Overview

The Project Officer is a new role for the project “Wild at Home — Using Markets for Wild Ingredients to Support Conservation and Rural Livelihoods” (Wild at Home), which has an overall aim of highlighting the harvest, trade and use of the wild plant “hidden” ingredients and expand markets and pathways for sustainable trade that benefits wild species and harvesters.  The Project Officer will be responsible for driving forward and managing the project.  This role is ideal for a self-driven, enthusiastic team player, with a background and experience in project management, development and delivery of conservation campaigns and initiatives, communications, and corporate sector engagement.

TITLE: Project Officer – Wild at Home
LOCATION: TRAFFIC International office in Cambridge, UK
REPORTS TO: Senior Programme Coordinator – Sustainable Trade, TRAFFIC International
WORK PERCENTAGE: 100%
GRADE: P1
EXPECTED START DATE: 1 December 2020
TYPE OF CONTRACT: Fixed-term, until 31 July 2022 (with a possibility of renewal)
CLOSING DATE: 28 October 2020

BACKGROUND  

TRAFFIC is a leading NGO working globally to ensure that trade in wild animals and plants is not a threat to the conservation of nature and supports sustainable development. Our work combines research, communications, and capacity building, and is delivered in partnership with governments, businesses and civil society groups. 

Thousands of consumer goods contain wild plant ingredients, which are often harvested from highly biodiverse ecosystems by rural communities for whom trade is a critical source of income.  A growing number of wild species in trade are threatened with extinction as demand outstrips supply and available habitats decline. TRAFFIC has an area of work to facilitate the market transformation in the natural ingredients sector with the focus on wild-harvested plant ingredients. This includes the partnership with the FairWild Foundation to promote the sustainable harvest and trade of wild plants, fungi and lichens, and support uptake of the FairWild Standard and certification scheme worldwide. 

TRAFFIC has initiated a new project, “Wild at Home — Using Markets for Wild Ingredients to Support Conservation and Rural Livelihoods”, funded by the Swedish Postcode Foundation, running until August 2022, which has an overall aim of highlighting the harvest, trade and use of the wild plant “hidden” ingredients and expand markets and pathways for sustainable trade that benefits wild species and harvesters.  

CHARACTERISTIC DUTIES:

The Project Officer is a new role for the project “Wild at Home — Using Markets for Wild Ingredients to Support Conservation and Rural Livelihoods” (Wild at Home).  The candidate will be responsible for driving forward and managing the administrative elements of the project, whilst also leading on the effective implementation of project activities. 

The Project Officer will effectively engage with a range of external stakeholders, focusing on industry and trade associations, companies, consumer organisations. The candidate will work closely with the TRAFFIC team in its global and programme offices, the FairWild Foundation, and the wider network of stakeholders and consultants. 

This role is ideal for a self-driven, enthusiastic team player, with a background and experience in project management, development and delivery of conservation campaigns and initiatives, communications, and corporate sector engagement. 

SPECIFIC DUTIES: 

• Manages the development and delivery of Wild at Home project activities;
• Co-ordinates TRAFFIC staff working on the Wild at Home project; 
• Develops terms of reference and supervises consultancy contracts where necessary;

• Ensures the technical quality and timely delivery of project activities, including conducting an evaluation of project activities for donor reporting and adaptive management; 
• Leads the development of the WildCheck platform (an online sustainability tool for wild plant ingredients to be developed during the project), industry- and consumer-focused communication materials;
• Develops and co-ordinates the delivery of the project communications and engagement plan; 
• Proactively identifies, develops, and manages relationships with key stakeholders to enable delivery of project goals, focusing on industry associations, individual companies, consumer associations, and other relevant organisations; 
• Identifies and realises strategic opportunities and partnerships in the wild plant ingredients sector to achieve market transformation towards sustainable, equitable trade;
• Engages media around project outputs, in collaboration with TRAFFIC’s communications team; 
• Enhances existing and builds new partnerships to roll-out awareness raising and behavioural change campaigns that effectively inspire and persuade consumer change, through the co-ordination of FairWild Week 2021–22; 
• Represents TRAFFIC and the Wild at Home project at trade shows and conferences; 
• Contributes to TRAFFIC Programme reporting and work planning; 
• Supports the identification of donors and the development of funding proposals to further market transformations in the wild plants trade sector. 

REQUIREMENTS   

• Master’s degree (or bachelor’s degree combined with relevant experience) in a field such as corporate social/environmental responsibility or natural resource management; 
• Project management experience; 
• Communication or campaign development experience and skills, for example development of online/event initiatives; 
• Experience with the private sector, and/or industry codes of conducts and standards; 
• Attention to detail and sensitivity to issues of commercial confidentiality; 
• Ability to work independently and under pressure, set own work priorities, self-motivate; and a capacity to meet deadlines; 
• Fluency and excellent writing skills in English, with competency in any additional languages being an advantage; 
• Willingness and ability to travel, and ability to periodically work outside of regular office hours due to time-zone coordination;
• Eligibility to live and work in the UK. 

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About the project “Wild at Home — Using Markets for Wild Ingredients to Support Conservation and Rural Livelihoods” The project addresses the issue of over-harvesting of wild plants from a supply chain perspective, with the key area of focus on leveraging change among companies that manufacture and/or market products to end consumers. A core goal is to support access to sustainable certified raw materials, through matching producer groups to retailers to enable a sustainable flow of wild plant ingredients to final products in consumer markets. Consumer engagement around the issue of wild plants will be catalysed through the network of corporate, educational, NGO and inter-governmental partners, around the annual FairWild Week and related events. This project centres around the rigorous safeguards of the FairWild Standard. The project supports the uptake of FairWild best practices through levelling the playing field, encouraging any company that has wild-sourced supply chains to commit to responsible sourcing and trading practices, including through other avenues than FairWild certification. This will provide the avenue for companies unlikely or slow to begin the FairWild certification process to express their public commitments to sustainable practices, underpinned by improved understanding and knowledge of the risks and opportunities in wild plant supply chains, with the initial focus on a small number of flagship species (the “wild dozen”), to motivate change.