Cambodia is endowed with rich biodiversity that are essential to support the livelihood of local communities and contribute to economic growth. The country is covered by important ecosystems that are homes to exceptional biological diversity. Some landscapes also have high commercial productive values, for example, the Angkor Protected Landscape and the Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve.

Cambodia is one of the fastest growing countries in the region with approximately 7% growth rate per annum. Over the last few decades, however, economic activities have put pressure on biological resources. The main threats to biodiversity include habitat loss and fragmentation, overexploitation of biological resources, and unsustainable land management. The effects of climate change have also exacerbated vulnerability on the critical ecosystems, for instance, changes in hydrological conditions of the Tone Sap Great Lake and decline in forest regeneration rate of the northern plain.

Since 2013, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has embarked on environmental governance reform. One of the critical milestone resulting from the reform so far is the jurisdictional reform, which increasing the total land areas under protected areas from 3 million ha to 7 million ha in 2017. Different management mechanisms and tools such as landscape planning and payment for environmental service are being scaled up to promote effective natural resources management.

UNDP is one of the main partners providing support to the RGC in environmental and natural resources management. UNDP is developing a full-size project document seeking financial support from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) to promote integrated landscape management for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity natural resources and ecosystem services in the northern region of Cambodia.

The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Expert assist the team leader in collating inputs of different team specialists and take the lead in all the stakeholder consultation and focus group discussion at the local level to design project interventions. S/he will also support the team in drafting the project document, CEO endorsement, SES screening and coordinating with the government counterparts and other stakeholders.

S/he will be responsible to carry out the following activities:

1. Preparatory Technical Studies and Reviews (Component A):
2. Formulation of the ProDoc, CEO Endorsement Request and Mandatory and Project Specific Annexes (Component B):
3. Validation Workshop (Component C):
4. Final Deliverable:
   • An inception report detailing the methodology and work plan for the consulting assignment
   • A detailed report that: (a) describes the watershed, biodiversity and socio-economic conditions of the target landscapes and watersheds based on latest available data and information; (b) establishes baseline data on key threats to the target protected areas & watersheds; (c) assesses the management status of the target PAs and recommends measures to strengthen their management; and (c) proposes an integrated strategy to address the threats and opportunities in the targeted landscape.
   • Complete all the tracking tools listed above including capacity development and financial sustainability scorecard.

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=46396  for more detail information about term of references, instructions to offeror, and to download the documents to be submitted in the offer through online.

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN values and ethical standards.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• High level planning, organizational and time management skills, including flexibility, attention to detail and the ability to work under pressure to meet challenging deadlines.
• Analytical and problem solving skills of a high order, including the ability to formulate recommendations and advice senior management on tackling difficult scenarios.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including ability to establish strong cooperative relationships with senior government officials, civil society and donors.
• Ability to quickly adapt to change, and to remain calm under pressure.
• Proven cross-cultural communication and the ability to function effectively in an international, multicultural environment.

Education: 

 Master’s degree or higher in a relevant field, such as environmental studies, conservation science, natural resource management or related fields

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of demonstrable experience in the technical area of biodiversity conservation, protected area management, sustainable land management, biodiversity mainstreaming in development planning, sector and landscapes, protected area financing.
• Knowledge of natural resource management in Cambodia. Knowledge and experience working in natural resource management in the northern plain of Cambodia is an asset.
• Knowledge in institutional and legal framework in biodiversity and natural resources management in Cambodia.
• Experience designing and/or working with GEF projects

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=46396 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 on-line applications submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an e-mail 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 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.