UNDP has been supporting the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in meeting its national and international environmental priorities and commitments. These include close to 40 projects in the area of biodiversity conservation, sustainable resource management, climate change and chemical management. UNDP’s support focusses on technical and policy advisory, institutional strengthening and building capacities of various stakeholders to utilize natural resources in a sustainable way, while increasing resilience to climate variability and associated risks and impacts. UNDP also supports India’s engagement with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and works with Central Ministries and state governments to implement GEF financed projects.

UNDP India along with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, is developing a GEF-supported project on sustainable management and restoration of degraded landscapes for achieving Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). The project aims to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) through ecosystem-based management and restoration of productive landscapes across degraded agricultural, forest, pastoral lands and surface water bodies.

UNDP seeks to engage a Forest Management Specialist to provide substantive inputs for the justification and design of project interventions for sustainable forest management and forest restoration, including implementation of interventions on forest lands; and support the development of detailed project site profiles through collation of data and information on status, trends and threats to forests. The consultant will be an expert in sustainable forest management and forest restoration practices in India with a knowledge of international best practices.

2. Duties and Responsibilities

Specific functions to be performed by the consultant include:

1. Preparatory Technical Studies and Reviews:

 Prepare inputs and support the required analyses/studies as agreed with the GEF Project Development Specialist and National Lead Consultant, including:

a. Review and assess the project baseline for the full-size project covering current forest use, management and challenges in target districts; state and district budgets and policies, programmes and land-use plans; and identification of stakeholders (along with their roles, impacts on the landscape) and their capacity gaps, interests and needs including local authorities and resource users;

 b. Collate and assess data and information on the state of degradation of forests, drivers of degradation, and socio-economic context and livelihoods in target districts; support the definition and application of site selection criteria as related to forest lands; and provide inputs to the development of the detailed landscape profile including information on distribution of forests, carbon sequestration potential etc.

c. On the basis of this information and stakeholder consultations, identify site-specific restoration and management priorities and define appropriate project interventions to reduce degradation on forest lands in the target landscape (creation of shelter belts and specific forest management interventions, such as regeneration, afforestation, reforestation of degraded forest lands, innovative practices for the maintenance/recovery of biodiversity and ecosystem services); livelihood improvement opportunities, potential technical and grassroots solutions to LDN challenges with respect to sustainable forest management and developed the establishment of Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) focused on forest products at village and district level.

d. Identify priority indicators, features and drivers of forest degradation to be incorporated in landscape-level plans;

e. Coordinate with relevant national, state and district line departments and agencies to understand priorities;

f. Provide inputs for the development of practical and achievable project targets for the Results Framework, including Core Indicator values for forest lands, and identification of clear baselines;

 g. Support the stakeholder analysis and consultations and ensure that they are complete and comprehensive, including through taking part in national and field site consultations, especially with government staff and relevant communities; and

            h. Support the completion of any additional studies that are determined to be needed for the preparation of the ProDoc and all other final outputs as guided by the GEF Project Development Specialist.

2) Contributions to the Formulation of the ProDoc and Mandatory Project Specific Annexes (Component B):

a) Prepare inputs and support the development of final PPG deliverables, as agreed with the GEF Project Development Specialist and National Lead PPG Consultant.

3) National, state and local level consultations and validation workshops (Component C):  Participate in and contribute to the national, state and local level consultations and validation workshops. Support necessary revisions that arise during the workshop, as appropriate.

Competencies:

• Analytical skills: Able to synthesize large sets of inputs and data to form coherent outputs
• Ability to interact with senior members and stakeholders effectively and efficiently
• Must be detail-oriented
• Communication skills: Able to communicate clear ideas across a variety of mediums
• Writing and presentation skills: Able to produce high quality reports and presentations
• Team skills: Able to work independently as well as in teams
• Great organizational and time-management skills

3. Expected Deliverables

• A report summarizing the baseline analysis for forest lands as described above and detailing site-specific priority project interventions on forest lands for related Outputs, with budget, ToR and timelines for implementation;
• Substantive inputs to the landscape profile and project indicator baseline values and targets as related to forest lands;
• Inputs to capacity development scorecards for related agencies;
• Input to the comprehensive Stakeholder Engagement Plan; and
• Appropriate inputs provided to the Final Project Document and Annexes, as agreed with GEF Project Development Specialist.

4. Professional Experience

Competencies:

• Analytical skills: Able to synthesize large sets of inputs and data to form coherent outputs
• Ability to interact with senior members and stakeholders effectively and efficiently
• Must be detail-oriented
• Communication skills: Able to communicate clear ideas across a variety of mediums
• Writing and presentation skills: Able to produce high quality reports and presentations
• Team skills: Able to work independently as well as in teams
• Great organizational and time-management skills

Academic Qualification:

• Advanced university degree in a relevant field, such as Forestry, Natural Resource Management, Environment Management or any other related field

Experience:

• Minimum of 10 years of demonstrated relevant professional experience in sustainable forest management with experience of working with the government departments and agencies and communities
• Experience working on GEF projects will be an advantage.

Language:

• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English

5. Evaluation Criteria

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as Responsive to the requirement. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation;

•           Technical Criteria weight - 70%;

•           Financial Criteria weight – 30 %

Technical Criteria (70% of the total evaluation)

1. Criteria 1: Prior Experience (30%)

10 years of demonstrated relevant professional experience in sustainable land management, agriculture, forest management, and/or pastureland management with specific experience in landscape conservation, planning and governance frameworks.

2. Criteria 2: Demonstrated Knowledge on Forest Management (30%)

Worked on developing interventions for full-sized projects that demonstrate familiarity with agroforestry. 25%

3. Criteria 3: Multi-stakeholder coordination (10%)

Consultant should have demonstrated experience in coordinating and working with multi-stakeholder groups.

Financial Proposal:

Technically qualified consultants will be requested to submit their lump sum rate i.e. consultants who score more than 70% i.e. 49 marks with respect to the above-mentioned evaluation criteria. Consultant should not specify their consultancy fee on their CV or with the submission. The CV will not be evaluated further in case the consultant submits the same.

Payment Scheduled: Payments will be deliverable linked per the following schedule of payments:

Deliverables

• A report summarizing the baseline analysis for forest lands as described above and detailing site-specific priority project interventions on forest lands for related Outputs, with budget, ToR and timelines for implementation;
• Substantive inputs to the landscape profile and project indicator baseline values and targets as related to forest lands;
• Appropriate inputs provided to the Final Project Document and Annexes, as agreed with GEF Project Development Specialist.