Environmental Specialist

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Environmental Specialist

BACKGROUND

The World Bank’s Environment and Natural Resources and Blue Economy Global Practice (ENB GP) was established to deliver on the opportunities, benefits and outcomes offered by enhanced management of the environment and natural resources. One of its key regional initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean Region (LCR) is the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes (ASL) Program.

The ASL Program is a Global Environment Facility (GEF) financed regional initiative aiming to improve Integrated Landscape Management and Ecosystem Conservation in the Amazon Region. This goal is to be achieved by the ASL’s national projects in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Suriname, and a regional technical assistance coordination and knowledge management project. Country environmental entities oversee the national projects and the World Bank, as the ASL lead agency, directly executes the regional technical assistance project. Within this regional project, the WB supports knowledge management and capacity building of national and regional level institutions towards themes of common interest linked to integrated conservation and sustainable development in the Amazon. 

The Amazon biome hosts the largest contiguous tropical forest area in the world, which has significant influence over regional and global climate and hydrological stability.  Over 47 million people live in the Amazon basin, mostly in urban areas and with high levels of poverty.  Amazon deforestation, forest degradation and water contamination are occurring at an alarming rate, exacerbating climate-induced loss of nature and ecosystem degradation.  There is a need for action in each of the Amazon countries facilitated by a strong regional framework.

The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO/OTCA) is an intergovernmental organization formed in 1995 by eight Amazonian countries (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela) following a 1978 Amazon Cooperation Treaty.   

The Amazon Regional Observatory (ARO /ORA) was established at the end of 2021 with the overarching goal of providing comprehensive data related to natural resources, forest cover, water management, and fire management to the eight Amazon member countries. It also serves as a platform for facilitating access to coherent data and regional reports. In the newly signed Belem Declaration, ARO is expected (among others) to:

• Be institutionalized within ACTO’s structure, making it a permanent instrument while enhancing its modules on economic, social, environmental, and cultural issues as a permanent tool for monitoring and consolidation of information supported by member states;
• Facilitate integration and use of data from multiple sources (including various parts of OTCA national governments) as part of various ARO modules;
• Become a key resource to the Intergovernmental Scientific Technical Panel for the Amazon under ACTO and on the Monitoring and cooperation in water resources management Cooperation with ACTO support;
• Enhance cooperation and harmonization of monitoring and hydrometeorological warning systems among States Parties.

The ENB GP in LCR seeks to recruit a proficient Environmental Specialist Short Term Consultant as part of a World Bank effort to provide, via the ASL, technical assistance to the ARO in the area of natural resources management, with a focus on forests and biodiversity.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY

1. General Objective

Strengthen and consolidate ORA’s Knowledge Management processes related to data collection, analysis and generation of information related to environment and natural resources management (especially biodiversity, forests and CITES species).

2. Specific Objectives

• Strengthen data, analytics, and knowledge base associated with environment and natural resources management in the Amazon basin.  Analyze and review current data, reports and modules in this regard and suggest improvements.  Also identify critical information gaps and potential information sources to address these gaps.
• Improve the ability of ORA to generate reports with insights of the effects of annual climatic events (temperature, humidity, droughts, fire events, etc.) on forests and biodiversity in the Amazon, with an added emphasis on the drought in 2023.

KEY TASKS

1. Knowledge Base, Data & Analytics

• ARO Stocktaking: Review and analyze the content of the current ARO’s Biodiversity, Forests and CITES Species modules and provide feedback and recommendations for improvement (including providing sources of information/data to enrich them).  As part of this, support and document a consultation process with ACTO’s thematic specialists on the needs and use of data and analytics for these aspects.
• Collate key knowledge resources (including relevant online reports, journal & media articles, videos, and websites) related to the Amazon water resources.  Facilitate their organization with short descriptions as part of an interactive knowledge resource. This is expected to build on, and link to, other efforts such as the ASL knowledge database.
• Collect relevant natural resources data from relevant diverse sources (e.g., IUCN, GBIF, BirdLife International, WDPA, NASA, FAO, ESA, member countries, research institutions, etc.), and create, with support from the Geographic Information System (GIS) specialist, a GIS database to be used in the preparation of products and services. Annotate data (both historical and real-time) with relevant brief metadata.  This should include relevant spatial and temporal data (working with others in ACTO/ARO) on forest biomes, biodiversity including species, threats, protected areas, agrobiodiversity, bioeconomy, vegetation and watershed health, forest fires, pollution, community livelihoods related to natural resources, etc. to help provide a comprehensive view of the status and trends related to natural resources and provide inputs for further analytics.
• Outline relevant analytics related to natural resources issues based on prior work and exploration of useful modeling tools to develop potential analytical activities for ARO looking ahead (e.g. related to indicator spatial and temporal trends and visualization, basin scenarios, pollution hotspots, natural resources under climate change, development pressure, and protection scenarios).  Improve ability of ORA to provide insights (automated as much as possible) on climate implications on water resources and aquatic ecosystems with a special emphasis on the 2023 drought.
• Collect information on key experts in Natural Resources Management (NRM) working in and on the Amazon region (e.g. in academia, government, CSOs, etc.) on various topics of interest to natural resources management to develop a professional network especially related to data and analytics. Support may be requested from ASL/WB teams. 

2) Learning & Outreach

• Provide quality inputs to the ARO’s team to facilitate the development of key interactive knowledge resources to summarize, visualize, and interact with natural resources information (e.g. interactive data dashboards, interactive mapping WebApps, interactive knowledge explorer, infographics, interactive storymaps/eBooks including a State of the Amazon Basin Natural Resources, scenario visualization, etc.) for the Amazon region targeted to both specialized and general audiences.
• Contribute with ARO’s team in the development (including key topics/skills required) and implementation of a Knowledge Exchange Program to bring in short-term inputs (e.g. internships, visiting experts) from relevant talent in the Amazon countries (e.g. from universities, forests/NRM agencies of member countries, etc.).
• Support activities across other teams at ARO and OTCA on natural resources topics. This Consultant should explore enhancing synergy and avoiding duplication with other ongoing work (e.g. on forests and biodiversity, etc.).
• Provide discussions and training to teams at ARO, ACTO, and member countries’ stakeholders on natural resources management topics, organize webinars on natural resources-related topics to facilitate cross-learning, and support outreach (e.g. blogs, hackathons).  Support ARO’s efforts to become a useful technical helpdesk for member countries in the area of natural resources data ana analytics. Develop appropriate training materials, conduct learning sessions, and solicit feedback. Webinars could be organized collaboratively with WB.  
• Explore partnerships (in the region and globally) on NRM data and analytics and outreach.

3) Strategic Support

• Facilitate improvement in relevant NRM-related public-domain data access as online services from the member countries.
• Conduct an assessment of key strategic NRM issues, challenges, and opportunities where the ARO could add value to the OTCA’s member countries. This should include the identification and prioritization of environmental (especially related to forests and biodiversity) products, services and data aimed at meeting the information needs of member countries for decision-making on natural resources management topics relevant to the Amazon region.
• Prepare inputs for an institutionalized ARO’s strategic and business plan (which development will be led by another consultant), focusing on environment and NRM topics and the development of relevant products and services.  This should include inputs on areas of capacity-strengthening of ARO on modern natural resources management data/analytics to effectively meet their evolving mandate.

4) Final report

• Methodological proposal document for the automation of annual reports on the effects and impacts of annual climate events, which minimally includes:
  • Study variables (droughts, fires, floods and others of relevance).
  • Effects and impacts related to biodiversity, forests, economy, health, indigenous populations, cities, etc.
  • Database of information sources.
  • List of analyzes and algorithms to be used.

SELECTION CRITERIA

• An advanced graduate degree (at least Master’s) in forestry, NRM, environmental sciences, or equivalent.
• At least 5 years’ experience working on NRM issues, including at a large area level, especially related to forests and biodiversity.  Knowledge of the Amazon regional context desirable.
• Experience working in regional/transboundary/basin scale natural resources management and/or environmental organizations is desired, preferably with familiarity with the Latin America regional context.
• Expertise in GIS and remote sensing, particularly in the collection, processing, and visualization of forest and biodiversity data.
• Experience in the development of technological tools to support natural resources management (e.g., DSS, web/GIS based dashboards/tools).
• Experience working in both developing and developed countries.
• Experience working with natural resources related institutions in complex governance settings is desired.
• Excellent writing and communication skills in English and Spanish is required. Knowledge of Portuguese will be an advantage.
• Experience working in diverse, multi-sectoral teams.

CONTRACT ARRANGEMENTS

The consultant will report to a World Bank Task Team Leader (TTL), or another delegated staff. 

The consultant can be based anywhere in the Americas and is expected to mostly work remotely with about 20% of the time working at the facilities of OTCA in Brasilia (Brazil); and with potential travel to other Amazon countries and to Washington DC.  The Consultant will work closely with the World Bank team working with OTCA and the staff of OTCA for this assignment.

This assignment is expected to cover maximum 150 days to begin in May 2024 and be completed by June 30, 2025 with a schedule agreed with the client across the FYs.

The Consultant will be paid upon presentation of the Request for Payment (RFP) with description of the work and deliverables indicating the days worked in the period requested, through the World Bank’s system, duly approved by the TTL.

Kindy express your interest by sending your CV and cover letter to Hae Jin Cho hcho4@worldbank.org and Federico Hahn fhahn@worldbank.org by May 17th.