Sustainable Land Management Specialist – All-rounder

FAO's Sub-regional Office for Central Asia is responsible for developing, promoting, overseeing and implementing agreed strategies for addressing sub-regional food, agriculture and rural development priorities. It develops and maintains relations with sub-region wide institutions including Regional Economic Integration Organizations (REIOs). The Sub-regional Office is a subsidiary of FAO’s Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (REU).

Reporting Lines

The consultant will be working under the overall supervision of the Sub-Regional Coordinator of the FAO Sub-regional Office for Central Asia (SEC), the direct technical supervision of the Lead Technical Officer (LTO) of the Project, and in close coordination with the National Project Coordinator (NPC) and the team of project consultants (most importantly with the Back-up consultant), as well as national counterparts.

The project Sustainable Land Management (SLM) and Climate-Friendly Agriculture (GCP/TUR/055/GFF) is currently under implementation in the provinces of Konya and Karaman in Central Anatolia, Turkey. The project is implemented by FAO with financial support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). It aims to improve sustainability of agriculture, pasture and forest uses through adoption of low-carbon technologies with benefits for climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation as well as farm and forest productivity. Develop Assessment of the Eregli Integrated Forest Management Plan, which was developed under the project is one of major activity of the project.

The consultant will undertake the following duties in the project\:

• Prepare the Work plan for the assignment
• Develop Assessment of the Eregli Integrated Forest Management Plan (in following only Plan), which was developed under the project. This assessment will be focusing, but not limiting on the aspects listed below. All aspects must (1) deal separately with the main plan and all six sub-plans, and be (2) by default assessed from the perspective of technical soundness, climate change threat and gender equality. Use and integration of the findings from the Terminal consultancy report by the Back-up consultant are a must;
• Sufficient consideration of all relevant subjects for sustainable land management;
• Alignment of the Plan with best practice experiences from abroad;
• Integrative character of the Plan (i.e. adequate strategy for cross-sectoral management);
• Transparent decision making in case of competing interest of subjects in one and the same location;
• Modality for the Plan implementation under the current governance structure in Turkey;
• Flexibility for Plan implementation due to unforeseen circumstances (e.g. natural disasters);
• Adequate stock taking including methodology to reflect actual situation on the ground for the planning purposes;
• Transparent derivation of planned activities from actual situation on the ground (i.e. action plan);
• Actions based on planning of activities in concrete, geographically specified management units;
• Monitoring of actions in the course of the planning period;
• Summarize detected overall Limitations of the Plan including, but not limiting to considerations of land uses outside of the forest fund. Use and integration of the findings from the Terminal consultancy report by the Back-up consultant are a must;
• Provide Recommendations to remove shortcomings of the Plan. The objective is to commission a revision of the Plan, which would go beyond the forest fund lands (i.e. Eregli Integrated Land Management Plan);
• Propose Steps for revision of the Plan (based on its assessment) including consideration of the current governance structure in Turkey;
• Submit Design for Workshop on SLM to introduce overall results of the consultancy to the government Partners;
• Perform any other duties as and when required.

• Advanced University degree in natural resource management, land use planning or related field;
• Working experience of at least ten years in one of the subjects of SLM;
• Working experience of at least five years in natural resource management or land use planning;
• Demonstrated ability to carry out reviews and assessments of plans;
• Field experience of at least five years in the planning and implementation of rural and community development programmes;
• Proficiency in English is a must.
• National of Turkey or resident in the country with a regular work permit

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency.