Monitoring Europe's Forests Internship

About the program: Global Forest Watch (GFW) is a free forest monitoring system that provides timely and actionable information to support the sustainable management and conservation of forest landscapes. Since its launch in 2015, more than 5 million users have visited the GFW website from every country in the world. GFW is used by civil society organizations, journalists, communities, governments, and companies around the world to see where, when, and why deforestation is happening and take action to address it.

Internship Highlight:

• Contributing towards the pressing issue of forest protection, and sustainable forest management.
• Working with new data and state of the art platforms to communicate findings on changes to forests to users.
• Being part of the GFW team.
• Gaining insights into how international non-profit organisations function.

What you will do: In this role, you will explore the state and changes in European forests. In light of recent regulations and commitments from member states regarding protection of European forests, efforts to independently monitor forests are increasingly important.

This work is carried out as part of a collaboration with a research institute (GFZ, Potsdam), and an EU based forest protection organization (Fern). Other data providers, such as and University of Maryland will also be involved in these efforts.

GFW currently focuses its efforts on the primary tropical forests, for a number of valid reasons, however there should be some emphasis given to all of the world’s forests. Europe’s forests are under threat, as many previous forest sinks are turning into sources, and management intensities are increasing. Information on tree cover loss and disturbances, which are the primary data sources on GFW are useful in the context of identifying deforestation in tropical forests, however, do not capture the complexity of changes to European forests. Information related to degradation (increasing size of clear cuts, reduced heterogeneity in terms of age, species) is required to answer questions related to the recent EU Deforestation Regulation, and proposed EU Nature Restoration Law among others. Providing this data, will also be relevant beyond Europe to comparable areas such as N. America, and will provide information on forests to a wider group of stakeholders.

Your internship supervisor will be Sarah Carter, Research Associate, WRI Europe.

Responsibility area #1 (50% time): Exploring and communicating the data

• Develop maps and scope out other methods of communicating data e.g. story maps, as well as extract statistics from the data which can tell stories of the state of Europe’s forests and can be used by NGOs for their advocacy activities.
• Contribute to other communications products such as blogs on the new data

Responsibility area #2 (50% time): Presenting European data on GFW

• Support the preparation of detailed metadata (including descriptions of methods etc.) to accompany data on the GFW platform
• Work with other GFW team members (research, platform and engineering team) to get a selection of the data on GFW as data layers, downloadable statistics, and interactive graphs
• Quality check new data

The intern will also support other (European) forest related tasks as required.

What you will need:

• Good working knowledge of GIS software (ArcGIS or QGIS).
• Experience of analysing remote sensing derived forest data or similar data.
• Currently pursuing a degree in geoinformation science / forestry or related field (graduate program preferred).
• Interns at WRI Europe must be registered in a study program with a Dutch college or university for the full duration of the internship.
• You are proficient in verbal and written English.

Conditions of the internship:

• This is a 4 to 6-month internship with a start date of 16 September 2024.
• This internship will be based at the WRI Europe office in the Hague with some flexibility to work from home.
• This internship offers a reimbursement of 700 euros per month based on full-time working hours (32 hours per week).

How to apply: Please submit a resume and cover letter by 21 July 2024. Applicants must apply through the WRI Careers portal to be considered. You are encouraged to link to any relevant blogs, projects or other pieces of work that demonstrate your suitability for the internship.

About Us: Founded in 1982, World Resources Institute (WRI) is an independent, nonprofit global research organization that turns big ideas into action at the nexus of environment, economic opportunity, and human well-being. We are working to address seven critical challenges that the world must overcome this decade to secure a sustainable future for people and the planet: climate change, energy, food, forests, water, sustainable cities, and the ocean. WRI has a global staff of over 1,800 people with work spanning 60 countries. We have offices in Africa, Brazil, China, Europe, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Colombia and the United States, as well as a growing presence in other countries and regions.

The foundation of our work is delivering high-quality research, data, maps, and analysis to solve the world’s greatest environment and international development challenges and improve people’s lives. We work with leaders in government, business, and civil society to drive ambitious action and create change on the ground. Equally important, we bring together partners to develop breakthrough ideas and scale-up solutions for far-reaching, enduring impact.

Our mission and values: WRI’s mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.

Our values are shared ideals that bind us together: Integrity, Innovation, Urgency, Independence, Respect.

Our culture: WRI is committed to advancing gender and social equity for human well-being in our mission and applies this principle to our organizational and programmatic practices. We are committed to providing equal opportunities in employment, we embrace all diversity and encourage women, the LGBTQ+ community, persons with disabilities, Afro-descendants, and Indigenous people to apply. Recognizing our strong commitment to gender equality, WRI has also been awarded EDGE certification.

Our team carefully reviews all applications.

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Added 1 month ago - Updated 58 minutes ago - Source: wri.org