Regional Palm Oil Coordinator

World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF, the global conservation organization, active in almost 100 countries, has been working in the Congo Basin in Central Africa for more than 20 years, with a focus on forest conservation through developing and managing protected areas, while promoting sustainable forestry practices and community conservation for the benefit of the populations.

The Congo Basin is going through a phase of economic growth, leading to new and increased conservation challenges at multiple levels. One of the areas of economic growth is the development of palm oil. Palm oil investors and producers are looking to expand their activities beyond South-east Asia and the Congo Basin is one of the specific target areas for their expansion.

WWF International policy recognizes that palm oil is a basic foodstuff and also increasingly used as a biofuel. It recognizes that the oil palm expansion process has the potential to provide economic development and improve rural livelihoods. However, there is also the serious risk that this expansion process can cause deforestation, biodiversity loss, destruction of High Conservation Values (HCV) areas and other negative social and environmental impacts if not planned carefully and in a responsible and sustainable way. The WWF Central African Regional Program Office (CARPO) seeks to address these challenges of expansion and biodiversity conservation. Considering the fact that palm oil developments are only emerging in the Congo Basin, now is the time to have an impact on how palm oil will be expanded in the region and to prevent this has devastating effects on biodiversity conservation and local livelihoods.

Location: The position is based in Yaoundé, Cameroon and the scope of responsibilities extend to a major part of the sub-region, i.e. Central Africa Republic (CAR), Gabon, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome & Principe.

Under the supervision of the GHoA GI Leader, the Regional Palm Oil Coordinator's major duties and responsibilities are:

I. Role

Currently, there is no strategy or road map in place on how to promote sustainable palm oil in the Congo Basin, in a context where many palm oil producers and investors try and expand their palm oil production activities in the region. The palm oil coordinator has the mandate to develop and implement a regional palm oil strategy. The position will support and coordinate work carried out by the Green Heart of Africa (GHoA) network and the Market Transformation Initiative (MTI) by promoting the production of sustainable palm oil following the principles and criteria of the Roundtable for Sustainable palm oil (RSPO).

The primary goal of the regional palm oil program is to ensure that the commodity is produced in a sustainable way without loss of biodiversity conservation and WWF priority landscapes and ecosystems.

II. Main Functions

The main role of the position includes:

• Development of a strategy and road map on how to prevent that palm oil developments result in the conversion of bio-diverse and carbon rich natural forests;

• Guiding and coordinating palm oil activities in the Congo Basin region, by working with respective national staff;

• Promote sustainable palm oil with the national governments of Congo Basin countries;

• Facilitate collaboration and coordination of companies, governments, investors, NGOs and other stakeholders, including organizations of RSPO road shows, to increase adoption of the RPSO requirements in the region;

• Work with palm oil companies on how they can optimize management of biodiversity areas in their palm oil landscapes;

• Fundraising, including development of proposals, to finance defined activities to achieve sustainable palm oil development in the Congo Basin;

• Work with the WWF MTI network in order to deliver the palm oil strategy for MTI and ensure that all regional work on palm oil is aligned with WWF international strategies;

• Liaise with donors and ensure timely monitoring and reporting to them;

• Keep abreast of international, regional and national environmental palm oil policies and standards on palm oil, like RSPO;

• Represent WWF CARPO at workshops and forums.

III. Main Duties and Responsibilities

The main duties and responsibilities of the job include:

• Develop a strategy and road map to ensure sustainable palm oil production in the Congo Basin;

• Coordinate and oversee the implementation of the palm oil road map and work plan.

• Contribute to internal capacity building and knowledge management by organizing internal trainings on RSPO and HCV and by consistently sharing lessons learned in the region and wider network;

• Lead and manage the national palm oil staff in the Congo Basin region to deliver the defined regional palm oil strategy;

• Establish links with other relevant networks and WWF program's such as the MTI, the forest program, Forest-Carbon network and HCV coordinator.

• Strengthen regional capacity on the use of High Conservation Value (HCV) criteria as a conservation land use planning tool to prevent the conversion of high conservation value forests into oil palm concessions;

• Lobby governments in the Congo Basin on palm oil and land-use planning to prevent high conservation value losses;

• Lobby the use of sustainable palm oil and RSPO criteria with companies;

• Engage with companies and assist companies to adhere to RSPO criteria and wildlife management;

• Assist the relevant national offices in the Congo Basin to translate and implement the regional palm oil strategy.

IV. Profile

WWF CARPO is looking for a dynamic and motivated individual to support the development of a sustainable palm oil program for the Congo Basin. Required qualifications and experience for the position include:

• Master's degree in Agri-business, forestry, economics, natural sciences, or in relevant fields;

• Technical proficiency or experience in the field of sustainable agriculture. Experience of having worked in the palm oil sector is a plus;

• Understanding of forest and wildlife policy, and natural resource management principles;

• At least 5 years of relevant industry experience;

• Understanding of key sustainability issues of palm oil production, including on standards and certification;

• Ability and experience to engage corporate sector actors and governments at national or regional levels;

• Familiarity and work experience in Africa or the region is a plus;

• Experience in fundraising and proposal writing and capacity to work independently;

• Fluency in French and good working knowledge of English;

• Excellent communication skills (written, oral and presentation).

V. Working Relationships

• External –Coordinates WWF's engagement with external partners on palm oil, including activities with governments, palm oil producing companies, RSPO, local communities, funding agencies and other NGOs;

• Internal - Works closely with the GHoA conservation director, RSPO liaison, HCV coordinator, MTI palm oil coordinator, Forest program and all regional offices in the Congo Basin.

VI. Working Relationships

Internal – Supervised by Regional Conservation Director/GHOA Global Initiative Leader, works closely with regional coordinators team to assure linkeags with B&I work, forest program and forest & climate work.. Coordinates fundraising and partnership work in this field with CARPO's GAA and partnership advisor. Has dotted line working relations with national conservation directors, and is member of the CARPO Conservation Committee (CCC). Is CARPO focal person for relevant WWF offices and programmes in this field, particularly the Market Transformation Global Initiative team.

External - Works closely with implementing and donor partners (bilateral and multilateral), governmental and non-governmental representatives, as well as private sector representatives.

Interested candidates who meet the above requirements should send a cover letter and a detailed CV to the address recruitcarpo@wwf.panda.org by February 28, 2012 at the latest. The subject should read 006RPOC.