Senior Landscape Technical Advisor, Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary

Organization Background:

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a US non-profit, tax-exempt, private organization established in 1895 and based in New York, that saves wildlife and wild places by understanding critical issues, crafting science-based solutions, and taking conservation actions that benefit nature and humanity. With more than a century of experience, long-term commitments in dozens of landscapes, presence in more than 60 nations, and experience helping to establish over 150 protected areas across the globe, WCS has amassed the biological knowledge, cultural understanding and partnerships to ensure that vibrant, wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities. The WCS Country Program in Cambodia, is a relatively large, vibrant program with long-term programs in four major forested and/or wetland landscapes: Eastern Plains (Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary), Northern Plains, Major Rivers, and Tonle Sap.

Position Summary:

WCS seeks a full-time Senior Landscape Technical Advisor to oversee the management and build out of the WCS program in the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary (KSWS) where we work in partnership with the Ministry of Environment (MoE). The KSWS program builds on nearly 20 years of WCS support to communities and government and has operated as a REDD+ project for the last 12 years. Recent sales of a significant volume of credits means the site is well-financed and looking to increase its impact through the rapid roll-out and implementation of a new, significantly scaled, landscape strategy.

KSWS consists of nearly 300,000 ha of lowland and hill semi-evergreen and deciduous forest. It supports globally significant primate and bird populations. Nearly 30,000 people live on the edge of or inside the protected area, many of them ethnic Bunong. Following the loss of forest to the south and west, KSWS is now located on a deforestation frontier. The protected area has been a REDD+ project for twelve years, generating and selling a significant volume of carbon credits. The challenge now is to prevent deforestation and maintain the integrity of KSWS in the face of mounting threats. The Keo Seima Landscape Strategy has been developed to achieve this goal, by motivating and inspiring government, local communities, and civil society to value and protect KSWS.

The Senior Landscape Technical Advisor will be responsible for the overall management of the Keo Seima Landscape Strategy to ensure adherence to strategy objectives, performance requirements, and adaptively manage activities as needed. The Senior Landscape Technical Advisor will directly oversee management of the site-based Keo Seima Project Manager and Keo Seima Operations Manager and have overall oversight for WCS field staff in KSWS. The position will benefit from the support of a strong set of Technical Advisors in the fields of law enforcement, community engagement, REDD+, biodiversity monitoring, and conservation impact. This is a unique position that will benefit from access to significant funding, a strong technical support team, and an established landscape presence.

Major Responsibilities:

• Provide overall managerial oversight and coordination for all aspects of the Keo Seima Landscape Strategy (including developing and maintaining team work plans, providing guidance on implementation and coordination of activities across teams and grantees, overseeing site budgeting and finances);
• Lead development of annual action plan and deliverables with relevant stakeholders including government, partners and local communities;
• Build out the administrative and financial capacities of the program to enable the scaling of landscape interventions and staffing;
• Oversee and provide capacity building to the site-based Keo Seima Project Manager and Operations Manager on all aspects of project implementation;
• Provide overall leadership on monitoring and evaluation to identify emerging issues, understand implementation challenges, resolution and achievements;
• Oversee the implementation of the KSWS REDD+ Comms strategy and ensure that sub-grantees deliver and comply with the communication plan;
• Through support to the Keo Seima Project Manager, ensure wise use of funds to effectively and efficiently implement the Keo Seima Landscape Strategy;
• Provide technical oversight, guidance and capacity building for all senior KSWS technical advisory staff, managers, and team leaders;
• Identify gaps and resources for capacity building to achieve the project’s objectives;
• Establish strong professional relationships with relevant local and national government counterparts;
• Liaison with government and NGOs partners to ensure alignment of REDD+ project activities;
• Serve as principal liaison with relevant WCS initiatives, globally and regionally, in the context of the project.

Minimum Requirements:

• Postgraduate degree or equivalent experience in a related field;
• Extensive experience of project management associated with natural resource management issues, ideally in Asia;
• Experience of grant management, including overseeing complex sub-grantee, consortium or partnership relationships;
• Excellent interpersonal skills, and the ability to manage multiple teams and deadlines to achieve short-term goals while maintaining sight of the wider vision;
• Proven ability to inspire, manage, guide and support local staff of different capacities and cultures;
• Strong verbal and written skills in English to international standards; preferably also has Khmer language skills.