Organizational Setting
The Forestry Division (NFO) leads FAO's work in promoting sustainable forest management and providing leadership on the environmental, social and economic dimensions of forestry, including contributions of forests and trees to poverty reduction and food security and nutrition. Staff of the Division liaise with Members, civil society and the private sector in aspects ranging from development of effective forest policies to forest conservation and management issues and strengthening the role of forests in climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Division also collects, analyses and disseminates information on the world's forest resources and on the production, trade and consumption of wood and non-wood forest products.

The Forest Monitoring and Data Platforms Team of the Forestry Division supports FAO Members on all aspects of forest monitoring to provide reliable information for forest and land use related policy development, planning, sustainable management and for satisfying international reporting requirements under the UNFCCC, the Paris Agreement, and the CBD's Global Biodiversity Framework. The Team also supports countries on technical issues related to National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS), the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Restoration Monitoring, the development of Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) with environmental integrity and eligibility and monitoring requirements for forest finance initiatives such as the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF). The team also develops and maintains Open Foris and System for Earth Observation Data Access, Processing and Analysis for Land Monitoring (SEPAL) platforms. It works closely with the Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) team. The work of the team supports implementation of Programme Priority Areas for a better environment under the FAO Strategic Framework.

The position is located in the Forest Monitoring and Data Platforms Team of the Forestry Division (NFO) at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.

Reporting Lines

The Forestry Officer (Tropical Forest Forever Facility /TFFF) reports to the Forestry Officer (Measuring, Reporting and Verification) in the Forest Monitoring and Data Platforms Team, under the overall supervision of the Senior Forestry Officer/Team Leader, FMDP and in close collaboration with the Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) of AIM4Forests programme.

Technical Focus
The Forestry Officer (Tropical Forest Forever Facility /TFFF) supports domestic forest monitoring based on modern technologies and technical innovation for international and as appropriate, domestic reporting. The incumbent contributes to the implementation and future planning of AIM4Forests (Accelerating Innovative Monitoring for Forests) and SEPAL and in specific to the expansion of support on TFFF eligibility and monitoring, providing country support and supporting technical discussions of the Ad-hoc working group on degradation and providing inputs to the periodic updates of the eligibility and monitoring sections of the TFFF Operations Manual.

Key Results

Research, technical analysis and project related services to support the delivery of programme projects, products and services.

Key Functions

• Researches and analyses technical, social, economic, environmental, institutional, and technology related information, data and statistics and/or related policy issues to support the delivery of programme projects, products and services.

• Produces a variety of technical information, data, statistics and reports as well as input for technical documents and web pages.

• Provides technical support/analysis to various assessments, studies and initiatives and provides technical backstopping to field projects.

• Collaborates in the development of improved/updated tools, systems, processes and databases.

• Participates in multidisciplinary teams and/or leads working groups/teams collaborates with other Divisions/Offices/Centres on work groups and committees and promotes best practices.

• Collaborates in, provides technical backstopping to and ensures the quality/effectiveness of capacity development activities within Members such as policy support, organizational development and individual learning events including preparation of related information, learning materials, on-line tools.

• Promotes knowledge sharing and best practices at international meetings and conferences and influences partners in stakeholder consultations.

• Supports resource mobilization activities in accordance with the FAO Strategic Framework.

Specific Functions

• Collaborates in the development of improved/updated algorithms, applications, workflows, and documentation following best practices to support forest monitoring using geospatial data, with a focus on monitoring deforestation and degradation areas.

• Performs an advisory function to countries for planning and reporting with the view of getting access to conservation and/or carbon finance.

• Supports countries with the analysis of geospatial datasets to comply with TFFF eligibility and monitoring requirements, ensuring full country ownership with capacity building using platforms such as Open Foris and SEPAL, as required.

• Informs countries about best practices and reporting requirements, including as appropriate the creation of e-learning material, webinars or other innovative capacity development methods.

• Provides technical inputs to TFFF eligibility and monitoring, as well as TFFF accession and annual reporting.

• Facilitates stakeholder consultations on innovative technologies to be used to monitor forest degradation areas and stay informed on the latest technical innovations from within the team and beyond to reflect these in periodic updates of the TFFF operations manual.

• Performs any other duties, as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in forest engineering, forest resources management or a related field.

• Five years of relevant experience in forest resources assessment, remote sensing in developing countries.

• Working knowledge (proficiency - level C) of English and intermediate knowledge (intermediate proficiency - level B) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

Competencies

• Results Focus

• Teamwork

• Communication

• Building Effective Relationships

• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions.

• Extent and relevance of experience and knowledge in forest monitoring, with a specific focus on remote sensing.

• Extent and relevance of experience in developing countries and knowledge of their forests, with a specific focus on tropical moist forest.

• Depth of familiarity with forestry and forest resources assessment, and experience with monitoring deforestation and forest degradation.

• Depth of familiarity with the TFFF.

• Extent and relevance of experience in the analysis and formulation of technical notes and international reporting processes.

• Ability to analyze complex forestry issues from a social and environmental point of view.

• Intermediate knowledge (intermediate proficiency - level B) of Portuguese is an asset.