Tender Opportunity – Consultancy: Assessment of SMART competencies, training & resource needs across the BLF Lower Mekong landscape

Background

Fauna & Flora is implementing a seven-year biodiversity conservation landscape project
entitled the BLF Lower Mekong (LM) Landscape Project. The project aims to conserve and enhance
biodiversity in an area covering more than one million hectares of the Annamite Mountains, and
incorporating three large forest complexes in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam. The programme is
funded by the Biodiverse Landscapes Fund (BLF; a UK government grant managed by the Department
of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs – DEFRA) and is being implemented through a consortium
of highly experienced INGOs, led by Fauna & Flora, and including SNV, and IUCN, working in
close collaboration with local partners and Indigenous peoples & local communities
(IP&LCs), to ensure activities respond to locally identified and prioritised needs.

The overall impact of the program is to reduce poverty and create sustainable economic
development for communities living in, and dependent upon, environmentally critical landscapes.
Its outputs have been designed using an integrated approach focusing on people, nature, and
climate, and are being delivered through six distinct but inter-related components; five of
these are output-focused and align to their corresponding output, while the sixth component,
MEL and Programme Management, enables delivery of the others through excellent monitoring,
evaluation, learning and programme management mechanisms, maintaining a firm focus on future
up-scaling across the region.

The defined areas of intervention are in one of the world’s most biodiverse landscapes that
contains important but threatened protected areas (PAs) and community protected areas (CPAs).
The people living in and adjacent to these PAs and associated forest corridors are mainly
IP&LCs that are typically isolated from broader society and excluded from economic
processes, often dependent on natural resources, with a correlated impact on PAs.

Component 5 of the programme, Protected Area Management, aims to enable IP&LCs to
participate in improved PA governance, zonation and management, ensuring sustainable access to
forest resources whilst incentivising them to become active in its protection. Capacity
building of government and community rangers will reduce threats to critical habitat, natural
carbon stocks and globally threatened species, impacting wildlife trade and green-house gas
emissions from land-use change, at source.

The key barriers to effective management in the landscape have been identified
as: (1) lack of baseline data and monitoring systems to inform management; (2)
low capacity of PA management units; (3) no legal access for IP&LCs to manage natural
resources sustainably; (4) no co-management systems to involve local stakeholders in zonation,
planning and management; (5) lack of effective patrolling and law enforcement, (6) gaps in PA
gazettement for forest connectivity.

To help address barriers 1, 2, & 5, the programme intends to set up SMART data collection,
monitoring and reporting patrol management systems, ensuring harmonization across sites and
centralizing data at the provincial/national level. Training will be provided for data
managers, PA rangers, and IP&LC patrol/conservation teams in PAs/CPAs. Monthly PA/CPA
committee meetings and PF Management Board meetings will support adaptive management in all
sites. High level data analysis will include mapping of snares, patrol effort, and snare
occupancy assessments as well as locations facilitating poaching (known hotspots, forest access
points, equipment suppliers, storage & selling sites, etc) to determine threat trends and
to support adaptive management.

Over the six years of the project, and externally to this consultancy, more generalised
training and mentorship will be provided to both government and community protected area
personnel to improve their capacity to manage protected areas and to monitor the efficacy of
that management. This could include, but not be limited to adherence to patrol and incident
response standard operating procedures (SOPs), supporting subsequent legal processes,
implementing and maintaining biodiversity assessment and monitoring, and community engagement
skills.

Fauna & Flora is looking for a competent individual/organization for the procurement of
consultancy services for a Spatial Monitoring & Reporting Tool (SMART) competencies
assessment and draft framework design, as a first step in developing and implementing a
collaborative SMART system to enhance PA/CPA management and to help facilitate snare removal
and poaching prevention activities.

Purpose & Objective

The objective of this Terms of Reference (ToR) is to invite proposals from qualified
individuals or organisations able to carry out a thorough and comprehensive assessment of key
elements of the BLF landscape in using the SMART system for effective Protected Area (PA) and
Community Protected Areas (CPA) management.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Advanced degree in conservation biology, environmental science, natural resource
  management, geography, ecology, or a related field. A focus on biodiversity conservation and/or
  protected area management would be particularly relevant.
• Demonstrated experience in SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) implementation,
  particularly in protected area management, law enforcement monitoring, and biodiversity
  conservation.
• Expertise in GIS mapping, spatial analysis, and threat monitoring for biodiversity
  conservation.
• Familiarity with the International Ranger Federation Global Rangers’ Competencies Framework
  and the SMART Competency Register.
• At least 5 years of experience working in or with protected areas or community protected
  areas, with a focus on management, monitoring, and capacity building.
• Experience conducting competency assessments, training needs assessments, and
  capacity-building initiatives for rangers, government agencies, and community groups.
• Proven experience in wildlife conservation, particularly related to threat reduction (e.g.,
  poaching, snare removal, etc.) in tropical forests or similar ecosystems.
• Expertise in designing and delivering training programs for biodiversity monitoring,
  community engagement, and law enforcement in conservation contexts would be an asset.
• Experience working in Southeast Asia, particularly in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam, with
  a focus on biodiversity hotspots such as the Annamite Mountains.
• Strong knowledge of local cultural contexts, particularly working with Indigenous Peoples
  and Local Communities (IP&LCs).
• Experience working with government departments, INGOs, civil society organizations, and
  local communities on conservation projects.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, with proven experience in
  preparing high-quality technical reports, frameworks, and recommendations for large-scale
  biodiversity or conservation projects.

For full details please see the attached Terms of Reference.