Landscape and Conservation Expert

At Proforest we’re passionate about helping people to produce and source agricultural and forest commodities responsibly.

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced and innovative professional in responsible production and sourcing of agricultural commodities, to help develop Proforest’s work on conservation and land use in production landscapes.

This is an exciting opportunity to work with agricultural & forestry production companies, major international brands and other key stakeholders (government and civil society) to develop and implement their responsible production strategies and support implementation of land use planning and conservation activities in forestry and agricultural supply chains.

About Proforest

Proforest is a mission driven organisation with a 20-year track record of supporting the transition to sustainable production and sourcing of agricultural and forest commodities. We are a not-for-profit group with a global presence across Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. We work with governments, the private sector and civil society to deliver positive social and environmental outcomes in the places agricultural commodities are produced, ranging from protecting forests to recognising the land rights of indigenous peoples and improving conditions for workers. We work directly with many well-known consumer brands, such as Unilever, Nestle, PepsiCo and Mars, retailers such as Target and Ikea and the world’s largest traders and integrated producers including Cargill, Olam, Wilmar and Cofco.

What you’ll do

The position offers an exciting opportunity to take a leading role in the management and delivery of Proforest's landscape, conservation & land use projects. As an environmental expert you will lead and oversee environmental risk assessments, support development of conservation and land use management plans and provide training for private sector and government clients helping to deliver forest conservation and support rural livelihoods in some of the world’s most dynamic and vulnerable agricultural frontiers. Your work will be jointly delivered with colleagues from Proforest’s global team, and you will need to convene and manage complex, multistakeholder projects.

As part of this job you will:

• Organise and facilitate multistakeholder meetings for projects and multistakeholder collaborations.
• Lead delivery of forest and landscape focused responsible sourcing projects for mid-downstream supply chain companies, such as deforestation and conversion strategy and policy development and risk assessment.
• Carry out and coordinate field activities such as site assessments, capacity building, and data collection.
• Support regional Proforest teams with landscape level environmental and social screening or impact assessments (such as High Conservation Value and High Carbon Stock assessments).
• Manage projects, programmes and partnerships. This includes the planning, coordination, monitoring and reporting of projects across multiple actors and teams.
• Contribute to business development of relevant Proforest service areas. This includes proposal writing, budgeting and managing client relationships.
• Support linking relevant regulatory frameworks (e.g Due Diligence regulation, regulatory frameworks on climate including SBTi and GHG Protocol) with production landscape initiatives. This includes developing concepts notes and facilitating dialogues that help understand linkages and relevance for Proforest work on delivering people, nature and positive impact.
• Build and maintain relationships with relevant key stakeholders such as sustainability initiatives, companies, support agencies, civil society and other stakeholders.
• Support and collaborate actively with Proforest colleagues (in particular the Proforest Europe Landscape Portfolio lead) on internal workstreams and tool development, to deliver Proforest’s strategy both regionally and globally.
• Provide strategic advice and technical assistance to clients and partners.

What you’ll bring

Required experience:

• Advanced postgraduate degree (PhD) in environmental management, conservation or ecology OR at least 5 years relevant work experience in applied conservation, supply chain sustainability or environmental sustainability
• Experience of managing and delivering complex consultancy projects or multistakeholder programmes
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Analytical thinker able to analyse and clearly present complex data clearly and concisely
• Experienced GIS user (e.g. ArcGIS or similar) and/or very comfortable using/analysing satellite data products (but not expected to be a remote sensing expert)

Desirable experience and attributes:

• Speaks other languages, e.g. English, Spanish, Indonesian
• Experience of working with sustainability certification schemes
• Familiarity with or strong interest in commodity supply chains
• Experience user of data analysis and management software, e.g. Power BI or similar

Terms and conditions

• The salary will be in the range of : £40-50,000 depending on experience
• The position will be based in one of Proforest’s European offices, either in Oxford, UK or Leiden, The Netherlands. You’ll need to be eligible to work in either the UK or the Netherlands.
• The job is offered on a permanent, full-time basis, but a part time role might be considered for the right candidate.

Application Deadline: 17 January 2023. To apply please send your CV, cover letter and confirmation that you are eligible to work in either the UK or NL to personnel@proforest.net