Background

The long-term solution sought is to facilitate shift from unsustainable to sustainable forest management in NE Armenia. The target area contains 65% of Armenia’s forest resources and provides essential ecosystem services including water provision (for urban use and food production), land slide, control and carbon storage and sequestration. The project will promote an integrated approach towards fostering sustainable forest management – seeking to balance environmental management with development and community needs.

The project major objective is sustainable land and forest management in the North-eastern Armenia to secure continued flow of multiple ecosystem services (such as water provision, land slide control, and carbon storage/sequestration) and to ensure conservation of critical wildlife habitats through the removal of the aforementioned barriers will ensure sustainable land and forest management to secure continued flow of multiple ecosystem services. This would be achieved during the four years of implementation through two main components, namely: (i) Integration of sustainable forest and land management objectives into planning and management of forest ecosystems to reduce degradation and enhance ecosystem services in two marzes covering 0.65 million hectares; and (ii) Sustainable Forest Management practices effectively demonstrating reduced pressure on high conservation forests and maintaining flow of ecosystem services.

It will attempt to reduce conflicting forest land-uses and improve the sustainability of forest management so as to maintain the flow of vital ecosystem services and sustain the livelihoods of local forest-dependent communities (and downstream users). This platform will be underpinned by a robust forest management planning support system and monitoring framework that will inform plans for the forest estate.

The context of the required contractual service is to conduct Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Forest and Forest Ecosystem Valuation in line of activities of Environmental Expertise Unit of Ministry of Nature Protection of RA as state responsible unit for EIA.  

The objectives of the Task are: a) review the acting forest related legislation and normative documents and assess their possible impact on environment; b) assess impact of acting and revised (in process) forest management planning documents and their implementation; c) develop a methodological guideline for the EIA of acting and planning forest management practices; d) conduct an assessment of EIA of forest and forest ecosystem valuation.  

   

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the National Project Director and direct supervision of the Project Coordinator the National Expert is responsible for conducting an assessment according to the following issues:

  • Review environmental impact assessment reports and prepare responses or decisions related to their findings with main emphasis to forest and forest ecosystems valuation.
  • Assist various applicants by providing responses to their questions related to the law and procedures for preparing environmental impact studies.
  • Participate in development of the methodology for preparing environmental impact studies and guidelines related to the forest and forest ecosystem valuation.
  • Provide expert opinion about internal and external questions related to the need to conduct environmental impact evaluations on forest related issues.
  • Analyze drawbacks and gaps in current EIA reports/studies on forest and forest ecosystem valuation and work out corresponding recommendations to respond the needs and fill the gaps.
  • Participate in selection of the external specialists for reviewing certain specialized sections of the environmental impact reports and review their work.
  • Develop the guidelines and conduct training for Unit staff members on improving the quality and scope of the environmental impact assessment reports. 

Expected deliverables

  1. Report on the status of EIA application for the forest related legislation and normative documents, particularly of acting and revised (in process within SLM/SFM) forest management planning documents and their implementation.
  2. Develop report on needs and gaps related to the forest and forest ecosystem valuation under the EIA, based on the information collected in the process of the EIA of official and non-official documents, SLM/SFM and other forest related project reports, scientific and other publications and outcomes. 
  3. Develop methodological guideline(s,) recommendations to improve procedures of EIA of forest and forest ecosystem valuation, including improvements in regulatory framework, capacity building, etc.
  4. Develop guidelines and deliver on job training for the EIA staff.

Competencies

  • Good knowledge of the national legal and regulatory framework related to the task;
  • The knowledge of the international regulations and standards related to EIA is an asset
  • Good analytical and writing skills;
  • Ability to work independently and ability to interact productively in a team;
  • Timely delivery of good-quality products;
  • Excellent communication skills, result and client oriented.

 

Required Skills and Experience

Education:          

  • Master degree in natural sciences, engineering or environmental management

Experience:  

  • At least 5 years of working experience in conducting environmental impact assessment;
  • Experience in cooperation with local and international organizations;
  • Experience in/good knowledge of the context of forest and forest ecosystem valuation issues in Armenia

Language Requirements:  

  • Proficiency in Armenian; good knowledge of English and Russian languages.  

 

NDIVIDUAL CONSULTANTS WILL BE EVALUATED BASED ON THE FOLLOWING METHODOLOGY:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants' technical qualifications,  experience and financial proposal. The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as technically responsive/compliant/acceptable to the requirements of the ToR and received the highest cumulative (technical and financial) score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation - max. 70 points

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation - max. 30 points. 

Technical Criteria

  • Criteria A:    Experience in conducting environmental impact assessment- Max 15 points       
  • Criteria B:    Knowledge of national and interantional requiremnst for EIA- Max 15 points
  • Criteria C:    Demonstrated ability of cooperation with stakeholders: government and municipality specialists, and  private sector; Max 10 points
  • Criteria D:    Academic knowledge and or experience in addressing Ecosystem valuation. Familiarity with  climate change related national documents and prioritis-  20 Max points
  • Criteria E :    Experience with international organizations/projects- Max  5 points 
  • Criteria F      Language skills-  Max  5 points 

 

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE APPLICATION.

General Conditions of Contract is available here: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf.

Note: Please note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents in one single PDF file to attach).