Organizational Setting

The Forestry Division (NFO) leads FAO’s work in promoting sustainable forest management and providing leadership on the environmental, social and economic dimensions of forestry, including its contributions to poverty reduction and food security and nutrition. It liaises with member countries, civil society and the private sector in aspects ranging from development of effective forest policies to forest conservation and management issues and strengthens the role of forests in climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Division also collects, analyses, and disseminates information on the world’s forest resources and, on the production, trade, and consumption of wood and non-wood forest products.

The positions are located within the Forest Data and Statistics work streams, within the Forest Monitoring and Data Platforms Team supporting FAO member countries on all aspects of forest monitoring to provide reliable information for national forest policy development, planning and sustainable management, as well as for fulfilling international reporting requirements. The Team supports countries on technical issues related to National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS) and the development of cost effective and reliable Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) processes. The Team also develops and maintains Open Foris – a set of tools and guidance supporting forest monitoring) and SEPAL, a cloud-based processing platform. The Forest Monitoring and Data Platforms team works closely with the Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) Team and the Halting Deforestation, Degradation and Emissions team.

The location of the positions is contingent upon the requirements of countries seeking NFI/in-situ support and the Forest Monitoring and Data Platforms team’s needs. As such, assignments are in various locations and may range from short-term to long-term in-country deployments, home-based, or headquarters-based roles.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall guidance of the Team Leader – Forest Monitoring and Data Platforms, the Technical Specialist will work under the direct supervision of the Forestry Officers leading work on National Forest Inventory (NFI) support in coordination with FAO regional and country teams.

Technical Focus 

The Technical Specialist will provide technical support to the design and implementation of forest inventories (both national and subnational) and contribute to the national and global level work related to developing multi-purpose National Forest Monitoring Systems including systems for measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) functions of REDD . Specifically, the Specialist will provide guidance on methodological design and field implementation of national/subnational scale forest inventories and will develop country capacities in the entry, management and analysis of data generated from forest inventories.  The Technical Expert will have the capacity to train country counterparts on the management and use of forest inventory data and on related information systems to store and analyze forest inventory data (e.g. Open Foris tools) and contribute to normative global efforts within the Team towards international reporting needs.

Given the variety of technical demands of forest inventories, a range of technical expertise is sought after in order to meet country needs. Therefore, experts of different disciplines related to forest inventory design, implementation, analysis and reporting are encouraged to apply (project management, design and estimation experts, forest data analysts, capacity development experts, etc). Technical support is particularly sought after for both country support and for strengthening the methodological approach to forest inventories to make the generation of robust data more cost efficient, including developments on integration of satellite/in-situ forest data.

Tasks and responsibilities

The Technical Specialist will:

•    Provide trainings, technical support and knowledge sharing on NFI design and implementation in project countries;
•    Contribute to innovative approaches to acquiring better in-situ data on forests with an emphasis on cost efficiency and accessibility;
•    Develop and document training material for NFI data analysis appropriate for different country capacities;
•    Develop country capacities on NFI data analysis, including the generation of statistical estimates (and their uncertainty) for forest reference emissions level (FREL) construction and/or greenhouse gas inventories (GHGi);
•    Contribute to the development of new, complementary tools/functions within the Open Foris tools to facilitate data entry, management, and analysis;
•    Support countries in defining their specific NFI design;
•    Enhance the utility of in-situ forest data through integration with geospatial products and contribution to global default emission factors;
•    Support efforts to secure and share in-situ forest data through a dedicated forest repository (under development);
•    Facilitate South-South technical exchanges on NFI design and implementation, and data analysis;
•    Support the drafting and publication of technical documents (including scientific articles, technical reports, Standard Operating Protocols, conference papers) concerning sampling, data analysis and estimation procedure;
•    Interact with other teams within the Forestry Division to ensure integration of the different tools developed in-house to support NFI;
•    Support the dissemination of NFI results in partner countries.
•    Any other duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•    Advanced University Degree for Consultants, University Degree for PSAs in Forestry, Natural Resources Management or related discipline .
•    At least three years relevant work experience (for base level (C) PSAs and consultants); at least five years of relevant experience (for middle level (B) PSAs and consultants) in the implementation of forest inventories / forest monitoring.
•    Working knowledge of English, French or Spanish and limited knowledge of one of the other FAO official languages (Arabic, Chinese, Russian).  For PSA contracts only one language at level C is required.

FAO Core Competencies

•    Results Focus
•    Teamwork
•    Communication
•    Building Effective Relationships
•    Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

•    Relevant experience in providing NFI support to developing countries.
•    Significant experience in NFI design and implementation and/or large data analysis and reporting.
•    Knowledge of issues related to measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of REDD activities.

Selection Criteria 

•    Extent of relevance of experience on providing NFI support to developing countries.
•    Experience in conducting trainings in NFI design and implementation, as well as data entry, management and analysis tailored to country capacities.
•    Knowledge of state-of-the-art innovative developments on the estimation of forest resources.
•    Knowledge of Open Foris functionalities is an advantage.
•    Availability to travel internationally and work under demanding conditions in the field.
•    Ability to organize and conduct workshops and training sessions.