Deforestation and forest degradation continue to be critical topics in the global environmental, biodiversity conservation and climate change agendas. Despite increasing commitments from governments and non-state actors, and several innovative initiatives implemented on the ground, forests continue to be degraded and lost at an alarming rate, mainly in the tropics. In the last few years, we have seencontradictory trends of a slowdown in deforestation rates in some fronts but an increase in others, with some leakage effects. While overall there is good understanding about what are the different drivers prompting deforestation and forest degradation, less is known on what are the factors that may explain why intensities of deforestation change over time and differ across places.
Understanding the factors explaining the different trends (e.g. slowdown, stabilization, expansion) of deforestation is critical to inform debates on the effectiveness of current solutions, particularly those associated with policy regime changes, and corporate efforts to delink deforestation from their supply chains, often with the support of conservation NGOs. Furthermore, there is a need to place greater emphasis on forest degradation, and its interactions with deforestation, to assess whether deforestation is an unavoidable consequence of forest degradation, or whether deforestation-free initiatives are simultaneously contributing to improved forest quality – this in the context of wider debates on climate change mitigation, and strategies for protecting forest ecosystem services.
This internship will support WWF’s ongoing efforts to analyze drivers, trends and responses across deforestation fronts. The candidate will be working with the WWF Forest Practice and Global Science teams in Washington, DC to collect, review and synthesize the literature on drivers and responses related to deforestation and forest degradation in select geographies around the tropics.
Internship Objectives:
Our internship facilitates mutually meaningful engagement between the candidate and WWF, which is in accordance with WWF project needs and the educational interests and professional aspirations of the candidate. This should give not only usable collateral and materials for WWF, but also valuable work experience toward the candidate’s professional development in research skills and knowledge around forest conservation. Specifically, this internship position will provide the candidate with an opportunity to acquire and apply his/her knowledge and research skills in the following topical areas:
- Responses to halt deforestation and forest degradation, such as land use planning and ecological zoning, land use moratoria, commodity supply chain initiatives, sustainable forest management and certification, and community-based conservation
- The effectiveness and impacts of forest conservation interventions, including the main factors that contribute to the potential and limits of these interventions
- Monitoring frameworks and indicators for demonstrating ecological outcomes and impacts
The intern will assist WWF supervisors to:
- Collect and synthesize information about the interventions, strategies, initiatives, and approaches to halt deforestation and forest degradation
- Review and synthesize the literature on the impacts and challenges associated with various conservation approaches
- Assist with quantitative assessment of the effectiveness of select conservation approaches by adopting the methodologies presented in the literature
- Review existing reporting guidance, monitoring frameworks, and publicly available databases to compile an inventory of indicators pertaining to ecological monitoring
- Build and manage a searchable inventory of drivers of and responses to deforestation and forest degradation for each of the select regions
- Draft a literature review report on drivers and responses for each of the select regions
- Conduct other tasks assigned by his/her supervisors
Expectations:
The intern will be working closely with WWF Global Forest Lead Scientist and Lead Forest R&D, based in the Science and Forest teams, respectively. The he/she will be primarily working with the supervisors in the Washington, DC office and will correspond with WWF network offices for research purposes, as identified and assigned by the supervisors. The intern will be required to maintain at minimum weekly communications with his/her supervisors. It is his/her responsibility to ensure all issues related to the project activities are brought to the attention of his/her supervisor and are promptly resolved. Lack of communications and delays in submitting required deliverables may result in early termination of the internship by WWF.
- Proficiency in spatial econometrics and working knowledge in commonly used GIS and statistical software
- Knowledge in qualitative and quantitative meta-analysis and synthesis methods and prior experience in scientific literature meta-analysis and data management
- Excellent writing and analytical skills (1 writing sample of no longer than 5 pages required)
- Ability to stay organized and work independently with minimum supervision; must be able to meet deadlines in a fast-paced working environment
- Demonstration of enthusiasm, curiosity, and tenacity to tackling difficult research questions
- Ability to communicate with internal and external partners around the globe professionally
- Knowledge and experience in GIS analysis preferred