Regional Community Conservation Coordinator, Sudano Sahel

Position: Regional Community Conservation Coordinator 
Reports To: Regional Technical Director 
Positions Managed:  None  
Location:  Kigali-Africa Regional Hub 
Position type:  Full-time  
Scope/Capacity: Regional Sudano-Sahel 
Coordinate with: Regional social safeguards coordinator, country community conservation leads, WCS Global Markets team, WCS global Rights+Communities team.

About WCS 

The Wildlife Conservation Society is an international NGO headquartered at Bronx Zoo in New York City working to save wildlife and wild lands and to meet global challenges in over 50 countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the world’s oceans. Africa is one of WCS’s largest field engagements, with approximately 1,500 staff in 13 country programs managed through three regional programs (Central Africa, Sudano-Sahel, East Africa, Madagascar and Western Indian Ocean) 

Our Mission is to save wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education and inspiring people to value nature. Our VISION is a world where wildlife thrives in healthy lands and seas valued by societies that embrace and benefit from the diversity and integrity of life on earth. Our GOAL is to conserve the world’s largest wild places in 13 priority regions, home to more than 50% of the world’s biodiversity. Our VALUES are Respect, Accountability and Transparency, Innovation, Diversity and Inclusion, Collaboration, and Integrity.  

Organization Background 

The Sudano-Sahel Region presents unparalleled opportunities for WCS to play a direct role in saving some of the last remaining intact wildernesses on the planet and to contribute significantly to the security of people and wildlife. The savannas, forests, and wetlands of the region support key populations of elephants, northern giraffes, lions, and elands. Communities also depend on the land for their livelihoods through pastoralism, agriculture, fishing, and hunting.  

WCS has a strong conservation history and proven success in protected area management and a significant presence within the Sudano-Sahel Region. The countries within Sudano Sahel where WCS has conservation initiatives include Chad, Central African Republic (CAR), Nigeria, and Cameroon.   

Specifically, we have significant existing protected area commitments in the north of Central African Republic and are developing new protected area initiatives in Chad as well as supporting a transboundary program portfolio across CAR, Chad and Cameroon. We work actively with the local institutions and the citizens across protected areas to support protected area management and wildlife law enforcement, local livelihood development and support, development of conservation-security partnerships, enhancement of counter-wildlife trafficking activities, and national implementation of policy and scientific programs. 

Job Purpose 

The objective of the Regional Community Conservation Coordinator is to lead and support the region in advancing the implementation of a rights-based approach to conservation, while fostering an enabling environment that strengthens the role of local communities in conservation solutions. 

In this role, the Regional Community Conservation Coordinator will work closely with the community conservation teams and senior management across the country programs, to guide the design and implementation of community-based conservation initiatives. The position will also promote the adoption of best practices, strengthen collaboration across programs, and ensure that community conservation remains at the forefront of conservation strategies and outcomes across the region 

This position will work within the WCS regional framework, and under the guidance of the Regional Technical Director, will closely collaborate with global thematic teams Rights+Communities and Markets, while providing mentorship supervision, guidance to the e community conservation programs in the Sudano-Sahel Region.     

Major Responsibilities 

Leadership & Program Development 

• Drive community conservation delivery across the Sudano-Sahel by leading the development and implementation of high-impact, rights-based community initiatives. 

• Champion inclusive conservation in project proposals, ensuring that community-led solutions are at the heart of our regional growth and funding strategy. 

•  Act as a mentor and technical catalyst for country programs, cultivating a culture of adaptive, innovative problem-solving among community teams in Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad, and CAR. 

•  Elevate technical reporting to ensure the voices and successes of local communities are accurately and powerfully reflected to stakeholders and partners. 

Market-Linked Conservation & Sustainable Livelihoods 

•  Partner with the WCS Global Markets team to architect and scale community-led commodity chains specifically for cocoa and shea that provide robust, forest-positive economic alternatives. 

• Lead the design of transparent Benefit Sharing Mechanisms linked to Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), ensuring that ecological stewardship translates into tangible community dividends. 

• Support the development and implementation of soil carbon and REDD+ strategies and policies. 

Technical Support & Landscape Implementation 

• Work alongside site managers to co-create community conservation strategies that are grounded in local reality and align them with wider WCS national, regional, and global strategies 

• Guide field teams in establishing zoning and management plans, working with the regional safeguards coordinator to create a step-by-step process that prioritizes Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and meaningful local participation. 

• Empower communities’ role as stewards by building resilient, inclusive governance structures that integrate local institutions, traditional practices, and indigenous knowledge. 

• Lead the development of immersive training materials and provide hands-on mentoring to strengthen the technical expertise of field-based community managers. 

• Work with international and local peacebuilding actors to ensure conflict-sensitive approaches and mitigate community-based conflicts related to protected area management.  

• Work with country teams to understand drivers, supply chains, and severity of critical threats like wildmeat consumption, illegal hunting and illegal mining; from this design interventions to improve community-based sustainable management programs or mitigation projects 

Applied Social Science  

• Leadership and technical guidance of national and site-based technical teams in the use and application of qualitative and quantitative social science methods into community conservation program planning and adaptive management (e.g., community perceptions, behavior change, household surveys, use of kobo toolbox, understanding of Conservation Standards, application of the Institutional Review Board). 

• Develop and implement action plans for effectively incorporating conservation social science into community conservation activities throughout the region 

• Develop and refine indicators for social, health, livelihood, community well-being and community conservation outcomes in partnership with country and regional M&E colleagues, and standardize the approach to, and analysis, of key R+C research tools (e.g. BNS, NRGT) throughout the region. 

• Design training modules and train field teams based upon an analysis of existing tools and capacities, including addressing donor specific requirements. Develop monitoring systems for country programs and sites to ensure staff have up-to-date training.