Biodiversity Officer (BO)

Background

The Hailemariam & Roman Foundation (HRF) is a non-profit international NGO established by the Former Prime Minister of Ethiopia, H.E. Mr. Hailemariam Dessalegn & the Former First Lady of Ethiopia, H.E. Mrs. Roman Tesfaye. It strives to support the efforts of government, communities and partners in bringing socioeconomic transformation in Ethiopia and the broader continental Africa.

With its programmatic focus areas- maternal & child health and nutrition, climate-smart conservation and ecotourism, agricultural transformation, and economic empowerment of women and youth, synergizing each other, the foundation envisions seeing A healthy and economically empowered community in a well-conserved environment. Geographically, its support focuses on areas with the highest disparities where the foundation could add value.

Job Summary

The Climate Smart Conservation and Ecotourism Program (CSCET) of HRF is a flagship initiative with the main goal of ensuring collaborative and community-based response measures towards addressing the two interrelated problems of biodiversity loss and lack of secure community livelihoods in a way that mitigates persistence of both anthropogenic and climatic impacts on the biodiversity stock. To attain this goal, the program adheres to a community-based sustainable conservation approach whereby local communities and their institutions work closely with the park officials while ensuring sustainable benefits from their conservation endeavors by creating various alternative livelihoods, including ecotourism. Ultimately, the program work is meant to create as many alternative livelihood strategies as possible for all of the community members around the national parks who depend on these resources to support their living (food, fuel, fodder, etc.) and empower them to be in full charge of protecting the resources from further depletion.

The Maze conservation and community livelihoods project, entitled The Preservation of Maze National Park and its Watershed in Ethiopia is a five-year (2024-2028) project fully funded by the Agence franaise de dveloppement (AFD) and implemented by Hailemariam & Roman Foundation (HRF). The project is aimed at ensuring the long-term integrity of Maze National Park for the benefit of nature and communities around the park with three key components: a) Maze National Park is functional and achieves its conservation objectives; b) a win-win approach regarding natural resources management is in place between communities and the park; and c) the water flow in the park's rivers is ensured and sufficient. For the implementation of this project, HRF has set up a project Management Unit (PMU) located in Maze NP, Morka Town, Gamo Zone. The PMU has been set up to coordinate the implementation of the five-year project through mobilizing and engaging local communities, park management, local government offices, and other relevant partners towards the realization of the stated project goal.

The Biodiversity Officer (BO) under the PMU is responsible for planning, executing, and reporting the biodiversity conservation targets specified in the project document. He/she must collaborate closely with the Maze National Park staff and management to ensure the effective implementation of the Maze National Park (MzNP) General Management Plan (GMP), which is ultimately meant to ensure the ecological integrity of the park and its surrounding environs. In this endeavor, the officer is fully responsible for providing expert-based technical support to the park management towards ensuring the effective protection of the park biodiversity, including its flora, fauna, waterscapes, landscapes, and forest scapes, through bolstering the execution capacity of park management and ensuring effective community engagement. The officer is entitled to create effective communication channels with all relevant decision-makers and stakeholders in the project area to ensure the smooth and effective implementation of the park's General Management Plan towards attaining the project outcomes over the entire project period. Being directly responsible to the PMU project coordinator, the biodiversity officer has to provide state-of-the-art expertise to the project office concerning Biodiversity conservation and the Maze National Park by analyzing the current and future trends in the park biodiversity status and devising working mechanisms for proactive considerations and addressing mechanisms.

Specific Roles and Responsibilities of the Biodiversity Officer (BO)

• Being informed by the international best practices and contemporary conservation knowledge, and by sticking to the regional and national policies, strategies and plans relating to biodiversity conservation in Maze National Park, preparing biodiversity protection plans and training manuals, and conducting awareness-raising campaigns around the maze national park.
• Be prepared to work closely with the park's biodiversity and wildlife experts according to the detailed plan of action outlined in the project document. Additionally, adhere to the Project Implementation Manual (PIM) as well as any other guidelines requested by the Project Management Unit.
• The biodiversity officer will assist in facilitating the biodiversity assessment performed by the consultants, while the monitoring will be carried out by the HQ-based staff in collaboration with the project coordinator assigned to the Maze National Park project.
• The biodiversity officer will assist in facilitating the fire management plan performed by the external consultants, while the monitoring will be carried out by the HQ-based staff in collaboration with the project coordinator assigned to the Maze National Park project.
• Based on the full biodiversity assessment, identify with park management the ecological hotspots, niches, species abundance areas, threat corridors, movement, prey characteristics, reproduction trends, etc., of the wildlife and devise scientific and workable mechanisms for sustained stability and maintenance of species and ecological diversity.
• Using generated and available taxa and ecosystem data, highlight the current and future occurrence of vulnerabilities to conservation management, both climatic and anthropogenic, and devise mechanisms for implementation of a landscape approach to conservation.
• Prioritize and identify with park management additional protection-worthy areas around the national park, which could either be included in the park territory or be managed by the local communities in the form of reserves to ensure the safety and integrity of the park buffer zones.
• Organize, facilitate, and provide capacity bundling support to the park staff, local relevant government offices, and community task forces to ensure collaborative, community-centered, and scientifically guided conservation of the park and its surrounding environs.
• Ensure that a proper and productive fire management system is in place, build the capacity of the fire protection brigade/task force with contemporary knowledge in the field, and coordinate the acquisition of necessary tools and technologies for fire control.
• Provide planned and continuous support to the park management towards ensuring the scouting capacity of the park rangers is on par with the demand posed by the existing and future threats and vulnerabilities.
• Organize school clubs, community campaigners, volunteers, etc., for biodiversity advocacy and build their capacities on a perpetual basis while creating effective deployment mechanisms.
• Prepare and submit periodic reports to the project coordinator and take park.
• Participate in the parks full biodiversity assessment in collaboration with relevant local-level partners and strive for the effective execution of the key recommendations of the assessment with the PMU staff.
• Undertake other tasks as assigned by the Project coordinator.

Job duties:

• The job holder should work in line with the New Labor Proclamation - Proclamation No. 1156/2019, at least eight hours daily (Monday to Friday). The position requires physical presence in the workplace (Gamo Zone, Kucha Wereda, Moka Town).

Nature of supervision:

• The position holder is directly responsible to the Project Coordinator of the PMU and is to be supervised as per the Foundations HR policy and in line with the Project Implementation Manual.

Quantity: 1

Sex: Both and female candidates are encouraged to apply.

Duration of contract: for one year with the possibility of extension.

Vacancy number: HRF- CSCET-PO-003/2024

Required qualifications and competencies

• The Biodiversity Officer (BO) must have a Masters degree in academic fields such as Biodiversity Conservation, Biological Science, Wildlife Protection and Management, Environmental Sciences, or other related fields.
• The Officer must have a relevant work experience of 8 years and above, particularly in a protected area park setting.
• Demonstrated expertise and experience in protected areas management or community-based natural resource conservation.
• Demonstrated expertise and experience in protected areas management, technology-based wildlife monitoring or inventory, geospatial data acquisition, analysis and reporting.
• Articulated knowledge of government policies and strategies for rural livelihoods and agri-business, natural resource management, tourism development, etc.
• Experience in biodiversity mapping and protected area general management plan development is a plus.
• Proven experience communicating and collaborating with local communities, private sector, and local, national and regional stakeholders to achieve agreed collective outcomes.
• Excellent facilitation and coordination skills, the ability to manage the timely and effective delivery of quantity and quality work on time.
• Strong communication and presentation skills and an ability to prepare appropriate and timely reports to various audiences and cultures/contexts.
• Familiar with and working efficiently on Office 360 and other project management software and protected areas governance using smart technologies.
• Proven command of written and spoken English; conversing with the local language of the project area community and culture is mandatory.