Internship vacancy: Locally Owned Solutions

>>> Download the call here.

Project title:

Desk Review and Information Gap Analysis Tropenbos Portfolio of Locally Owned Solutions

Project explanation:

In the discourse around forest landscape protection, restoration and governance, the concept of "locally owned solutions" has gained significant attention in recent years, with roots in the top-down/bottom-up debate from international development and academic spheres. For decades, interventions to address forest degradation and deforestation were largely guided by expert-driven, technical solutions, often neglecting the social, cultural, and political dimensions of local contexts. The limitations of such approaches, as seen in global initiatives like REDD+, have underscored the importance of bottom-up, locally informed strategies. Research increasingly highlights the value of traditional and indigenous knowledge systems, alongside the growing recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ rights, as critical to sustainable outcomes.

Locally Owned Solutions are center stage in our global strategy to improve governance and management of 20 million hectares of tropical forested landscapes. We work in 10 countries across the globe to co-create, test and demonstrate the viability of this approach for landscape specific challenges. Our programmes focus on community forest management, participatory restoration, diversified production systems, fire-smart landscapes, business and finance, and gender and youth inclusion. We have a wealth of experience in promoting such solutions, yet it is still not well-documented.

Our concept of locally owned solutions has been, and continues to be, developed with the acknowledgement of its complexity and diversity. In many ways, the idea of locally owned solutions is at odds with the idea of an external intervention, or external ideology. As there are multiple perspectives there are no commonly agreed upon definitions. We at Tropenbos International have been working on developing a collective understanding of what we in the network consider to be a Locally Owned Solution, and how exactly is that we work on these across the diverse landscapes we work in.

The objective of this internship is to contribute to the development of our locally-owned approaches, by documenting, evaluating, and critically analyzing the effectiveness of our approaches applied in our programmes, demonstrating their impact, identifying successes and limitations, and showcasing lessons learned. This is an excellent opportunity for a student to gain experience in an international organization working at the frontier between forests and agriculture or other land uses, who is interested developing their skills and experience in this field.

What will you be working on?

• Desk research in Tropenbos documents, reports and communication channels.
• Draft a document with the results of the desk research, where gaps in information become clear.
• Interview country advisors and theme coordinators of the Tropenbos Internatioinal team to acquire the missing pieces of information.
• Draft final document with as complete information as is possible.
• Prepare presentation.

What are we looking for?

• Background/experience in forest and nature conservation, environmental governance, international development areas or similar.
• Conceptual thinking.
• Analytical skills.
• Eye for detail, but also the skill to recognise what is relevant and what is not.
• Explorative attitude.
• Open communicator.

What do we offer?

• Joining standard Tropenbos International network meetings and other relevant meetings, trainings or workshops.
• Duration of the internship of 4 months (preferably 1st February 2025 until 30th June 2025).
• Working hours: 32h – 36h per week.
• Two days a week at the office in Ede.
• Internship allowance of €375,- based on a fulltime workweek (36h).

Interested?

Please send your CV and motivation letter by January 12 2025 at 23:59 CET to:

• Anita van der Laan: anita.vanderlaan@tropenbos.org
• Luca Kroese: luca.kroese@tropenbos.org

If you have any questions about the vacancy, feel free to reach out to the contacts above.

This vacancy is on a rolling basis and we keep the right to close the vacancy early.