Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through the FAO Strategic Framework by supporting the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems, for a better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

The Forestry Division (NFO) leads FAO's work in the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration in collaboration with other Divisions, for example the Fishery and Aquaculture Division in promoting sustainable food agricultural systems and providing leadership on the environmental, social and economic dimensions of forestry, fishery and aquaculture, including contributions to poverty reduction and food security and nutrition.

This position is located in the Forest Monitoring and Data Platforms team in NFO. The forest monitoring team supports FAO member countries on all aspects of forest monitoring to provide reliable information for national forest and land use related policy development, planning and sustainable management. The data collected is used by countries for satisfying international reporting requirements under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement and for accessing results-based financing for forests like Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) payments or carbon finance.

Reporting Lines

The incumbent will report to the Forestry Officer, Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) in the Forest Monitoring team, under the overall supervision of the Team Leader/Senior Forestry Officer. Depending on the assigned project, the incumbent will work in close collaboration with the Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) and/or Lead Technical Officer (LTO) of the projects it works for, and the incumbent will work in close coordination with the country offices where appropriate.

Technical Focus

The specialist will contribute to the operational success of FAO’s work on forestry, land use (change) and climate change, and in specific on MRV for forest-related emissions and removals and MRV for participation in the TFFF (https://www.fao.org/forest-monitoring/how-we-collaborate/tfff/en ). The objective of this assignment is to develop the capacity of countries in MRV of forest area, forest area changes and forest-related emissions and removals. The incumbent will support in the analysis of activity data, and combine area estimates with emission factors obtained from analysing National Forest Inventory (NFI) data to obtain emission estimates, to be used in greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory reporting, in the construction of reference levels and the assessment of achieved emission reductions. 
The overall objective is to support countries on one or several of the following: i) improve climate change reporting to the UNFCCC, in specific supporting countries in reporting forest reference levels and Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) technical annexes, and where appropriate inform the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the enhanced transparency framework (ETF); ii) support countries to achieve high quality MRV that meets requirements in carbon accounting standards to enable access to climate finance, iii) support countries with participating in, and reporting to, the TFFF and getting access to its results-based conservation finance. Where appropriate, countries will be familiarized and trained in the use of FAO’s open source technical solutions and platforms, such as Open Foris (https://openforis.org/), including Collect Earth, Collect Earth Online and SEPAL.

Tasks and responsibilities

•     Support countries with technical advice on MRV for TFFF and MRV of forest-related emissions and removals
•     Assist in the elaboration of guidance material to help build MRV/TFFF capacity in country (for example, e-learning courses or gap assessment tools)
•     Inform countries about TFFF requirements, and assessment of tropical moist forest area, deforestation area and fire-degraded forest area and submission of accession and annual reports to TFFF;
•     Inform countries about MRV requirements of different carbon accounting standards and support the submission of monitoring reports to e.g. ART-TREES
•     Perform MRV and TFFF gap assessments
•     Support countries with their analysis and combination of activity data (from satellite land monitoring systems) and emission factors (from national forest inventories)
•     Support countries with the implementation of the ETF with a focus on the forest and land use sector
•     Organize and/or facilitate meetings, workshops, technical trainings etc and coordinate with relevant units in FAO, e.g. other NFO teams or the climate change team (OCB) in FAO
•     Any other duties as required

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•     For Consultants: advanced university degree from an institution recognized by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/UNESCO in forestry, environmental sciences, natural resource management, or a related field; Consultants with a bachelor's degree need two additional years of relevant professional experience
For PSAs: University degree from an institution recognized by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/UNESCO in forestry, environmental sciences, natural resource management, or a related field
•     At least three years of relevant experience in forest monitoring, forests and climate, estimating GHG emissions from forests / Measurement, Reporting and Verification
•     Working knowledge (level C) of English, French or Spanish

FAO Core Competencies

•     Results Focus
•     Teamwork
•     Communication
•     Building Effective Relationships
•     Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

•     Extent and relevance of experience in forest monitoring, forest and climate programmes and MRV
•     Work experience in/with developing countries 
•     Familiarity with ETF and NDCs under the Paris Agreement of the UNFCCC
•     Familiarity with IPCC guidance and guidelines
•     Knowledge of ART-TREES MRV requirements is an advantage
•     Experience with FAO’s open-source platforms is an advantage

Selection Criteria

•     Extent of experience in forest monitoring, forest and climate programmes and MRV
•     Extent of experience of analysing remote sensing and/or national forest inventory data
•     Extent of experience in supporting developing countries capacity development activities
•     Extent of experience in international reporting systems
•     Extent of writing skills, with the ability to produce high-quality reports and other written materials.