TERMS OF REFERENCE
Position : Protected Area Specialist
Program : Sulawesi Program, Indonesia
Line manager : Sulawesi Program Manager, Indonesia
Key internal relations : Chief Advisor, Country Director, Regional Technical Advisor,
Finance Manager and Operations Manager
Location : Manado, with travel to field sites and head office, Bogor.
Background
The Wildlife Conservation Society - Indonesia Program (WCS-IP) has significantly grown over the last decades, and contributed substantially to the conservation of biodiversity in Indonesia. It currently works in several large landscapes in Sumatra and Sulawesi and seascapes across the Indonesian archipelago where it aims to protect threatened species and their habitats. In order to achieve its overall goal of saving wildlife and wild places, the WCS-IP programs prioritize field activities that seek to build local partner capacity, halt the poaching and illegal trade of wildlife, reduce the overexploitation of wildlife in legal trade, mitigate human-wildlife conflicts, and monitor and sustain the health of wildlife populations.
The Sulawesi Program is WCS-IP’s longest running program, with a continuous presence in and around Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park (BNWNP) since 1991. Support to the Bogani Nani Landscape here has prioritised landscape-level intervention that has secured important populations of endemic and threatened wildlife, such as the maleo, and its habitat. More recently, this has involved the exploration of varying land use options to secure the PA buffer zone, such as private management, Ecosystem Restoration Concessions, Ecosystem Essential, and co-management options. Now, through UNDP’s Enhancing the Protected Areas System in Sulawesi (EPASS) project, WCS will greatly expand the scope of its work to provide technical support to Tangkoko Wildlife Reserve and surrounding forests and Lore Lindu NP. Together, these three sites make a significant number of Sulawesi’s endemic species, including the babirusa, anoa and maleo, Sulawesi’s flagship species, which are important to WCS. The Institutional and Community Engagement Specialist will play a senior role in the delivery of WCS deliverables under EPASS, and will also lead the creation of new WCS strategies for community engagement and buffer zone management.
The position will be based in WCS office in Manado, Sulawesi, and will report directly to the Program Manager Sulawesi.
Position Objectives
- Support the Sulawesi Program Manager in engaging and coordinating WCS activities with District and Provincial Government agencies in and around Bogani Nani Wartabone, Lore Lindu and Tangkoko protected areas (PAs), particularly with respect to the EPASS project.
- Support WCS-IP in the ongoing development of its Sulawesi Program through project development, actively engaging in collaborations between other WCS teams in Indonesia and various partners, and meaningful participation in local and national meetings and workshops.
Specific Tasks and Outputs/Deliverables
Protected Area Management
- Support the development of guidelines for PA co-management and community engagement, including Buffer zone co-management structure and mechanisms at institutional level and community level and community engagement building
- Support the development of they strategic action plan for strengthening collaborative management of Pas in Sulawesi.
- Support the design of spatial planning/alignment based on biodiversity importance, ecosystem and wildlife threat status, biogeographical representative of Sulawesi PA System, carbon sequestration potential and current land use.
- Support the Program Manager in the regular coordination and communication of WCS activities with Bogani Nani Wartabone, Tangkoko and Lore Lindu protected areas.
- Support GIS specialists in spatial planning and biodiversity conservation priority setting exercises in the target Protected Areas and surrounding areas.
- Support the incremental development and institutionalization of accredited training syllabuses with some of the government partners, based on program priorities (such as METT, SMART)
Community Engagement
- Support the development of a strategic action plan for strengthening collaborative management across the Sulawesi PA network.
- Support GIS specialists in mapping, strategizing and implementing protected Area management approaches.
Program development and partner engagement
- Liaise, establish and/or maintain good working relationships and/or strategic partnerships with key stakeholders such as local government, ministries, embassies, academia, NGOs, private sector, donors and others to ensure the successful coordination, implementation and follow-up of project activities, as well as the ffiobilization of additional resources to the projects.
- Provide inputs regarding the vision and strategy for WCS Sulawesi Program, including its strategic approach to conservation.
- Support the development of project proposals, by compiling information, documenting lessons learned from other projects, developing future strategies and sharing and discussing ideas and concept notes with the Regional Director, Country Director and Chief Advisor.
Program and Project Management:
- Selecting, managing and supervising partners and sub-contractors to implement activities and produce deliverables in timely fashion, including developing Terms of Reference, providing assistance in their selection and recruitment process, coordinating sub-contractor work, and monitor and evaluate their deliverables, and ensure that they are submitted in a timely manner.
- Preparing activity reports and assisting in preparing financial reports as required by donors and/or stakeholders, in Indonesian or English, written or verbal.
- Providing capacity building and technical support to Program team and partners to ensure that the projects are effective and achieve targets;
- Documenting lessons learned from project implementation and develop briefing notes for improving implementation and coordination of project activities, support decision-making processes and knowledge management.
Job Requirements
Qualifications
The post-holder should have a post-graduate qualification in ecological, social sciences and/or a related discipline and experience of protected area governance in Indonesia.
Experience
- Postgraduate degree in the area of community forestry, natural resource management, anthropology or sociology, rural development, conservation management or other relevant fields.
- Experience of species conservation policy and initiatives in Indonesia is highly desirable. A minimum of 4 years post quantification experience in community and government engagement on environmental policy and natural resource management issues in Indonesia.
- Strong experience in working with rural communities in Indonesia on natural resource management issues is highly desirable.
- Good existing networks within relevant Government ministries and departments.
- Proven track record of program management, including project development, implementation and backstopping, staff supervision and budget oversight.
Competencies
- Strong managerial capacities, as well as strategic technical and intellectual skills in conservation and protected area management;
- Leadership, results-orientation, team-building
- Strong facilitation, coordination, networking and negotiation skills;
- Good analytical and planning skills; ability to set forecasts and refine/review them in the light of experience and further analysis
- Strong sense for innovation and new approaches to conservation. Decisiveness and independent.
- Good judgement, ability to work under pressure
- Ability to maintain financial and technical control of projects in the field Good report writing and presentation skills
- Excellent interpersonal and written/verbal communication skills in both English and Indonesian.
Please note that the above TOR constitutes only the main responsibilities and duties of this position. As WCSIP is a flexible organization, staff members are expected to undertake any other tasks that are allocated to them but which are not part of their regular TOR.
Please send a covering letter and CV in English to wcsindonesia@wcs.org not later than March 3, 2020 stating in the subject line “Protected Area Specialist_(name)”.
Please also include a portfolio of your previous work or links to blogs or galleries online.
No correspondence, only short-listed candidates will be notified