Regional Community Conservation Coordinator, Central African

Position: Regional Community Conservation Coordinator

Location:Kigali, Rwanda with travel around the region

Reports To:Technical Director of Rights and Communities

Collaborators: Regional Program Management Team

Start date:   Immediate

Duration:Full-time contract 

Background

The Wildlife Conservation Society is an international NGO headquartered at Bronx Zoo in New York City, USA, working to save wildlife and wildlands and to meet global challenges in over 60 countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the world’s oceans. WCS believes that conservation of nature and natural resources is essential to life on earth, the future of humanity, and the wellbeing and cultural identities of Indigenous Peoples and traditional and local communities. 

Program Overview
The Central Africa and Gulf of Guinea program is one of the largest of WCS’s 13 Global Regional Programs, spanning Nigeria, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, and Gabon. This is a rapidly growing program with a diverse and expanding portfolio of donors, partners and projects. The region presents a set of complex conservation challenges to biodiversity and their habitats and WCS field programs are addressing these through a number of initiatives including protected area management, community engagement, sustainable livelihoods, policy reform and sustainable financing. WCS recently formally established its regional hub in Kigali, Rwanda which hosts a growing team of technical specialists and regional management to support our country programs and field offices. 

Leadership & Program Development

• Provide leadership and guidance on the development and implementation of community conservation initiatives across the region using a rights-based approach
• Contribute to project proposal development that reflects and advocates for initiatives that promote inclusive and rights-based community conservation approaches
• Contribute to report writing to ensure community conservation activities are accurately and appropriately reflected
• Support the development of community conservation teams throughout the region at the national and site level 

Technical Support and Program Implementation 

• Work closely with site managers and community conservation teams in the region in the development and implementation of community conservation strategies based on a theory of change, or where strategies already exist, assess and update them as necessary 
• Work with country programs and site teams to incorporate the facilitation of “enabling environments” into community conservation programming including, conflict mitigation and behavior change or diversified livelihood programming
• Develop action plans for effectively incorporating conservation social science (both qualitative and quantitative) into community conservation activities throughout the region 
• Provide technical support and guidance in key thematic areas, including:
• Natural Resource and Protected Area management
  1. Support field teams in the development of natural resource management and zoning plans 
  2. Provide input on the design of protected area revenue sharing mechanisms 
• Governance

• Provide guidance to community conservation teams on designing, implementing and supporting inclusive and effective governance structures in the communities where we work 
• Livelihood and Socio-economic activities
• Work with site programs to incorporate a participatory and inclusive approach to livelihood and socio-economic activities, ensuring that livelihood programming reflects the diverse needs and interests of men and women from local communities, as stated by them 

• Collaborate closely with other members of the R+C regional team, the Central Africa & Gulf of Guinea regional team, and with country and site community conservation leads to ensure that community conservation activities are in alignment with sustainable conservation objectives.

Requirements

• Post-graduate degree in social or environmental sciences
• 5 to 10 years’ field experience with international organizations in Africa working on community-based conservation and natural resource management
• Proven ability at designing and delivering research related to the human dimensions of conservation in international development contexts
• Proven ability to contribute to capacity building activities 
• Knowledge of social science in the context of conservation
• Demonstrated experience successfully working with diverse groups of people such as those of different cultures, nationalities and backgrounds
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills in English and French and additional local languages an advantage
• Proactive, resilient, team-oriented, creative, and ambitious work ethic
• Willingness to live in a multicultural environment.