerned by tamaraw presence (GOAL 7). This also relates to Program 1 and Program 3 of the MIBNP PAMP.

Those goals emphasize the need to:

1. Organize and monitor the planned phase-out of the DENR managed grassland burning used for the tamaraw counting purpose and establish a habitat restoration plan.
2. Reach agreement and compromise with residing Taobuid communities on their traditional hunting management system based on their cultural and natural resource needs.

The aim and challenge is to:

• Predict and alleviate the risk of density-dependence effect associated with a shift of habitat management (decrease of carrying capacity of the area for the tamaraw as there will be less new grass shoots at the peak of the dry season if burning is stopped);
• Avoid animal’s dispersion prematurely in peripheral areas which are not yet safe;
• Avert detrimental effects on the cultural identity of IP communities and their means of subsistence.

Therefore, the successful expansion of the area available for tamaraw fits under a bio-cultural landscape approach that requires thorough qualification in social-ecology and biogeography.

The consultant will provide inputs and conduct activities leading to the fulfillment of the TCMAP Sub-goal 5B-Restore Tamaraw presence to its most recent range in the Core Zone of Monitoring (CZM) (Tamaraw Extended Range 3000-5000 ha) to wit;

1. Validate and delineate the proposed CZM expansion area/ hunting management on the ground with concerned IP communities.
2. Design and agree with IPs a strategy to expand the distribution of Tamaraw following the zonation of the Park.
3. Conduct consultations and implement use and regulation on the agreed zones.
4. Document the current living conditions, land-use system and hunting practices of the IP communities concerned with the CZM Tamaraw range (socio-agro-ecological investigation).
5. Define with concerned communities a traditional hunting management model allowing Tamaraw movement towards targeted areas (including use of traps and fire regime).
6. Design and agree with IPs a strategy to expand the distribution of Tamaraw following the zonation of the Park.
7. Establish a habitat restoration plan including replantation scheme, zoning schedule, starting inside the SPZ then out to residing IP areas

Institutional Arrangement

The BIOFIN Project Manager in coordination with the TCP Coordinator and PASU, MIBNP shall directly supervise the consultant and approve his/her output.

The consultant is expected to liaise/interact/collaborate/meet with the national and global (as necessary) BIOFIN project team, DENR and its units, and UNDP.  As needed, the project staff shall provide administrative assistance to her/him in order for her/him to accomplish all requirements.

The project staff including other project consultants, as well as relevant technical staff shall provide comment on the outputs of the consultant within 2 weeks of the consultant’s submission of his/her outputs. Should there be further comments, the revised output shall be submitted within a week.  Should there be no comments, the Project Manager shall endorse the consultant’s output/s for approval.

Based on the table above, outputs will be submitted to UNDP and BMB through the Project Manager in the dates indicated. 

UNDP Philippines will not provide a workstation, transportation, or ICT equipment for the consultant.

UNDP Philippines shall be entitled to intellectual property and other proprietary rights over all materials that have direct relation to the project.

Considering the COVID-19 pandemic and declaration of State of Public Health Emergency in the Philippines, all work of the Individual consultant shall be done within the guidelines and protocols set by the local and national government. During the entire duration of the Community Quarantine, this consultancy shall be performed remotely and will be a home-based assignment. The Consultant is expected to have his/her own equipment, office space, and internet connectivity. The Consultant shall not engage in any meetings or activities outside their homes. Coordination/meetings shall be done through phone or online communication until such time that the quarantine is lifted.

The project and the Consultant shall assess, once the Community Quarantine is lifted if it is safe and necessary to have in-person meetings and collaboration.

Duration of the Work, Duty Station and Travel

The Contractor will be engaged from September 2021 to September 2022 unless revised in a mutually agreed-upon timetable by UNDP and the Contractor. Changes in the duration of the contract will be implemented through the issuance of a contract amendment. The consultant is expected to render a total of 105 person-days spread for 1 year.

Duty station: Tamaraw Conservation Programme, San Jose, Occidental Mindoro. The Consultant is not required to report daily at the duty station but shall have an agreed reporting schedule with the project management unit and other relevant UNDP and BMB personnel.

Travel: As may be deemed relevant to the assignment, the Consultant is required to travel within the Philippines. Travels will be endorsed by the Project Manager for approval by the Programme Manager. Travel expenses outside Occidental Mindoro, to be covered by UNDP Philippines, will be agreed prior to travel and a travel report is to be submitted after trips are completed.