International Conservation Planning Expert

Overview

Lead the development of a landscape-scale Spatial Conservation Plan.

You have:

• Postgraduate degree in environmental or natural resource planning and management, or equivalent.
• At least 10 years’ experience in the biodiversity conservation sector, of which at least 5 years is in landscape-scale conservation planning.
• Working knowledge of English is required.
• Proficiency in Azerbaijani is required.

Organizational Setting

FAO Azerbaijan Partnership and Liaison Office, in close cooperation with the government and its in-line Ministries/Agencies, contributes to the sustainable agri-food systems, and supports the government with addressing issues food security, agriculture and rural development, natural resource management in the country. FAO’s technical assistance, provided mainly through projects, includes institution building, development of knowledge and competencies, and exchange of experience among FAO member countries.

Reporting Lines

Under the direct supervision of the AFAOR, the technical supervision of the GEF-FAO Project Management team, and in consultation with relevant government departments, non-government organizations and other national and international organizations.

Technical Focus

The International Conservation Planning Expert will lead the development of a landscape-scale Spatial Conservation Plan for Azerbaijan.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Provide professional support to the overall process of developing the Spatial Conservation Plan. • Consultatively define the scope, objectives and use/rs of the Spatial Conservation Plan. • Consultatively prepare a work plan to guide the iterative development of the Spatial Conservation Plan, and define the roles and responsibilities of individual consultants, the project management team, and the partnering institutions. • Provide strategic and professional oversight to the work being undertaken by the National Conservation Planning Specialist and the GIS Specialist in support of the preparation of the National Conservation Plan. • In liaison with the National Conservation Planning Specialist, identify, and develop conservation management objectives and guidelines, for each category of formal protected area and other conservation area’ in the Spatial Conservation Plan. • In liaison with the National Conservation Planning Specialist, prepare a medium-term implementation plan which programs and priorities the set of actions necessary to: (i) expand the protected area network; (ii) expand the conservation area network; (iii) restore, manage and maintain ecological connectivity between protected areas and conservation areas; and (iv) build the planning, management and financial capacities to implement the Spatial Conservation Plan. • Develop a sub-set of costed ‘investment packages’ (extracted from the medium-term implementation plan above) which could be used by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MENR) to motivate for international funding support for (elements of) the Spatial Conservation Plan • Compile the information collected and collated by the team of consultants into a consolidated Spatial Conservation Plan. • In liaison with the National Conservation Planning Specialist, develop and oversee the implementation of a focused training and capacity building program to help strengthen the individual capacities of the MENR staff who would be responsible for the implementation of the Spatial Conservation Plan.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Postgraduate degree in environmental or natural resource planning and management, or equivalent. • At least 10 years’ experience in the biodiversity conservation sector, of which at least 5 years is in the field of landscape-scale conservation planning. • Working knowledge of English.

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus • Teamwork • Communication • Building Effective Relationships • Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical and Functional Skills

• Experience in providing professional support to state, state-owned enterprise, private, funding, public benefit, or non-government organizations in protected area system planning, ecoregional planning, biodiversity sectoral planning, conservation strategy development, or similar. • Experience in participating in, or leading, multi-disciplinary teams in biodiversity conservation initiatives. • Proficiency in English and Azerbaijani is required. • Previous work on similar international donor-funded initiatives would be considered an advantage.

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Potential interview questions

Added 2 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: fao.org