Company Summary
Founded in 2006, Terra Global is a woman-run, women-owned for-profit social enterprise, and small business. Terra Global’s mission is to facilitate financially, socially, and environmentally sustainable landscapes around the world. Terra Global is an established global leader in sustainable forest and agriculture program development, land-use greenhouse gas quantification and finance through providing technical expertise and investment capital to a global client base in a collaborative and innovative manner. Leveraging its global experience in generating positive social and environmental outcomes, Terra Global manages a portfolio sustainable landscape projects working with governments, NGOs and communities which are funded through climate finance. Having worked in 30+ countries, Terra Global has designed and supported the implementation of REDD+ and other sustainable landscape programs from the project to national scale.
Project Summary
The Community Forestry Program (Program) supports indigenous landowner communities, Ejidos, who live in the zone of influence of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve (CBR) and in the buffer zones of the CBR, on the Yucatán peninsula in the states of Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatán to preserve their forests. The Program provides conservation payments and supports other social programs that compensate Ejidos for not harvesting their forests or leasing them to commercial interests for harvesting. Terra Global’s local NGO partner organization has been working with Ejido communities in these areas for more than 15 years. Poverty often pressures the Ejidos to lease their land to timber companies or other illegally to agro-economic corporations who would convert forests. Most of the Selva Maya outside of the CBR has already been converted to a degraded landscape through agriculture, threatening the biological and cultural richness of this entire region. To provide a viable income alternative to unsustainable logging, Terra Global’s local NGO partner has developed binding permanent conservation agreements that it signs with the Ejidos seeking to participate in conserving their forests. In return, the conservation agreements ensure that Ejidos receive annual conservation payments and support for other livelihood programs. The on-going success and scaling of Ejido partners’ conservation work depends on excellent and effective program coordination to maintain sufficient conservation payments to the Ejidos.
Responsibilities
The Mexico Project Coordinator will provide technical support and work alongside the local implementation partners in carrying out the ACAC Community Forestry Program Activities and monitoring results. This person will lead coordination between the Terra Global International teams and local partners.
Coordinate Field Activities
· Be a project management resource for Terra Global in Mexico including helping Ejido communities be aware of REDD+ program, actively engaged in planning and committed to forest protection through a participatory process
· Frequent travel to Mexico’s Yucatán Region for ACAC and Ejido partner meetings including to remote areas
· Working with ACAC partners and technical service provides on the development of social and livelihood programs including improved agricultural outcomes, promotion of sustainable harvesting and production of Non-Forest Timber Products (NFTPs), gender empowerment, and promotion of eco-tourism jobs
· Gather and share lessons learned and amongst community stakeholders
· Gather information and local data need for business plans to expand and develop the program into commercially viable projects and products
· Coordinate training sessions and discussions with government and communities
· Hold workshops for the ACAC Community Forestry Program and participate in workshops with the other actors on REDD+ issues
· Gathering of field data from offices and store in a secure location.
Coordinate Program Activities (office based)
Support and act as a liaison for Tera Global and the ACAC Community Forestry Program including:
· Supporting all partners for best communication with Terra Global
· Overall oversight of the M&E processes undertaken by the ACAC
· Fiscal management procedures for Terra and ACAC Community Forestry Program
· Procurement of goods for the ACAC partners
· Project management oversight and support for the Program overall
· Prepare quarterly reports for the program including monitoring of Program Activities
· Ensure consistent and timely flow of information and data from the field to Terra USA team
Lead in Monitoring Data Collection
The Consultant will work closely with ACAC and Ejido partners, and lead field activities to gather, organize and store field-based data for monitoring the ACAC Community Forestry Program. These monitoring data needs tasks include:
· Collect monitoring data from Ejidos and ACAC, including all field-base data
· Digitize and organize field-based data for current and future use and reference
· Work with project partners to set-up and maintain the monitoring processes and procedures
· Create systems in place necessary to support project validation and verification on an on-going basis, and roll-out of the Terra Monitoring System
· Establish local capacity for monitoring with local Ejido communities trained on collection of program data and record keeping
· Gather specific data necessary for the VCS/CCB Project Document and Monitoring Reports for the ACAC Program
· Coordinate with consultants in conducting biodiversity surveys, biomass surveys, and social assessments.
· Assist stakeholders with Public Comments and, when necessary, assist with translation of specific texts relating to the Validation and Verification of the ACAC Program
· Assist in the field audit of the ACAC Program, by hosting the VVB and coordinating logistics of field visits.
Qualifications
· Must be a Mexican National
· Minimum 5 years of work experience in natural resource management, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and/or REDD+ projects
· High ability to work with MS Office programs especially Excel and Word
· Very knowledgeable about mobile monitoring, and smartphone use for field data collection
· Experience in capacity building and training, and facilitating community-level adoption of tools and policies
· Demonstrated and successful past performance building relationships with governmental organizations, private and community organizations
· Experience in implementation of community-based projects at a field-level
· Able to train, motivate, and manage field crews with different degrees of experience and education
· Able to work independently and self-manage deadlines and deliverables
· Ability to travel to the Yucatán Region on a regular basis (must have a Mexican driver’s license)
· Exceptional verbal/written communication skills, especially working across cultures.
Job Types: Full-time, Contract
Experience:
- work: 5 years (Required)
