Internship vacancy

Main research project: Assessing Impact of the Tropenbos Programmes in terms of the main programme KPIs (Area under climate smart landscape practices; Number of people impacted by Climate smart landscape practices; and related subKPIs)

Tropenbos’ mission is to make knowledge work for people and forests: to help develop and apply locally owned solutions that improve the inclusive and equitable governance and management of forested landscapes in the tropics, for the benefit of local sustainable development, biodiversity and our climate.

By 2030, we will double our impact. We want to improve the governance and management of at least 20 million hectares of tropical forested landscapes. This will benefit the livelihoods of at least five million people, while also contributing to global climate and biodiversity objectives.

Tropenbos reaches its impacts through the implementation of several programmes in different countries. We use several Key performance indicators to measure progress against our programme targets. These indicators are used not only to show accountability towards donors but also to serve as valuable tools for prioritizing/strategizing programme specific actions.

As of now, we have been integrating data reported by different partners and making use of different methodologies at country level, adapted to the context where our country partners operate and according to the specific partner’s in-house capacity. Given the increasing complexity related to impact monitoring of different programmes implemented in oftentimes overlapping areas, Tropenbos aims to develop a spatially explicit system. Here, all impacts are aggregated in a way that reduces overlaps and increases accuracy. Concrete spatial analyses can then be undertaken in a recurrent way.

We are now looking for an enthusiastic intern to help us in this journey. The assignment comprises operational assistance in setting the system in place, helping our partners make good use of it and running explorative analyses over the areas already reported as of 2023.

Specifically, we want to better understand how our actions lead to tangible impacts in the landscapes where we work, specifically for the Working Landscapes Programme, but possibly other programmes. Here important aspects will be to help decipher the land-use change patterns at play, including deforestation but also the result of Tropenbos running forest restoration activities.

Specific activities:

• Scope for applicable and cost-efficient spatial systems and datasets available to use
• Liaise with different country partners to help/advance their integration in the monitoring system
• Run explorative analysis on land-use change across the areas where Tropenbos works that can feed into baseline assessments and impact narratives
• Liaise with coordinators of the Tropenbos Impact areas (Community Forest & Conservation; Diversified Production systems; Forest & Landscape restoration) for specific analyses if applicable
• (Possibly) use the data available to test specific hypotheses and programme specific assumptions
• Provide recommendations on how to improve the current impact monitoring methodologies
• Write a final report comprising of the findings reached on the different sub-assignments

Other assignments:

The intern may support Tropenbos International in other smaller assignments, where appropriate.

Timeline:

The internship is expected to be full-time (36 hours) for 4-6 months. The starting date is flexible, but preferably around the beginning of 2024 (January/February).

What we are looking for:

• A motivated student with knowledge and interest in spatial analysis, land-use change, landscape & forest conservation and restoration
• Experience using global datasets and platforms such as the Global Forest Watch
• Strong analytical skills and good writing skills in English.
• Experience in an international context is an advantage

* We can only host interns from Dutch universities (due to work permits) and only host interns who are registered as a student for the duration of the internship.

What we offer:

• A workplace at our office in Ede
• Flexibility in working from home and in the office
• An internship compensation of 350 euro per month for a full-time position

Interested?

Please send your CV and a short motivation letter to Maartje de Graaf maartje.degraaf@tropenbos.org