Position: Land Use, Agriculture and Forests Program Director
Program: Forest
Location: Sรฃo Paulo/SP โ Brazil
WRI Brazil seeks a Director for its new Land Use, Agriculture and Forests Program. The Director will be responsible for leadership, management, outreach, fundraising and scaling the anchor work on landscape restoration while broadening WRI Brasilโs work across sustainable food production and protection of native ecosystems. Meanwhile, paying close attention to essential issues related to equity, rights, good governance and land and natural resource tenure.
The position requires strong vision and experience, a strategic mindset, interpersonal skills, fundraising talent and knowledge of agriculture and forests and social issues, and how forests intersect with the economy, development, human wellbeing as well as climate change. In addition, the candidate should thrive operating in a diverse and results-focused culture. Ability to engage with multistakeholder processes including government, civil society, private sector and academia is strongly desired.
This is a challenging position that offers a unique opportunity to have a major impact on the Brazilian and the global environment and development issues.
๏ถ Program Overview
The Forests, Land Use and Agriculture program works to make the conservation and recovery of native vegetation become central elements in the economic, social and environmental plans of cities, states and Brazil. To this end, it promotes the approach of restoring landscapes and forests, monitoring land use and broad dissemination and analysis of sustainable production models in agriculture and livestock, within an approach to protect, produce, reduce and restore:
- Protect: Support the implementation of monitoring strategies and public policies to ensure that biomes such as the Amazon, Atlantic Forest and Caatinga are fully monitored, promoting the conservation of native vegetation.
- Produce: Encourage the construction of public and private arrangements for sustainable land use, in order to promote the production of food and forest products and ensure the legal compliance of rural producers, through, for example, carbon markets and payment mechanisms for environmental services in conserved areas.
- Reduce: Reduce the socio-environmental impact of land use activities based on a production system that includes forests and promotes the sharing of benefits, promoting models such as agroforestry systems, crop-livestock-forest integration and the promotion of a forestry bioeconomy .
- Restore: Promote the recovery of degraded areas, contributing to the fulfillment of Brazil's climate commitments in the Paris Agreement based on a strategy focused on people who promote the various restoration strategies, such as assisted natural regeneration, agroforestry and native forestry.
๏ถ Key Responsibilities
Strategy, Impact & Leadership
- Analyze current initiatives, develop and implement strategies that drive the national, subnational and international agenda, working closely with WRIโs Global and Latin American offices allowing WRI Brasil to continue to be a leader in the landscape restoration sector while broadening WRI Brasilโs mandate to include land use , including sustainable food production, protection of native ecosystems and other land use dynamics
- Keep the WRI Brasilโs Land Use, Agriculture and Forests Program and its initiatives focused on critical issues and high-impact opportunities where WRIโs tools, analyses, and partnerships are value-add and can lead to real results.
- Ensure the strategyโs โtheories of changeโ are robust and a monitoring/evaluation system is in place.
- Ensure WRI Brasilโs Land Use, Agriculture and Forest Program has a compelling vision, strong research foundation, and coherent engagement strategy that provides social and environmental benefits.
- Ensure programmatic initiatives lead to transformative change in sustaining forest ecosystems and enhancing forestsโ role in development, with special focus on decreasing inequality, climate change and sustainable land use.
- Foster a culture of excellence and diversity in all aspects of the Program.
- Inspire and engage the team of professionals to implement WRI Brasil strategy.
Outreach
- Serve as the primary โvoiceโ of WRI Brasilยดs Land Use, Agriculture and Forests Program.
- Give presentations at public speaking events, national and international fora, one-on-one meetings, and within WRI.
- Lead/oversee research, write briefs, publish blogs and Op-eds, and conduct media interviews and collaborate with communication and engagement strategies in order to set public and private sector agendas, influence decision-makers and key audiencesโ perspectives, and communicate the program findings and recommendations.
- Communicate the Programโs findings and recommendations, internally at WRI at the Global and National and Subnational levels and to external audiences.
Management
- Grow and manage the team, delegating authority, ensuring they are effective and supported, and ensuring planned deliverables and results are achieved.
- Oversee overall budgetary performance of the Program.
- Engage fellow WRI senior managers on institutional strategic and operational issues to advance the interests of the Program and of WRI as a whole, both nationally and internationally.
- High-profile communication being developed by Program staff to ensure they meet WRIโs high standards for quality.
- Serve on WRI Brasilยดs management team.
Fundraising
- In partnership with the Executive Director, Senior Development Manager, and Global Development team, develop the fundraising strategy for WRI Brasil.
- Direct and oversee investments and fundraising efforts.
- Actively cultivate and manage relationships with existing donors, nationally and internationally, securing renewals.
- Mentor staff to broaden their fundraising skills, help them manage existing fundraising relationships, and cultivate new funding prospects.
๏ถ Required Qualifications:
- Masters or PhD degree in the natural or social sciences with relevance to forests and agriculture is desirable.
- Minimum of 15+ yearsโ experience in leadership positions and working in fields relevant to forest conservation, sustainable agriculture/land use management, and restoration and 15+ years of program management and/or project implementation.
- Demonstrated ability to successfully motivate and manage large teams to reach their full potential and achieve on-the-ground results.
- Strong team player with ability to work across institutional departments/programs.
- Ability to manage effective partnerships with multiple actors (especially the private sector).
- Proven ability to provide vision and superb strategic thinking skills.
- Demonstrated capability to secure funding from donors on a large scale.
- Outstanding ability to communicate clearly, passionately, and compellingly to a wide range of audiences, especially high-level decision-makers from government, private sector, media and civil society.
- Proficiency in oral and written communications in English and Portuguese. (e.g., research briefs, blogs, proposals)
- Strong network of relationships and partners at the national and international levels
- Experience overseeing and managing budgets.
- Ability to travel, nationally and internationally
- Flexible individual who can work independently, under minimal direction and supervision.
- Resourceful, ability to think out of the box, deal with ambiguous situations and come up with solutions where there are none apparently visible
- Ability to make solid decisions based on available information.
- Adaptability, flexibility and ability to lead in an environment of transitions and changes
- Strong analytical and strategic thinking capabilities.
๏ถ Things you should know before applying to this post
- English is required for day to day work.
- Candidates will be asked to submit CVs and will be interviewed in English.
- We are committed to the principle of Equal Employment Opportunity for all employees, regardless of sex, marital status, nationality, religion, age, sexual orientation and any other characteristics unrelated to the performance of the job. Selection will be in accordance with objective, job related criteria and the appointment will be on the basis of applicantโs merits and abilities.
๏ถ How to Apply
If you qualify for the position, apply online at