UNDP Jobs - 61403- International Consultant Responsible for Assessing

International Consultant Responsible for Assessing Socio-Economic Benefits and Designing Incentive Measures to Support Sustainable Approaches for Land Management in Orhei National Park region

Location :

Chisinau, MOLDOVA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

19-Nov-2015

Application Deadline :

16-Nov-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

10 Working Days November-December 2015

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

Moldova is located in an insufficiently wet zone which results in a high frequency of droughts in the result of climate change which negatively a?ect its economy. The Government of Moldova recognizes the problem, and in order to be prepared for future droughts/natural calamities and to promote more sustainable agricultural production and food security, adopted an Action Plan for Drought Mitigation Measures in the Agri-Food Sector (2012 -2015). Along with other activities reflected in the Action Plan, special attention is paid to the improvement the management of pastures for reducing the impact of droughts on the livestock sector.

Although there are designated pasturelands in most of the communities in the Orhei National Park area, often these resources are depleted. The grazing capacity of existing pastures in the park is three to four times lower than the number of 14 thousand head of existing livestock in the region. This results in biodiversity loss, loss of forest area and further fragmentation, which provides stressors to native animal and plant populations living there.

To address this situation EU Commission under CLIMA EAST package provided a grant to Republic of Moldova to demonstrate a natural resource management model in the pastures and forests of Moldova which increases ecosystems’ capacity to sequester carbon under pending climate risks, while at the same time retaining biodiversity and economic values. The CLIMA EAST pilot project targets the pastures and forest degraded lands located in the Orhei National Park area (33,792.09 ha) and its buffer zone. The project is implementing pasture restoration projects on 470 ha and afforestation of degraded lands on 150 ha in 18 communities from the park.

Duties and Responsibilities

The activity will consist in assessing socio-economic sustainability of Clima East Moldova project interventions.. As sustainability issue, is a key issue for future replication of project implemented activities, the consultant have to asses in more detail, and based on post intervention reality, the real socio-economic benefits (for LPAs and land users themselves) and propose innovative incentive measures (including financial) mechanisms to support sustainable approaches for land management for futher integration into the existing policy and regulatory frameworks.

The international consultant will work in close collaboration with a national consultant which will be responsible mainly for assisting in data collection and consultation with the key stakeholders throughout preparation of the report. In order to achieve the aforementioned objective, the Contractor will have to achieve the following tasks:

Based on the project deliverables (forest and pasture management plans) and other available published or collected information (resulted from the discussions with stakeholders) asses the real socio-economic benefits of sustainable land use management for LPAs and land users, key problems and barriers.

Propose innovative incentive measures (including financial) and compensation mechanisms to support sustainable approaches for land management for further integration into the existing policy and regulatory frameworks. The proposed incentive measures can have economic, regulatory or mix effects. Below is the example of most probable incentive measures to encourage the sustainable use of natural resources and conservation of biodiversity that have to be analysed in the framework of the study:

Economic incentives

Granting of labels and certification;
Market creation;
Improvement of access to markets, support to commercialization;
Assignment of well-defined property rights, to intellectual property as well as to resources;
Covering of incremental cost for sustainable long-term use instead of for maximum short-term use;
Subventions and compensations.

Environmental funds and public financing

Fees, charges and environmental taxes to internalize external cost;
Fiscal incentives for conservation activities;
Payments for environmental services;
Compensation.

Social and cultural incentives

Citation of traditional knowledge;
Granting of community intellectual property rights;
Exclusive use rights for particular ecosystems;
Management responsibility for particular ecosystems.

Framework incentives

Information provision, scientific and technical capacity-building;
Standards, regulations and access restrictions;
Reform or removal of adverse incentives;
Technology transfer;
Support for benefit-sharing agreements;
Economic valuation;
Institution building and stakeholder involvement.

Building support and providing capacity for the implementation. Capacity-building and involvement of local residents and stakeholders are decisive elements, independent of the incentive measure itself. The Study will have to recommend main steps to be undertaken in order to build the capacity of all the stakeholders (at institutional, legal, regulatory and individual levels). In the result of this activity proposals for integration of the innovative incentive measures for land management into the existing policy and regulatory frameworks of the countries should be done.

Managing, monitoring and enforcing the incentive measures. The Study should also describe a reasonable balance between the incentive measure’s benefit, and monitoring and enforcement costs.

Ensure a broad consultation of the proposed draft incentives with the key beneficiaries (incl. land owners) through at least one workshop and collect the comments.

Incorporate the comments into the final version of incentives report, which will be submitted to the project team.

Competencies

Excellent written communication skills, with analytic capacity; and
Ability to synthesize project outputs and relevant findings for the preparation of analytical documents;
Ability to achieve results and deadlines in a timely manner, maintaining a high standard throughout.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

University or Advanced Degree in Economy, Finance, or other relevant fields;
Education in biodiversity conservation, forestry, environment protection will be an asset.

Experience:

At least five years of experience in economy, finance, or other relevant fields;
Good knowledge of the public sector finance, environment, land use management and forestry sectors are a strong advantage;
Experience in interacting and working with state institutions at central and local levels;
Experience in similar positions in a UNDP and/or other international projects are a strong advantage.

Language:

Fluency in oral and written English language;
Knowledge of Romanian and Russian will be an asset.