Description |
The Rainforest Alliance is an international nonprofit organization that works to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. Based in New York City, with offices throughout the United States and worldwide, the Rainforest Alliance works with people whose livelihoods depend on the land, helping them transform the way they grow food, harvest wood and host travelers.
The Rainforest Alliance’s TREES (Training, Extension, Enterprises and Sourcing) program promotes sustainable livelihoods and protects biodiversity in forest-dependent communities. We work to enhance the competitiveness of community and indigenous forestry enterprises by building business skills, increasing efficiencies, and facilitating investment in value-added processing, expanding income opportunities from wood and non-wood forest products and environmental services, and increasing access to local and global markets through Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.
The Rainforest Alliance has been awarded a sub-grant from the World Resources Institute (WRI) to help implement an important regional project in Central Africa funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) through the United Nations Environment Program and co-funded by implementing partners. WRI is the grant recipient, primary project implementation organization and sub-grants manager while the Rainforest Alliance is the key implementing partner responsible for all field activities, including recruitment and engagement of independent international consultants and in-country project technical staff and consultants. Titled ‘A Regional Focus on Sustainable Timber Management in the Congo Basin,’ the objective of the project is to promote a harmonized approach to the sustainable management of production forests in six countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Republic of Congo) in the Congo Basin. This will be achieved by: 1) instruments to harmonize regional approaches to tackling illegal logging; 2) harmonized market and fiscal incentives that will make it attractive for forest users to manage production forests in a legal and sustainable manner; and 3) the development of governance conditions that permit equitable participation and benefit sharing among forest stakeholders. The project forms part of the GEF Congo Basin Strategic Program and will contribute to the implementation of the Convergence Plan of the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC).
Position Summary:
The Project Manager will a) oversee overall day-to-day management of project activities and of technical staff and manage subgrants and/or consulting agreements and pilot countries implementation WRI sub-grantees, b) provide the necessary technical guidance and inputs to ensure successful implementation of specific project tasks and completion of deliverables, and c) conduct as a technical expert a series of technical activities with their own set of deliverables. S/he will also ensure constant liaison with WRI and in collaboration with WRI ensure that all UNEP-GEF project reporting needs are met.
Responsibilities:
Provide technical direction and coordination of regional activities in the various participating countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo, and to a limited extent in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon);
Contribute to the preparation of strategic and operational work plans at project level, e.g. at the regional and pilot country levels, and provide specific technical assistance to ensure achievement of targets, results and deliverables defined in those plans;
Liaise with and provide technical advice to COMIFAC;
Help organize and participate in meetings of the regional Project Steering Committee as well as of the National Project Coordination Committees in the pilot countries;
Monitor and evaluate the implementation of the sub-regional activities and the three pilot projects by local partners;
Develop new technical, institutional and policy approaches to achieving project goals and results as required;
Support the preparation and monitoring of budgets according to approved work plans, financial projections, internal procedures and policies, and donor requirements;
Ensure the implementation of the Monitoring and Evaluation system developed for this project;
Identify and develop opportunities for counterpart funding to the GEF project;
Coordinate with consultants on agreement scope of work and subsequent deliverables;;
Foster strategic alliances and ensure coordination with governments, private sector and communities;
Provide advice, conduct a series of activities and be responsible for a set of deliverables in one of the following areas: Payment of environmental services, Climate change and REDD, Land rights and Customary use of forests, Illegal logging and FLEGT, Log tracking, Community-based forest management, Forest certification;
Identifying and pursue funding opportunities for Rainforest Alliance, in Africa in particular; and
Other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:
University degree in Forestry, Natural Resource Management, Natural Resource Economics or related field required; Advanced degree a plus;
7 - 10 years experience in forest management and policy, project management, planning and monitoring, including experience at the grass-roots level and at least 2 years experience in a managerial position with supervisory responsibilities, preferably with an intentional NGO funded by international cooperation sources; regional experience is required; private sector experience is a plus;
Strong knowledge of forestry and conservation issues, community forestry, policies and institutions in the Central Africa ;
Recognized technical expertise in one or more of the following fields: Payment of environmental services, Climate Change and REDD, Land rights and Customary Use of Forests, Illegal Logging and FLEGT, Log Tracking, Community-based forest management, Forest Certification.
Familiar with all of the above mentioned fields;
Experience in design of proposals and projects;
Strong interpersonal skills with ability to cultivate relationships with high-level government and donor partners, private companies and NGOs and interact culturally and diplomatically with diverse stakeholders and staff;
Fluent French and excellent English communication skills, including strong written, presentation and verbal skills; Spanish a plus;
Demonstrated ability to prepare high quality progress and technical reports;
Excellent organizational skills and ability to foster a strong sense of team work;
Strong computer skills (MS Office and Internet); and
Willingness and ability to travel a minimum of 35% of the time within the region.
Only candidates authorized to work in locations indicated above will be considered.
Salary: Commensurate with experience.
To Apply: Send resume, cover letter and salary history to Human Resources, Rainforest Alliance, 233 Broadway, 28th Floor, New York, NY 10279; Fax: 212-677-2187; Email: Personnel@ra.org. If emailing, use the following format in the subject line: first name and last name, job title of position you are applying for.
The Rainforest Alliance is an equal opportunity employer
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