Technician Biodiversity Protection

Context of the project:

The province of Phongsaly is characterized by a mountainous landscape with steep slopes and narrow valleys. In this province, climate change is already impacting the farming systems through strong heats, increasing rainfalls and drought episodes. This impact increased the economic fragility of the rural families and the vulnerability of the local value chains. The access to water was identified as a basic need that is not yet satisfied in the most vulnerable communities of Phongsaly province and the protein sector is weak, which leads to the local communities’ lack of proper nutrition. Based on the outcomes and evaluations from CCL’s previous interventions in the province, the project proposes to strengthen the resilience of the Phongsaly’s population in order to favour the sustainable development of the territory. The project has 3 interrelated specific objectives:

1. 1. Rural communities from Phongsaly province are economically more resilient and integrated within strengthened local value chains
2. The natural resources of Phongsaly province are preserved and sustainably managed to favor a sustainable, inclusive, and localized economic development
3. The local stakeholders of Phongsaly province are strengthened, locally acknowledged, and participate in the sustainable and inclusive development of the territory

As the project will finish this year and several activities related to livestock management needs to be fulfilled, the CCL is seeking a highly skilled and motivated person to be part of the GREEN project team as a Technical Advisor in Biodiversity protection and Environment Management, to work mainly in the specific objectives 2 and 3.

Qualifications and experience:

• Education: Master or Bachelor of Science in environment, agriculture, geography, sustainable development
• Working experience with international NGOs and/or Lao NPA specialised in Rural and/or Agricultural development, Environment protection and/or natural resources management
• Experience and knowledge in participatory community development, natural resources management as water supply network implementation and/or biodiversity conservation and/or climate change issues, and/or in Agriculture,
• Ability to work in partnership with local authorities, international and Lao partners and with ethnic minorities,
• Self-organization, autonomy, and good communication skills,
• Ability to undertake travel to remote villages frequently,
• Knowledge of ethnic languages (Akha, PouNoï, Lue, Ho) would be an asset,
• Fluency in written and spoken English or French is an advantage,
• Good command of computer software’s: Excel, Word, Powerpoint and Internet,
• Skills in data analysis and capacity to give synthetic reports are sought,
• Car & motorcycle driving license required,
• Women are encouraged to apply.

Main responsibilities:

• Work with local government staff and local communities, following participatory approach with respect for the environment, indigenous rights and gender equality, to support natural resources management and environment protection activities in the targeted villages,
• Lead concertation process with villagers from villages next to Phou Dene Dine to improve the management of the natural resources at the scale of village river basins
• Support communities to set up pilot actions to reduce their vulnerability to biodiversity loss (technical training, concertation meetings, action plan implementation),
• Lead the assessment of land use and customary practices and the identification of village protection forests in these selected villages,
• Participate in the creation of community hunting management, and task forces that will operate in the communities for protection of natural resources and resilience to climate change,
• Support the implementation of environmental and biodiversity initiatives by the farmers and rural communities,
• Participate in the creation of participatory and exchanges events that will gather the villages’ communities,
• Provision of technical and methodological advice for activity implementation.
• Collect data, write quality activity reports, provide analysis & recommendations to improve the action,
• Coordinate activities with others project components and with local authorities,
• Contribute to project representation.