The Reforestation Manager will be working independently, overseeing and taking part in activities on the ground, and managing the tasks of setting up nurseries, planting sites and tracking project activities. The main contact points will be Nikhil Kulkarni and Rishabh Khanna of the MRV team. The candidate is expected to have strong technical skills in conservation and sustainable land-use management and/ or sustainable agriculture, and have a strong proven track record in managing large-scale sustainable development or conservation projects, with requisite operational, project, grant and financial management skills. Strong leadership and people management skills are essential to the role to ensure a professional and motivated team that delivers effectively against project aims, objectives and timelines. You will excel in working across a diverse and dispersed team of technical specialists building positive relationships. In particular you will establish good working relationships with relevant Government functionaries and institutions, community leaders and other stakeholders.This position is based in Meghalaya with regular travel to project areas and outside the state as required. In return, the role offers the opportunity to work within a ground-breaking and entrepreneurial organisation, at the forefront of global conservation.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
The following are some of the activities to be carried out by the manager:
a. The reforestation manager will coordinate all aspects of seed and tree cutting collection, growing, planting, and maintenance to deliver a high survival rate, close to 90% of all trees.
i. Including the task of leading and implementing the collection of required seeds and tree cuttings of all required species across multiple sites in Meghalaya
ii. Manage a variety of small distributed nurseries across the region, visiting each nursery to ensure quality assurance and guide and give clear direction to nursery operators - and ensure that they use the Nursery Operations Manual (10 pages) that you will co-author.
iii. You will have managed a nursery yourself for a minimum of 5 years, and ideally have 10 years experience in nursery management, and minimum of 5 years of reforestation or agroforestry experience.
b. Lead the writing of the Nursery Operations Manual (10 pages) that you use as the guide for your nursery operators..
c. Develop and manage the new nurseries on-site at the reforestation / agroforestry sites, that will grow over 16 million - 64 million trees over the period 2023 - 2025 and plant the trees across 11,355 hectares (ha) - 22,670 hectares (ha) with a team or similar experts you will hire and manage.
d. Coordinate with all relevant organisations, co-ops, and any government entities and indigenous people to secure their cooperation and involvement in the tree-planting project.
e. Lead the Land Survey, ensure the collection of photos and GPS coordinates of all trees that will supply seeds and tree cuttings for our nurseries.
f. Ensure timely documentation of all stakeholder consultations with pictures and reports, and video documentation of at least 10% of all community meetings. Videos will record parts of the sessions to demonstrate that the meetings have, in fact, happened and also as evidence of Free Prior Informed Consent.
g. Attend Project meetings with a larger team as and when required/needed.
h. Report on the work on the ground periodically, document and maintain dated records of all essential activities associated with the project.
i. Aid in monitoring, reporting and verification activities.
Earthbanc AB values honesty, integrity, and respect above all else and expects these values to
be always held by all team members.
Qualifications
Knowledge and Skills Needed to Perform this Role
● A Bachelor or Masters Degree in forestry/ forest science or related discipline and more than five years of related work experience in northeast India (Preferred) or similar work across the country.
● You will have managed a nursery yourself for a minimum of 5 years, and ideally have 10 years experience in nursery management, and minimum of 5 years of reforestation or agroforestry experience.
● Excellent communication skills. Fluent in English. Knowledge of the local language Khasi will be a plus.
● Ability to work independently, with experience in nurseries and/or forest planting in tropical and mountainous regions and regions of high precipitation.
● Adaptability to a new work environment and staying and working with local communities.
● A valid driver’s licence as well as an acceptable driving record.
● Willingness to lead fieldwork, interact with communities and record data in steep,
rugged terrain and inclement weather.
● Experience using Excel or Google spreadsheet for forestry/Nursery data is required along
with use of other softwares for data collection and collation.
● Working knowledge of QGIS or ArcGIS with some prior work experience in forestry and
related data management.
● Supervisory experience. Excellent Internal (within organisation and team) and external
(with government and community stakeholders) communication skills.
● Good understanding of MRV systems in forestry and plantation works.
Earthbanc is the world's first carbon and investment platform that leverages machine learning and satellite remote sensing, to continuously audit and rate landscape carbon, carbon offsets and the green finance products that support carbon removal. We enable data driven carbon removal and sustainable finance at scale into nature based solutions with our patent pending AI for carbon monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV). We have been planting trees since the year 2000, worldwide. We work in close collaboration with the local community on the ground on projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Our projects ensure successful afforestation and reforestation and accrue direct benefits to the stakeholders.. We solve existing problems in carbon markets by increasing accuracy, efficiency, and inclusion in emissions reduction credits, thus elevating their vital role in the immediate protection and reforestation of lands globally.