Forestry Officer

The Forestry Officer provides technical expertise and capacity development for the design, implementation support, and evaluation of investment and finance support solutions in forest landscape management and sustainable forest management. The role supports food security, rural development, climate change mitigation, and natural resource management with a focus on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and inclusive markets for forest products.

Responsibilities

• Participates in and eventually leads multidisciplinary teams to assist governments in the identification and preparation of investment and finance support solutions in forestry and sustainable forest management.
• Participates in and eventually leads multidisciplinary teams for implementation support and preparation of final evaluation of investment and finance support solutions in forestry and natural resources management.
• Provides technical expertise in forestry and sustainable forest management in the context of food security, agriculture, rural development, climate resilience, natural resource management and agro-processing studies and strategies.
• Supports sustainable forest management and development involving local dwellers, communities, producers, private sector actors, civil society organizations and government.
• Formulates and delivers capacity development strategies and activities in forestry and sustainable forest management investment support to government staff and non-state actors.
• Prepares reports in accordance with FAO, governments and financing partners' requirements.
• Provides support in task organization, selection of consultants, preparation of terms of reference and ensuring quality of outputs.
• Promotes international cooperation and collaboration leading to new investment opportunities and cooperative agreements, advocates best practices and effective policy dialogue, and provides technical expertise at international meetings.
• Establishes and maintains relationships with relevant FAO Technical Units and Decentralized Offices to ensure synergies between investment, policy and innovation work.
• Participates in resource mobilization activities in accordance with the FAO Strategic Framework.
• Provides guidance and advice to colleagues and junior staff.
• Engages with Forestry Division units to ensure FAO technical knowledge is captured in investment work and informs on investment support activities in forestry.
• Contributes to forest sector strategies, plans and operations for investment implications, technical and environmental feasibility and compliance with national policies.
• Assesses constraints and opportunities for enhancing sustainable production of forest products and services to improve rural livelihoods.
• Leads design of forestry related activities and components of investment operations including implementation support and monitoring and evaluation of forest sector development projects.
• Provides technical expertise on economic and financial instruments to support sustainable sector development.
• Assesses budget and defines technical parameters for sustainable forest development projects and models for financial and economic analysis.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in tropical and subtropical forest science, forest economics, or a closely related field.
• Seven years of relevant experience in planning and implementing forest resources management and sustainable development projects and programmes, including experience in the formulation and/or implementation of forest and agroforestry, forest landscape restoration, rural development, natural resource management and agro-processing investment operations in developing countries and/or countries in transition.
• Working knowledge (proficiency - level C) of English and intermediate knowledge (intermediate proficiency - level B) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).
• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions is desirable.
• Experience in major technical fields related to forest resources management, analysing forestry and related issues, biodiversity conservation, natural resources management and climate change in developing countries and countries in transition.
• Experience in participating in multidisciplinary teams for the preparation of strategies and sector studies as well as formulation, implementation support or evaluation of forestry, rural development, natural resource management and agro-processing investment and finance support initiatives, with a focus on sustainable forest management and conservation.
• Experience in investment design, implementation support and evaluation procedures of FAO's main development partners, in particular the World Bank (WB) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and other International Financing Institutions (IFIs) partners.
• Knowledge of the context as well as working experience with International Financing Institutions (IFIs) and bilateral development partners and institutions, particularly in Latin-American and the Caribbean.
• Experience in capacity development for the design and implementation of forest and forest landscape conservation and restoration, agriculture, rural development, sustainable natural resource management and agro-processing investments.
• Demonstrated experience in dealing with government officials, development partners and other country stakeholders.
• Demonstrated capacity to write technical reports in English.
• Working knowledge (proficiency - level C) of Spanish will be an asset.

Skills

• Forest Management
• Sustainable Development Programs
• Forest and Agroforestry
• Landscape Restoration
• Rural Development Policy
• Natural Resource Management
• Agro-processing Investment
• Biodiversity Conservation
• Climate Change Mitigation
• Investment Design
• Investment Implementation Support
• Investment Analysis
• Multidisciplinary Team Collaboration
• Capacity Development
• Technical Report Preparation
• Working with International Financing Institutions
• World Bank Procedures
• IFAD Procedures
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Forest Science
• Forest Ecology

Languages

English, Spanish