Protected Area Advisor

Under the supervision of Conservation Director and close collaboration with the Protected Area Program Coordinator the PA advisor will ensure:

• The development of PARAP phase II including the development of the national protected area strategic plan;
• Provide technical advice to the WWF PA programme in the DRC and establish links with the larger WWF network, including WWF Practices;
• Formulate recommendations to the Technical and Scientific Direction of ICCN.

Programme Development and Fundraising

• Ensure the development of the Protected Area Network Strategic Plan of the DRC with main partners and under the leadership of ICCN;
• Develop the WWF PARAP phase 2 programme for the improved management, consolidation and extension of the DRC PAN;
• Ensure that the second phase of PARAP is conform with and adequately supporting the validated protected areas network strategic plan of the DRC;
• Identify funding opportunities (develop contacts, meet donors and partners);
• Develop specific proposals for identified donors (EU, GEF, WB, KFW, WWF network, etc.);
• Strongly engage with ICCN and partners at national and provincial level;
• Continue to integrate biodiversity conservation and the protected area network as an issue in other sectors as the land use planning process;

Programme implementation

• Participate in the elaboration of annual work plans;
• Finalize participatory protected areas network strategic plan of the DRC;
• Define main capacity gaps of the Technical and Scientific Direction (DTS) of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) related to PAN management, consolidation and extension;
• Support revision of the national list of protected species and the elaboration of the DRC fauna red list;
• Put in place a platform or a steering committee to ensure participation of main partners and orient further decisions on the DRC PAN;
• Support ICCN to capitalize documentation and standardize application of operational tools for best practice PAN management;
• Accompany the legal revision of PA categories and develop system to systematically identify key biodiversity areas;
• Support endorsement of clear procedures to gazette and “de-gazette” protected areas in the DRC;
• Support endorsement of the National PAN Map and submit updated protected area limits to UNEP-WCMC and IUCN’s World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA);
• Collaborate to the PA natural capital valuation study;
• Advise on the sustainable finance mechanism of the PAN and the use of the Okapi fund (the national PA trust fund);

Communications

• Put in place a DRC partner platform or steering committee on PAs in order to ensure a common vision and understanding by partner organisations of the new PARAP phase and the strategic plan;
• Help communicate on the program importance, expected outcomes and success stories to the WWF network and media by supporting the WWF Communication teams.
• Help develop linkages with WWF Network “structures” related to PA (Wildlife Practice, Protected Area Community, Landscape Finance Lab, etc.)
• Stay on top of the development of conservation trends (e.g. PA Certifications, CATS, PAME, Green list, CBD, CITES, BIOPAMA, etc.) and inform colleagues and partners of new conservation initiatives, approaches, strategies, etc.
• In accordance with the hierarchy, represent WWF in meetings and workshops.