Ranger and Community Engagement Intern

Saiga antelope populations, by the early 2000’s, were decimated with only around 50,000
individuals left in 2007. Due to long term conservation efforts from national and international
NGOs working in partnership with governments Saiga numbers now stand at over 2.7 million. This
almost unprecedented and remarkable conservation success has led to the downlisting of Saiga
from critically endangered to near threatened by the IUCN Red List. With increased population
comes new and emerging threats, including increased human and wildlife coexistence issues.

Rangers in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, often from local communities, are charged with protecting
biodiversity across vast areas of the Central Asian Steppe often in challenging conditions with
limited equipment. Resources, such as water and good pasture land, are adversely affected by
the impacts of climate change and competition grows for these limited resources between growing
Saiga populations and local communities. In this context, rangers have an added duty to engage
and work with local communities and they are often faced with difficult situations where the
human rights of both rangers and the local communities are challenged.

It is vital that rangers are aware of the obligations to promote human rights-based
conservation and equally important, are aware of their own human rights and minimum standards.
Supporting well planned and applied training in human rights can lead to positive knock-on
impacts not only for communities and rangers but also for biodiversity.

This internship is a great opportunity to work with Fauna & Flora’s cross cutting teams and
national partners in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to strengthen Saiga conservation within range
states by supporting efforts to build capacity amongst rangers and protected area management.
You will work closely with the Wildlife Trade Programme Manager, Saiga Conservation Project
Manager, project partners the Saiga Conservation Alliance (SCA) and the Association for the
Conservation of the Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK) as well as key staff from across Fauna
& Flora to help develop complementary training modules on improving community relations and
buy in, safeguarding, and ranger conduct. You will also see how these are adapted to local
contexts and manage the translation of materials into local languages (by engaging professional
translators).

During this internship, you will have the opportunity to build your understanding of current
efforts across the conservation community to support rangers globally, through such initiatives
as the Universal Rangers Support Alliance (URSA). You will also develop an understanding of
existing approaches to ranger training globally in the field of human rights, codes of conduct
and standard operating procedures, and contribute to the development of training resources for
Rangers. Through working collaboratively with cross-cutting teams and the Eurasia Central Asia
programme, you will build a network of connections in the conservation field while gaining
experience on how an international conservation NGO works.

Note that this internship has been designed to create a professional development opportunity
for people who are new to the conservation sector. Therefore, applicants should have less than
two years’ paid or unpaid experience in the conservation sector (not including academic work).

The closing date for applications is Wednesday, 14 August 2024. Interviews are
likely to take place during the week commencing Monday, 26 August 2024.

This role is not eligible for sponsorship for a Skilled Worker Visa