Building a community-led conservation model for Madagascar’s Protected Area Network
Madagascar’s Protected Area Network has been established to protect most of the island’s unique and threatened habitats, biodiversity, and ecosystems, including globally important forests. The landscapes within and around this network are also home to thousands of rural, largely natural resource-dependent communities that rely on these protected areas and their ecosystem services, to provide essential benefits that underpin their wellbeing. Successful management of Madagascar’s protected areas is therefore inextricably linked to and contingent on delivering sustainable and equitable development for people in the surrounding landscape. While Madagascar’s biodiversity enriches the lives of all humanity, rural Malagasy must not be disadvantaged by its conservation.
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew is leading a consortium of conservation and development partners as part of a major £10m investment in Madagascar, through the Defra Biodiverse Landscapes Fund. Building on over 100 years of combined community-based conservation experience in Madagascar, and mobilising a predominately Malagasy team, we seek to deliver a data driven and evidence-based model for the sustainable management of Madagascar’s protected areas, that tackles poverty, biodiversity loss and climate change in unison.
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew) is a leading plant science institute, UNESCO World Heritage Site, and major visitor attraction. Our mission is to understand and protect plants and fungi for the well-being of people and the future of all life on Earth.
We are working to end the unprecedented extinction crisis and to help create a world where nature is protected, valued by all and managed sustainably. We will achieve these goals by drawing on our leading scientific research, unrivalled collections of plants and fungi, global network of partners, inspirational gardens at Kew and Wakehurst, and our 260 years of history.
Join us on our journey as protectors of the world’s plants and fungi.
We are seeking a highly motivated Consortium Manager to help us deliver this significant new project, to benefit both biodiversity and people. This is an exciting opportunity to play a central role in a six-year programme, encompassing seven conservation, humanitarian and sustainable development organisations working collaboratively across nine protected areas, encompassing all of Madagascar’s major biomes. Working on a hybrid basis at RBG, Kew in SW London or its Wakehurst site, this role will work closely with the Kew’s team at the Kew Madagascar Conservation Centre in Antananarivo as well as a network of collaborating organisations including Madagascar Voakajy, Durrell Wildlife and Conservation Trust, Missouri Botanical Garden, The Peregrine Fund and CARE International. Together these bodies are forming a new and exciting implementation team that will be the project’s in-country engine and will work closely with the role holder.
A major feature of this project is integration and management of data, to critically evaluate the most impactful and cost-effective conservation and livelihood interventions. The ideal candidate will be familiar with collating and managing diverse information sources including household surveys, biodiversity data, remote sensing data and community monitoring indicators. Activities across the consortium include forest regeneration and restoration, sustainable agriculture, landscape fire management, building capacity of local conservation managers, village savings and loans associations and access to family planning among others.
For as long as protected areas represent resource-rich islands in a landscape of critically compromised natural capital, they will inevitably be subjected to increasing pressure. The biodiversity and carbon they hold will be eroded, along with the ecosystem services they provide, whilst dependent livelihoods will become increasingly vulnerable. By investing in local needs and enhancing the natural capital of the surrounding landscapes we hope to reduce pressures on the natural ecosystems on which these communities rely. By reducing such pressures, we will also be able to protect and restore PAs within Madagascar to ensure provision of myriad ecosystem services that will continue to feed and support communities in the future.
Our fantastic benefits package includes opportunities for continuous learning, a generous annual leave entitlement, flexible working to help you maintain a healthy work-life balance, an Employee Assistance Programme and other wellbeing support such as cycle to work scheme and discounted gym membership. We also offer a competitive pension, an employee discount scheme and free entry into a wide range of national museums and galleries, as well access to our own beautiful gardens at Kew and Wakehurst.
If you are interested in this position, please visit our website for more information and to apply.
Closing Date: 23/03/2022
We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from all sections of the community. We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the post.
No agencies please.
