Pilot Project and Policy Coordinator at Business and Biodiversity Offsets Program (BBOP)

Location: Flexible
Last Date: July 08, 2010
Email: pmaguire@forest-trends.org

BBOP Pilot Project and Policy Coordinator

Business and Biodiversity Offsets Program (BBOP), Forest Trends

Summary: The BBOP Pilot Project and Policy Coordinator will report to the Director of the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme (BBOP) at Forest Trends and be responsible for managing BBOP’s relationships with its partners from government (whom BBOP is supporting as they develop policy on biodiversity offsets) and partners from companies (whom BBOP is supporting as they design and implement specific biodiversity offsets). The BBOP Pilot Project and Policy Coordinator will work with the BBOP Director, Secretariat, Executive Committee and Advisory Group to coordinate BBOP’s work with governments around the world on policy development and with companies on the design and implementation of biodiversity offset pilot projects.

Context: The Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme (BBOP) is a collaboration of over 50 companies, financial institutions, governments, and civil society organisations, who are members of its Advisory Group. Together, the members aim to test and develop best practice on biodiversity offsets and conservation banking worldwide. BBOP was established by Forest Trends which currently serves on its Secretariat with the Wildlife Conservation Society. Forest Trends is a US-based non-profit organization that works globally and aims to expand the value of forests to society and promote sustainable forest management and conservation by creating and capturing market values for ecosystem services. For more information, please visit www.forest-trends.org/biodiversityoffsetsprogram/.

Over the last five years, BBOP has developed a set of principles for biodiversity offsets and interim scientific and technical guidance on a broad range of issues related to the design and implementation of biodiversity offsets ; has worked on six pilot projects with companies; and has influenced policy on biodiversity offsets, largely at the international level. The BBOP Executive Committee and Advisory Group have agreed the thrust of the group’s work to July 2012, as described in the box below. Working Groups have been established for each of these six priority areas.

Priorities for BBOP’s work from July 2009 to July 2012:

• National level interventions – providing technical support and policy advice on biodiversity offsets, landscape-level and regional planning to governments, through general reports and specific advice. This may be through aggregated offsets and banks – working with government, multiple developers in given regions, and other stakeholders to combine offsets and plan them at the ecoregional and landscape scales, including, where appropriate, the use of conservation banks and the trading of biodiversity credits at national or local levels. (The BBOP Pilot Project and Policy Coordinator will coordinate the work with BBOP’s government partners, working with the BBOP Director.)
• A broader portfolio of biodiversity offset experiences – demonstrating through BBOP pilot projects and others’ experiences how biodiversity offsets could work in a broad range of countries and industry sectors. (The BBOP Pilot Project and Policy Coordinator will coordinate the work with BBOP’s company partners, working with the BBOP Science Coordinator.)
• Better guidelines – improving the BBOP guidelines on how to design and implement biodiversity offsets, based on broader geographic and sectoral experience of BBOP members and others.
• Training and capacity building – training a cadre of professionals worldwide to support companies and governments in the design and implementation of biodiversity offsets and associated regulation and policy.
• Communications – providing a global forum to make the case that development projects result in no net loss of biodiversity by following the mitigation hierarchy and applying biodiversity offsets, and to share and disseminate collective learning and experience with biodiversity offsets, including market-based and community-oriented approaches.
• Verification and auditing protocols – developing agreed protocols for verification and auditing of biodiversity offsets. This could provide a foundation for the future development of internationally agreed and certifiable standards for biodiversity offsets.


Further information on BBOP’s background and strategy for the coming years can be found in the BBOP Overview .


Roles and Responsibilities of the post-holder:

The roles and responsibility of the BBOP Pilot Project and Policy Coordinator fall under three main headings, as follows:

• Managing relationships with BBOP’s pilot partners: This will involve liaising with companies with which BBOP is undertaking pilot projects. Working closely with the BBOP Science Coordinator (who will lead on the selection of scientific methodologies to be used at each pilot project):
o The BBOP Pilot Project and Policy Coordinator will lead the preparation of a Memorandum of Understanding and workplan with each of BBOP’s pilot partners, setting out the programme of work and roles and responsibilities of the members of staff of the company partner and of BBOP and its consultants as they design a biodiversity offset for the project concerned.
o The BBOP Pilot Project and Policy Coordinator will collaborate with the BBOP Programme Manager to prepare fundraising proposals to support this work.
o Once the MoU and workplan are established, the BBOP Pilot Project and Policy Coordinator will coordinate BBOP’s work with the company concerned, helping the company staff:
 stay on track with the workplan;
 establish consultancies with BBOP Advisory Group and other experts, as necessary;
 arrange workshops;
 design the offset for the project that applies the BBOP Principles (including such issues as following the mitigation hierarchy; establishing whether the project’s impacts are capable of being offset; quantifying loss and gain; selecting sites and planning at the landscape scale; establishing the legal, institutional and financial arrangements for long-term offset implementation). (This work will involve collaboration with the BBOP Science Coordinator.)



• Managing relationships with BBOP’s country partners : This will involve liaising with government agencies in the countries where BBOP is undertaking policy work.
o The BBOP Pilot Project and Policy Coordinator will lead the preparation of a Memorandum of Understanding and workplan with each of BBOP’s government partners, setting out the programme of work and roles and responsibilities of the members of staff of the government partner and of BBOP and its consultants as they identify and evaluate options for national (or state-level) policy on biodiversity offsets, then draft policy documents.
o The BBOP Pilot Project and Policy Coordinator will collaborate with the BBOP Programme Manager and government partners to prepare fundraising proposals to support this work.
o Once the MoU and workplan are established, the BBOP Pilot Project and Policy Coordinator will coordinate BBOP’s work with the country concerned, helping the government partners:
 stay on track with the workplan;
 establish consultancies with BBOP Advisory Group and other experts, as necessary;
 arrange workshops;
 draft papers that set out the policy options and an analysis of their pros and cons; and
 prepare the resulting policy documents on biodiversity offsets.

• Contributing to the work and smooth running of the BBOP Secretariat:
o Work with the BBOP Secretariat and Advisory Group members to review and make recommendations on new pilot project opportunities.
o Represent BBOP in relevant international and national conferences and meetings, as appropriate.
o Contribute advice from lessons learned working with governments and companies as the BBOP Pilot Project and Policy Coordinator to the teams developing BBOP’s assurance protocols, guidelines and training programmes, so these will be helpful and workable for governments and companies alike.
o Take part in BBOP Secretariat quarterly planning, weekly team meetings and workstream management.
o Help the Secretariat team run annual BBOP meetings, and other BBOP conferences and workshops.
o Contribute to fundraising activities alongside other Secretariat team members, by preparing text for use in funding proposals and attending meetings with potential donors.


Qualifications

• PhD in Ecology, sustainable development policy or a related field.
• At least 2 years of experience working with businesses or governments, for example, conducting environmental impact assessments, working within companies’ environmental teams or drafting policy for government.
• Proven track record in project management.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills, and a self directed management style.
• Good knowledge of contemporary conservation and sustainable development policy, familiarity with market-based instruments in this field and ability to master new areas quickly.
• Experience working with collaborators from diverse backgrounds and ability and appetite to work with interdisciplinary teams.
• Strong technical writing skills and ability to communicate technical information clearly and simply to a varied audience (including representatives from indigenous peoples, local communities, governments, companies and banks, as well as the scientific community).
• Effective written and oral communication and inter-personal skills.
• Willingness to travel internationally roughly 25% of the time.
• Fluency in English with Spanish, Portuguese and/or French language skills a plus.


Time Commitment: Full time post.

Compensation: Negotiable, employees also enjoy a generous benefits package

Location: Flexible, but must be in time zone with daily overlap of 6 working hours with London and Washington.

Closing Date: 5:00pm (EST) Thursday 8 July, 2010

Please send your C.V. and a covering letter explaining why your experience, skills and motivation equip you for the specific aspects of this job to Patrick Maguire at pmaguire@forest-trends.org. No phone calls please.