UNDP Jobs - 49916- International Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES)

International Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) Specialist

Location :

Port Moresby, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

20-Oct-2014

Application Deadline :

08-Oct-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

100 days within 6 months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The Department of Environment and Conservation in partnership with UNDP, has recently commenced implementation of a new project known as the Community-based Forest and Coastal Conservation and Resource Management (CbFCCRM), aiming to catalyse sustainability of the national Protected Area system in the country. This project was approved by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in June 2011, implemented under the leadership of the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) in collaboration with Provincial and Local Level Governments with the buy in from committed landowners and communities.

This project will attempt to demonstrate sustainable financing opportunities/options and innovative collaboration approaches for Protected Areas (PAs) management will be demonstrated in Owen Stanley Range and New Britain Island. The target area in New Britain are:

Nakanai Sublime Karst;
Whiteman Range;
Baining Mountains;
To include the clusters of established Wildlife Management Areas and Locally Managed Marine Areas within New Britain such as Tavolo, Toimtop, Klampun, Garu, among others.

This Project’s strategy is based on the understanding that a major cause of the disconnect between Protected Area planning and management with national development and sectoral planning directly results from ineffective demarcation of globally and nationally significant biodiversity as well as a lack of appreciation for potential losses that these could economically affect various industries and peoples’ livelihoods. As identified in previous assessments, insufficient financial and human resources in the policy framework and weak capacity to manage them, reduces effective administration in the protection and management of ecosystems and its services for Protected Areas. In addition, policy makers and the public have limited access to knowledge on PA values, leading to great challenges in obtaining wider political and financial support for effective protection of biodiversity within PAs or establishing new PAs. This also meant that uninformed “development” decisions have often been made and are known to be detrimental to PAs such as mining or logging concessions and conversion of forest into palm oil plantations near or within PAs. An obvious need remains in exploring appropriate and sustainable financing opportunities that will look beyond green tourism and entrance fee-related revenues. There are a number of other avenues still unrealized in PNG.

The national government through DEC/CEPA is promoting a biodiversity offsetting scheme which is geared towards reducing threats on Protected Areas by establishing a financing mechanism to improve PA management and financing. These are well introduced in the country’s first national policy framework on Protected Areas to be finalized in September 2014 which fits with the new mandate of DEC as it transitions into a statutory authority for environmental management and protection.

Within this framework, the project is seeking to identify, develop and trial PES options for New Britain - both traditional (tourist fees, land fees, etc.) and non-traditional (concessions and biodiversity offsets from mining or other private sector activities, sustainable products, markets for ecosystem services, and other collaborative partnerships to offset costs and raise funds) sources of revenues to adequately manage PAs. This initiative will complement the ongoing preparation of both interim arrangement and long-term strategy for Biodiversity Trust Fund. The information generated from this study will be presented to decision-makers of the need to increase investment in PA management, identify market linkages to PES options as well as incorporate findings on how DEC/CEPA could support and improve the communication strategy and products in order to encourage landowners and communities to commit their lands for a conservation scheme. Findings and products of above initiative will serve as a basis for further revision and necessary amendment in the policy and legislation on Protected Areas and other related new policy guidance and rules to enable an effective management and financial framework for the PA system in the country.

Duties and Responsibilities

DEC/CEPA and UNDP therefore requires the service of an experienced International PES specialist to provide technical advice and inputs.

The main objective of the consultancy will be to assist DEC/CEPA conduct an analysis and identify PES options for New Britain Island and Cost Benefit Analysis to support the advocacy of and awareness raising to be undertaken by CbFCCRM Project to reach increased investment in piloting PA management and to ensure long term sustainability of a network of PA system in PNG.

The Consultant will undertake the following tasks but not limited to:

Review relevant literature and available studies on the types of payments for ecosystem services including successful models at the global and regional levels to assess applicability to PNG focussing on the New Britain Island;
Review existing models that have attempted to conduct Cost Benefit Analysis of PES options and apply the appropriate model for valuation of these options and determine monetary quantification of the ecosystem products and services for each targeted Protected Areas;
Conduct a gap/weakness analysis, to identify and map the extent to which existing policies, laws and regulations applicable to implement PES models identified under this assignment.

A review should be made of, but not limiting to, the following:

Legal system – what are the national laws and regulations that directly impact the participation of national, provincial, district, local level government, private sectors and local communities which have a direct impact on cross-sectoral government mandates supporting PES and how is its enforcement including grievance mechanism is practiced or likely to be practiced?
Policies – what is codified in national policies, strategies and plans with regards to PES in all related sectors?
Programmes – what provisions are made in national target programmes including those of private sector contributing to PES?
Plans – what provisions are available to mainstream PES into sectoral or sub-national development plans and planning processes?
Processes – what other relevant and currently on-going processes could contribute to a national safeguard response (e.g. FSC certification process)?
Practices – how are the above laws and regulations, policies, programmes, plans and processes actually implemented on the ground; to what extent can practices be improved?

Socio-economic study to ascertain the extent of socio-economic development since the forestry/oil palm operations in order to give a comparative analysis to communities, relevant LLGs, Districts and Provinces to facilitate important decisions about the alternatives DEC/CEPA is keen to trial under this project;
Conduct capacity building exercises using participatory approach, involving respective DEC/CEPA staff and other sectoral agencies as well as Provincial/District/LLGs and identified communities in New Britain to include academia and civil society directly involved in managing community conserved areas;
Review and document cases of New Britain’s eco-compensation /incentives initiatives, existing examples of provincial and local schemes, and explore opportunities for channelling eco-incentives packages in direct support for PA management:
Based on the monetary values of the PES options, identify economically viable options for demonstration based on the needs and situation of New Britain Island;
Draw conclusions and formulate communications messages for public and private sector decision-makers, based on the values calculated, about the economic, business and development rationale for investing in PAs;
Identify specific additional studies/analysis to strengthen DEC/CEPA goal of establishing sustainable financing for Protected Area by providing the incremental socio-economic benefits or value added derived through effective resource management of PAs and the economic losses being risked through uncontrolled activities and continued loss or degradation of forest and marine habitat and ecosystem to also include the development of TOR and costing for additional studies/activities proposed for PES demonstration under the Project;
Any other tasks as may be jointly agreed.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Technical

Demonstrated strategic technical and intellectual skills in the substantive area of economic valuation of natural resources and ecosystem service and eco-compensation;
Familiar with PES applications in PNG and island nations in the Pacific.

Partnerships

Demonstrated leadership, facilitation and coordination skills, ability to obtain and distil information from stakeholders with different backgrounds and nationalities;
Demonstrated entrepreneurial abilities and ability to work in an independent manner;
Demonstrated ability to work in a team, ability for managing timely and effective delivery of both quantity and quality before the deadlines;
Sound analytical and organizational skills.

Core Competencies:

Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
Good team player who has ability to maintain good relationships.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced Degree in Natural Resource Management and Environmental Economics, or closely related field with focus on ecosystem services of protected areas.

Experience:

Minimum of 10 years of demonstrated experience and knowledge in the field of environmental economics, payment for ecosystem mechanism development and/or ecosystem service valuation, in particular, experience working in relation to protected area management;
Extensive international experience in and knowledge of various methodologies of ecosystem valuation and economic valuation of Protected Areas as well as economic valuation tools;
Extensive experience with project development, implementation and management that addresses technical assistance and capacity development of partners;
Working experience in the relevant field in PNG and its government, knowledge of GEF and UNDP policies and practices is an advantage;
Excellent communication (both oral and written) and partnership building skills with multi-dimension partners, people skills for negotiation;
Computer proficient, especially related to professional office software packages.

Language:

Fluency and proficiency in English.

Application procedure:

Interested applicants are to submit a financial and technical proposal for this consultancy.

Refer link for full details:http://procurement-notices.undp.org/.

When submitting your proposal, please be guided by the attached Request for Proposal (RFP) and the Terms of Reference (TOR). Proposals may be submitted on or before 08 October 2014.

Please email your proposal to: registry.pg@undp.org, or gwen.maru@undp.org.