Human Wildlife Conflict Monitoring Intern

Want to make a positive difference to the future of people and our one shared home, the Earth? Working with WWF could be the opportunity of a lifetime:

All around the world, people are waking up to the deepening crisis of nature loss. A growing realization that nature is our life-support system. And that nobody will be spared from the impacts of its loss. Here at WWF, we are helping to tackle this enormous global challenge.

Our people come from hugely diverse backgrounds and with a variety of expertise, ranging from HR and finance to advocacy and conservation science. We welcome applications from anyone who believes they can help us create a better future for people and wildlife.

What we do:

We are an independent conservation organization, striving to sustain the natural world for the benefit of people and wildlife. From individuals and communities to business and government, we are part of a growing coalition calling on world leaders to set nature on the path to recovery by 2030. Together, we seek to protect and restore natural habitats, stop the mass extinction of wildlife, and make the way we produce and consume sustainable. WWF Network has moved to the development and the implementation of 9 Practices with Global Goals to be achieved.

For our Cameroon Country Office, we are looking for a Human Wildlife Conflict Monitoring Intern to support the impact monitoring programme in filling his need.

Reports to: Congo Basin Impact Monitoring Coordinator

Location:Yaoundé

Duration: Six (06) months

The mission of the Department

For the Congo Basin countries to actively contribute to the Outcomes of some Practices (Wildlife, Forests, Food, Climate & Energy, Freshwater and Governance) implemented in their respective programmes, it is important to have a monitoring programme designed and implemented accordingly. Regarding new challenges and the need to continue and extend the monitoring programme to other developed goals and objectives in alignment with the Practices, the Congo Basin Biomonitoring Programme has been turned into an Impact Monitoring Programme. The programme has been built so that the implementation of some strategic axes is directly integrated into the day-to-day activities of field programmes for more efficiency. The adaptation made is supporting field programmes and countries in delivering conservation outcomes and impacts for an easy contribution to the Global Goals.

A strong and integrated monitoring programme has been designed and is being implemented to demonstrate conservation impacts and promote key conservation outputs. Interactions between humans and wildlife is increasing in the regional due to competition for natural resources and space; such interactions sometimes lead to injuries both on human populations and wildlife species. As a conservation Organization; our role is to create an environment where wildlife populations and human populations can coexist. The Conflict to Coexistence toolkit (C2C) has been developed and its pilot phase is starting. The hiring of a Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) Intern is meant to enable an adequate implementation of the C2C in Cameroon and the monitoring of field-related activities.

Major Functions

Under the supervision of the Congo Basin Impact Monitoring Coordinator and the Forest Elephant Programme Lead, and in close collaboration with the Regional and Cameroon national teams, the HWC Intern will support, guide and monitoring the implementation of the C2C. He/She will compile and centralise HWC data and proceed to analyses for conflict management decision-making through the SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) HWC module.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Support the implementation of the C2C pilot phase:
2. Stand as the Focal Point for C2C pilot implementation
3. Fill the Context Screening format together with team members
4. Conduct stakeholder identification and analysis together with team members and key informants
5. Develop stakeholder engagement strategy based on stakeholder analysis
6. Design C2C assessment and monitoring plan
7. Organise the C2C assessment with team members
8. Conduct and facilitate meetings with stakeholders
9. Share results of assessment and analysis comprehensively with stakeholder
10. Support the organization of training sessions on the field.
11. Compile HWC data from each site and regularly analyse them for data quality control.
12. Support the elephant monitoring data collection (by camera traps, line transects, reconnaissance walks, acoustic devices, and other methods), management, analysis and reporting.
13. Produce a detailed technical report based on the analyses carried out.
14. Assist in other data collection and other analysis related to HWC.
15. Provide support to any other activity of Regional Biomonitoring Program when necessary.

Profile:

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum MSc Degree in Biology, Natural Resources Management, Conservation, Protected Area Management or related subjects.
• Proven experience in database management; a master of SMART is an asset.
• Familiarity with GIS analysis and mapping (particularly ArcGIS or QGIS).
• Proven statistics and data analysis capacities (Excel, other relevant software).

Required Skills and Competencies:

• Good understanding of human-wildlife conflicts issues and community-based conservation.
• Demonstrated experience with wildlife monitoring methods and tools (line transects, occupancy, camera traps, acoustic monitoring, drones, etc.)
• Experience in data analysis and the use of adequate software related to the cited methods and tools.
• Basic understanding of forest elephant biology, distribution and behavior.
• Good skills both written and verbal (English and French); proven capacities in technical report writing.
• Good computer skills (MS Office package, Online researches, etc.).
• Capable of working with minimal supervision.
• Able to work effectively in various cultural environments.

WWF’s Values & Behaviors:

• Aligns and identifies with the core values of the WWF organization: Courage, Integrity, Respect and Collaboration.
• Able to demonstrate WWF behaviors in ways of working: strive for impact, listen deeply, collaborate openly and innovate fearlessly.

This job description covers the main tasks and conveys the spirit of the sort of tasks that are anticipated proactively from staff. Other tasks may be assigned as necessary according to organizational needs.