Blue Carbon Manager-London, United Kingdom

Madagascar’s 5,600 km coastline comprises one of the most extensive brackish water, shallow marine and continental shelf habitats of any Indian Ocean country apart from India. These “blue forests” (i.e., seagrass beds, mangrove forests, and coastal wetlands) play crucial roles in supporting endangered biodiversity, and numerous ecosystem goods and services vital to increasingly poor and vulnerable coastal communities. In addition, these ecosystems play a critical role in mitigating global climate change owing to their exceptional capacity to sequester CO₂.

Mangroves are extremely productive forested ecosystems and have an extraordinary capacity to sequester carbon dioxide. But these ecosystems are being rapidly destroyed – at a higher rate than terrestrial tropical forests. Madagascar harbours approximately 2,800 km² of mangroves (Africa’s fourth largest mangrove forests). These forests are highly threatened by over-exploitation and conversion for cultivation. The Blue Forests project is assessing the feasibility of and working towards developing carbon finance and other payments for ecosystem services (PES) mechanisms for the community-based conservation, restoration and sustainable use of Madagascar’s mangrove forests, which in turn will help maintain critical biodiversity, ecosystem services and essential forest resources. The new Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Wetlands Restoration and Conservation (WRC) project category now means that there is a real possibility of carbon finance for mangrove wetlands. Our work aims to develop demonstration WRC projects, and so begin to realise the full value of blue carbon habitats.

Summary Job Description

In order to support the successful development of our blue carbon projects along the west coast of Madagascar we are seeking a scientist/forester experienced in the successful development of forest carbon projects. The job will entail managing the applied research required to develop a VCS REDD+CIW project; as well as presenting the blue carbon science outputs of the project to government and high level national REDD+ forums, and supporting the integration of blue carbon into Madagascar’s national REDD+ activities. Consequently the successful candidate will be experienced in technical carbon project development, but ideally will also have a working knowledge of REDD+ policy and the ability to communicate the project’s outputs to policy makers.

Responsibilities

1. Management of blue carbon science within Madagascar in order to develop and validate a VCS blue carbon project:
   1. Managing scientific carbon measurements (AGB, BGB, SOC, soil accretion etc.) in mangroves at our three pilot sites;
   2. Data management and analysis to meet the requirements of carbon projects, as well as for scientific publication;
   3. Supervising the development of participatory carbon stock monitoring for mangroves.
2. Assistance with production of Project Descriptions and monitoring plans:
   1. Support for the ex ante calculation of emission reductions (development of models & spreadsheets) documenting the fulfilment of VM00x steps;
   2. Development of plans for ex post monitoring.
3. Engagement of the Malagasy Government and REDD+ readiness process to ensure coordination with, and appropriate integration of project-based blue carbon activities into, the national REDD+ framework:
   1. Representation of BV at Madagascar’s R-PP development events and presentation of the project’s scientific outputs to national government and REDD+ forums;
   2. Engaging national government to gain support for blue carbon project-scale activities undertaken by BV and to ensure that these are complimentary to national actions;
   3. Ensuring the Blue Forests project development is in line with the national REDD+ framework.

The job will be based in Antananarivo, but involve stays in remote coastal environments throughout the west coast of Madagascar, particularly in the northwest. It therefore requires the willingness to work in remote locations with basic amenities for periods of time. Within Blue Ventures you will join a growing and dynamic team of dedicated Malagasy and international scientists, conservationists and community members. As a senior member of the team, you report to the overall project manager; and manage a team of three scientists. The job comes with an annual salary of between 10 – 16,500 GBP a year, depending on experience; international flights and medical insurance. The job offers the opportunity to work within one of the few groups in the world undertaking this novel, timely and important work.

Qualifications/Skills Required

We are looking for a dynamic, enthusiastic, hard-working and highly organized person with the following essential skills and experience:

1. MSc-level degree (or equivalent) in forestry, soil science, geo-chemistry or other pertinent discipline
2. Field experience of carbon stock measurement and monitoring; and the analysis of such data
3. Experience in the development of forest carbon projects for VCS validation, particularly in the production of REDD Project Descriptions
4. Good knowledge of REDD+ policy and forest carbon finance, with experience of participating in national REDD+ policy development
5. Fluent written and spoken French
6. Strong written and spoken English
7. Project and team management experience
8. A track-record of successful consultancy contracts
9. Extensive field experience

Qualification/Skills Desired

1. Good knowledge of the measurement of soil organic carbon, soil accretion and wetland soil chemistry
2. Proficiency in data management and statistical analysis
3. Experience in scientific report writing and preparation of research papers
4. Project and team management experience
5. Basic to extended RS/GIS skills

How to apply: