Biomonitoring Advisor 20 views0 applications

Background Upemba National Park:

Upemba National Park covers an area of approximately 13,600km2 of spectacular wilderness in Katanga Province of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Upemba with legal protection since 1939, is one of the oldest parks in Africa. The park is linked to Kundelungu National Park and a number of game reserves, together forming a massive mosaic of protected areas.

Upemba harbors a wide diversity of habitats, including a full transitional gradient from highland steppe through miombo woodland to both wooded and grassland savanna. There are numerous rivers, waterfalls, wetlands and gallery forests. The Lufira River and Lake Upemba, both within the park boundaries, form a critical watershed for the region as well as the source of the mighty Congo River. The park’s wildlife populations suffered during the Congo war, and subsequent neglect and illegal poaching enabled bushmeat hunting to further decrease wildlife numbers. Nevertheless, many species remain and the park is a refuge for the last savanna elephants in Katanga as well as the last zebras in DRC. Other notable species include the Upemba lechwe, roan antelope, black sable, buffalo, leopard, giant ground hornbill and many other bird species.

The Congolese Wildlife Authority (ICCN) signed a Private-Public Partnership with the Forgotten Parks Foundation (FPF) delegating management responsibility to the Foundation for the next 15 years. Under this agreement Forgotten Parks is responsible for the management, monitoring and protection of Upemba, as well as for developing sustainable financing mechanisms to meet the on-going management costs.

1. Primary objectives

The Biomonitoring Advisor will provide technical support for the implementation and strengthening of ecological monitoring at Upemba National Park. The position combines remote sensing and geospatial analysis, field-monitoring support, ecological data management, staff mentoring, and the production of management-relevant ecological evidence.

The Advisor will report to the Park Director and work closely with the Head of Biomonitoring to implement the park’s agreed ecological monitoring priorities. The Advisor will provide specialist technical guidance while supporting the Head of Biomonitoring and other designated staff to manage monitoring activities, maintain data systems and use ecological information in park management.

The primary objectives are to:

• Implement and strengthen the park’s ecological monitoring programme.
• Provide technical advice to the Biomonitoring Department on monitoring design, data quality, ecological analysis and interpretation.
• Implement and strengthen standardized and reproducible workflows for field monitoring, remote sensing, data management, analysis and reporting.
• Strengthen the capacity of designated staff through structured, task-based mentoring.
• Maintain and improve the park’s ecological databases, digital data-collection systems and analytical infrastructure.
• Produce recurring maps, analyses, dashboards and reports required for park management and institutional reporting.
• Provide analytical support to nature-based-solutions initiatives.
• Support ecological research and other defined priorities assigned by the Park Director.

2. Priorities

2.1. Consolidate the ecological monitoring programme

• Compile and review existing monitoring protocols, datasets, indicators and reporting requirements; ensure SOPs are applied and optimized where necessary.
• Establish a coherent monitoring framework linking management questions to indicators, data sources, sampling designs, analytical methods and reporting schedules. The framework should support implementation of the park’s operations plan, business plan, long-term sustainability strategy and management plan.
• Standardize protocols for priority wildlife, vegetation, habitat, fire and threat monitoring.
• Define minimum data-quality requirements and procedures for field supervision, validation and correction.
• Ensure that methods, responsibilities and reporting cycles are documented in standard operating procedures.

2.2. Strengthen ecological data management

• Consolidate ecological datasets within an organized and documented data structure.
• Implement procedures for data entry, validation, storage, backup and version control.
• Ensure that recurring datasets can be maintained without dependence on undocumented individual knowledge.
• Integrate field, remote-sensing and operational data where this supports defined monitoring questions.
• Maintain reproducible analytical scripts and documentation for recurring outputs.

2.3. Remote-sensing monitoring

• Implement existing or develop recurring analyses of fire regimes, vegetation condition, habitat change, tree-cover loss, land-cover conversion, surface-water dynamics and other indicators.
• Validate remote-sensing products against available field observations and document their limitations.
• Translate detected changes into appropriately qualified management alerts and analytical briefs. Establish reproducible workflows that can be rerun and transferred to other staff.

2.4. Improve field-monitoring design and implementation

• Review existing sampling designs and revise them where necessary to match the park’s monitoring questions and available capacity.
• Prepare standardized field protocols, digital forms, equipment procedures and quality-control checks.
• Support the planning and implementation of priority surveys.
• Train field teams before deployment and review data promptly after collection.
• Ensure that field methods are sufficiently consistent to support comparison across places and through time.
• Evaluate whether monitoring effort is adequate to detect the ecological changes of interest.

2.5. Mentor technical staff

• Support the Head of Biomonitoring in work planning, survey design, data-quality assurance, analysis and reporting, while respecting the Head of Biomonitoring’s responsibility for departmental management and staff coordination.
• Mentor designated staff through complete workflows: defining a monitoring question, selecting a method, collecting and validating data, conducting the analysis, interpreting results and producing the final output.
• Provide applied training in GIS, remote sensing, database management, statistical analysis, visualization and technical writing.
• Review staff outputs and provide structured technical feedback.
• Develop guidance materials and standard operating procedures in appropriate working languages.
• Support the progressive transfer of technical responsibilities to designated staff as competence is demonstrated.
• Document individual capacity-development objectives, progress and remaining support needs.
• Prioritize continuity in functions that would otherwise stop when the Advisor is absent or leaves the position.

2.6. Produce management-relevant analyses and reporting

• Establish a defined schedule of ecological maps, indicator summaries and technical reports.
• Produce decision-oriented analyses in response to agreed management questions.
• Support annual planning, donor reporting, management-plan implementation and evaluation of conservation interventions.
• State data sources, methods, uncertainty and limitations in all substantive analytical outputs.
• Maintain a clear distinction between detected ecological change and claims about its causes or management attribution.

2.7. Support VNU and carbon-project feasibility assessment

• Provide ecological, geospatial and monitoring support to the Verified Nature Unit (VNU) project, in coordination with African Parks and the Landbanking Group.
• Contribute to preliminary assessment of an avoided-deforestation project, including the evidence required to establish threat, baseline emissions, additionality, leakage and permanence.
• Assess whether changes in grassland fire management could produce measurable climate benefits.

2.8. Support research and technical partnerships

• Maintain an overview of ongoing research and the datasets generated by external partners and help align external research with identified park information needs.
• Support research design, field coordination, data access and analytical review where assigned.
• Ensure that resulting datasets, metadata, reports and analytical products are returned to and retained by the park and, where applicable, translated into management action.

3. Qualifications and experience

Essential

• A strong team player, willing to share knowledge and experience, open-minded and respectful of different cultures, humble, and committed to learning from others while contributing to the team.
• Postgraduate degree in ecology, conservation science, environmental science, remote sensing, geography or a closely related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience in the design and implementation of ecological monitoring programmes.
• Strong competence in GIS, remote sensing and geospatial analysis.
• Proficiency in R, Python or another appropriate analytical environment.
• Experience with ecological data management, quality assurance, reproducible analysis and technical reporting.
• Experience designing or improving field-monitoring protocols and digital data-collection workflows.
• Demonstrated experience training or mentoring technical staff.
• Ability to translate ecological analyses into appropriately qualified recommendations for management.
• Professional working proficiency in French and English.
• Willingness and ability to work on site and undertake field missions in remote and operationally complex conditions.

Desirable

• Experience working in African protected areas.
• Experience with EarthRanger and platforms such as Survey123, KoboToolbox or Epicollect5.
• Experience with wildlife surveys, vegetation monitoring, camera trapping, fire monitoring or aerial-survey data.
• Familiarity with Google Earth Engine and automated geospatial workflows.
• Experience with nature-based-solutions projects, carbon-project feasibility assessment or measurement, reporting and verification.
• Experience supporting research collaborations and scientific publication.

4. Reporting and Communication

The Biomonitoring Advisor will report to the Park Director and work closely with the Head of Biomonitoring. The Advisor will also collaborate with other park departments and external technical partners where required.

5. Compensation

The Advisor will be compensated in accordance with the terms of the service agreement.

6. Terms and Conditions

The Advisor is expected to adhere to all relevant regulations. Any changes to the scope of work must be communicated and agreed upon in writing.