Locations : Home-based in Ghana with travel to Project Communities in SW Ghana
Duration : 60 working days over a maximum of 5 months (from September 2015)
Reports To :  Senior Forestry Officer, West Africa Team, FAO Regional Office for Africa (project Lead Technical Officer)

General Description Of Task(S) And Objectives To Be Achieved

Background

•   The Project: "Development of a trans-frontier conservation area linking forest reserves and protected areas in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire" is a three year project being implemented to protect and conserve biodiversity in a network of forest reserves and shelterbelts in south-eastern Cote d'Ivore and south-western Ghana (herein referred to as Bia-Diambarakro Area). This Bia-Diambarakro area is a complex mosaic of forests, forest fragments and agricultural land (especially cocoa farms), with each of these areas managed for different purposes and subject to different tenure and ownership arrangements (i.e.. state, communal and private ownership of land and trees). The area is a priority landscape that provides habitat for a number of scattered elephant and other endemic or threatened species populations. The area is also an important landscape where people engage in subsistence agriculture with heavy dependence on wild animals for meat. The main threats to biodiversity conservation and sustainable land and forest management in the area are: agricultural expansion; perverse incentives to remove tree cover; hunting pressure; human-wildlife conflict; and weak capacity of local institutions to address the aforementioned issues.
•   Project Objectives: The project's Global Environmental Objective is to establish a viable and sustainable trans-frontier conservation area (TFCA) that links forest reserves and protected areas in and around Bia in Ghana and Diambarakro in Cote d'ivoire. Global benefits of the project will include improved biodiversity conservation in the protected areas and production landscape within the TFCA and reductions in the barriers to sustainable forest and land management.
•   Project Funding and Partners: The project is being funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The project co-financiers/partners are: The Governments of Ghana and Cote d'ivoire, FAO, Conservation Alliance, IITA - Ghana, A Rocha Ghana, CSRS - Cote d'ivoire, FORIG - Ghana, Forestry Commission - Ghana, GIF - Ghana, SODEFOR - Cote d'ivoire, OIPR - Cote d'ivoire and DEPN - Cote d'ivoire. FAO is the GEF agency responsible for project oversight to ensure that the national executing partners follow GEF policies and procedures and that the project meets its objectives and achieves expected outcomes and outputs in an efficient and effective manner.
•   Project Implementation and the Consultancy Assignment: The project is structured along four components and the project implementation strategy envisages the services of one Community Forestry Expert - Establishment in Ghana to lead the implementation of specific activities under project component 2 "Ecosystems restoration and protection",

Project Component 2: Ecosystem Conservation and  Restoration:

•   The objective of this component is to improve the local habitat so that there is a more viable corridor for trans-boundary conservation of wildlife and biodiversity. Subcomponent 2.2: Strengthening community management of forest and wildlife resources has the objective to establish two additional Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs) in Ghana and to improve management of the Community Forests in Cote d'ivoire to consolidate the TFCA.
•   In Ghana, there are a number of measures to support biodiversity conservation that have been ineffective because local communities may not be aware of them. For instance, farmers are reluctant to keep trees on their farms because when the trees grow they do not own them and they are not compensated for damage after trees have been removed by timber concessionaires. As a result, most farmers destroy the trees on their farms. However, quite recently, there has been an avenue for farmers to register the trees planted on their farms in Ghana to secure their ownership. Most farmers are still not aware of such arrangements and Ghana's Forestry Commission (FC) has not been able to fully raise awareness of the new system. The project has also started in this area through work performed by FORIG but needs to pursue this line of work by helping awareness creation on these arrangements and assist farmers and the FC to put this new scheme into practice.

Scope of the Consultancy  

•   Objective of the Consultancy: FAO and the project partners are seeking a National Tree Tenure and Legal Expert in Ghana to guide the implementation of activities under project component 2, sub-component 2.1 in communities at the Bia (Ghana) end of the Bia-Diamakarakro Corridor.
•   Task of the Consultant: The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the project Budget Holder and the direct supervision of the FAO Senior Forestry Officer of the West Africa Team of the Regional Office for Africa (project Lead Technical Officer) with support from FAO Forestry Department. S/He will work in close collaboration with the Ghana National Project Coordinator, FC [specifically the Forest Services Division), Conservation Alliance, Forest Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) and other project stakeholders. He/she will perform the following tasks:
•   On the basis of the findings of the work done by FORIG develop and implement an operational strategy to expand tree registration in project communities in the Bia area of Ghana;
•   Work with FSD to finalize the tree registration process and issue certificates to registered farmers.
•   Roll up full scale tree registration in all the project communities; Any other duties related to the assignment.

Expected Outputs

•   Three-hundred farmers (in Ghana) complete registration of their trees and forest plots,
•   Tree registration procedure operational in Ghana and lessons learned documented.

Qualification Required & Experience

•   Advanced University Degree in Forestry, Natural Resources Governance, Environmental Law, Sociology or related field.
•   Proven experience working with multi-disciplinary teams.
•   Strong Knowledge of the forest sector and the land/tree tenure system in Ghana,
•   Experience working on the legal dimensions of natural resource tenure.
•   Knowledge of national laws and regulations relating to tree and land tenure in Ghana,
•   Knowledge of relevant local languages constitutes an advantage.

Location: Ghana

How To Apply For The Job

Interest candidates must complete the FAO Personal History Form (PHF) or PPF and submit together with CV and Cover Letter to The HR Officer, FAO Regional Office for Africa, Accra through:

RAF-REGISTRY@fao.org

Closing Date: 25 August, 2015