Background

During the last decades, Cambodia has undergone a rapid rate of deforestation with the forest cover change from 57 % in 2010 to 47% in 2014 (RGC).  Cambodia has now approximately 8.5 million ha of forest (RGC 2014). Since 2007, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has supported REDD+[1]  as a crucial national strategy to tackle the alarming rates of deforestation and forest degradation in the country and to improve the livelihoods of forest dependent communities. These National REDD+ efforts have been led by the Forestry Administration and Fishery Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery (MAFF) as well as the Ministry of Environment.

At present the MAFF governs more than 1 million ha of forests reserved for production while the Ministry of Environment governs about 7 million ha of forests reserved for conservation. Given that the domestic and regional demand for forest products such as timber, fuelwood, Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) has been rapidly growing, the sustainability of the Cambodia’s forests crucially depends upon whether forests reserved for production would continue to meet the demand. This points to the critical need to enhance productive capacities of forests in supplying forest products.

In this context, in 2017, the Forestry Administration made a decision to formulate a national strategy for production forestry, in order to improve the capacity of existing production forests, and to promote sustainable forest management in a manner to contribute to national REDD+ efforts.

The proposed production forestry strategy is envisaged to provide clear visions and key objectives of the production forests of Cambodia and to present concrete strategies and actions for further improved performance of the production forests.  As shown in Table 1: proposed draft content of the policy document, the strategy is likely to build upon the following concrete strategies.

1. Strengthen or create an enabling policy and legal framework
2. Promote productivity and sustainability of forests
3. Strengthen Institutional Capacity and Collaboration
4. Promote stakeholder participation, awareness raising, and capacity development
5. Ensure sustainable financing for production forestry

UNDP was requested to provide technical assistance to elaborate these measures based on comprehensive and strategic assessments of existing forest resources, institutional capacities, governance structures, and opportunities and costs.

Table 1. Proposed draft content of strategy

[1] REDD+ refers to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and foster conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main task of the Consultant is to develop a national strategy for production forestry in cooperation with a working group of the production forestry of the Forest Administration. The Consultant will perform the following specific tasks:

1. Develop a workplan and time schedule for this assignment

2. Review other countries’ production forestry strategies and review/revise the proposed content and structure of a national strategy in consultation with a working group on production forestry

3. Conduct strategic assessments related to production forests including:

• Review of production forest status
• Institutional analysis
• Potential benefits from the implementation of this strategy

This assessment should draw on available literature, review of statistics, data, maps related to production forestry and interviews with relevant government officers and stakeholders.

4. Develop draft action plans for the following interventions with identification of possible pilot initiatives to demonstrate quick-wins based on consultations with the working group. This work should consider not only about productivity but also about the sustainability and competitiveness of the production forests relative to illegally harvested forest products (e.g. strategies to replace illegal forest products that are currently the source of woodfuel for garment factories or charcoal).

1. Implementation of reforestation/afforestation/restoration through plantation
2. Support for community based production forestry
3. Effective monitoring of Economic Land Concessions (ELCs), and Social Land Concessions (SLCs)
4. Support for Public and Private Partnership forestry
5. Promotion of agroforestry (agricultural/livestock production forestry/fuelwood)
6. Promotion of sustainable NTFPs harvesting and production

5. Prepare and present a power point presentation of main contents of the strategy focusing on the results of strategic assessments and the proposed action plans to receive feedback from the working group on production forestry and UNDP

6. Develop the first draft strategy which includes all the contents presented in Table 1 incorporating feedback from the working group and UNDP

 7. Organization of subnational consultation workshop (s)

• Organize a subnational consultation workshop to present and discuss the first draft. The consultant will be responsible for 1) preparing the meeting agenda, invitation letters and distribution materials, 2) identifying key stakeholders for production forests, 3) preparing presentations to introduce the main contents of the strategy and receive comments from stakeholders, and 4) prepare a workshop report.

8. Develop the second draft strategy incorporating comments received from the participants of subnational workshop(s) and the working group

 9. Organization of a national validation workshop

• Organize a national validation workshop to present and discuss the second draft. The consultant team will be responsible for 1) preparing the meeting agenda, invitation letters and distribution materials, 2) identifying key stakeholders for production forests, 3) preparing presentations to introduce the main contents of the strategy and receive comments from stakeholders, and 4) prepare a workshop report.

10. Develop a final draft strategy incorporating comments received from the participants of the national workshop, a working group and UNDP

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

• Proven ability to formulate clear, succinct strategic policies and action plans, including resource mobilization for government agencies in the field of forestry  (assessed by a sample policy document developed by a Consultant)

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;

Required Skills and Experience

Education: 

• Master degree in forestry, natural resources management, or other relevant discipline

Experience:

• At least 12 years of working experiences in the forestry sector
• Prior experience in formulating a forestry policy at the national level working with government counterparts as well as representatives from development agencies in developing countries. Working experience in the South-East Asia Region is an advantage

Language Requirement:

• Fluency in written and spoken English

Interested offeror must  read  the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=39391 for more  detail information about term  of references, instructions to offeror, and to download the documents to be submitted in the offer through online.

UNDP reserves right to reject any applications that is incomplete.

Please be informed that we don’t accept application submitted via email.

Interested Offerors are required to submit application via UNDP jobsite system as the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP jobsite system. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your on­line applications submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an e­mail acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application, if necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email pheara.lek@undp.org and cc procurement.kh@undp.org.  While the Procurement Unit would endeavor to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 5 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted in Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain update related to this Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice.