Regional Conservation Finance Program Manager

**Job Description**:
**Employment Type**: WCS will consider both full-time and part-time options to fill this post.

**Reports to**: WCS Regional Director, Southeast Asian Archipelago (SEAA)

**Location**: Singapore

**Hiring Package**: National package

**Country Program/Sector**: WCS Southeast Asian Archipelago (SEAA) Region

**Internal liaison**: WCS Indonesia and Philippines Marine teams, Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) Executive Director, WCS Indonesia / Malaysia program leadership, WCS Regional Carbon Advisor, WCS Regional Commodities Advisor, WCS Conservation Solutions Executive Director, WCS Indonesia Conservation Finance Specialist.

**Expected travel**: Approximately 20-30%; as required within the region and to donor/technical/business meetings as needed

**Organization Background**:
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a US non-profit, tax-exempt, private organization established in 1895 that saves wildlife and wild places by understanding critical issues, crafting science-based solutions, and taking conservation actions that benefit nature and humanity. With more than a century of experience, long-term commitments in dozens of landscapes, presence in more than 60 nations, and experience helping to establish over 150 protected areas across the globe, WCS has amassed the biological knowledge, cultural understanding and partnerships to ensure that vibrant, wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities. Working with local communities and organizations, that knowledge is applied to address species, habitat and ecosystem management issues critical to improving the quality of life of poor rural people whose livelihoods depend on the direct utilization of natural resources.

WCS’s Southeast Asian Archipelago (SEAA) region holds globally important expanses of tropical forests, contains three of the world’s megadiverse countries (Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines) and incorporates the Coral Triangle; an area identified as the global epicentre of marine biodiversity. WCS’s SEAA regional office is based in Singapore, and plays a critical strategic role in leveraging private sector partnerships and collaborations in support of WCS’s conservation activities in the region and globally.

WCS implements a range of marine conservation programs within the region, including the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs) and ecosystem approaches to fisheries management (EAFM), with a focus on small-scale fisheries livelihoods. WCS SEAA is exploring Blue Carbon, supporting MPA finance (including developing MPA business plans), and is actively supporting the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF), with the design of a regional conservation trust fund.

WCS’s regional portfolio of terrestrial conservation projects includes forest and landscape-level conservation, and dedicated programs to tackle wildlife crime and conserve critically endangered species. WCS works to address key drivers of deforestation by working with governments and communities to develop protected area and forest management frameworks, and improve policy and enforcement. We facilitate partnerships with the private sector to help mitigate impacts of forestry and agriculture and generate new funding sources to support conservation.

Across marine and terrestrial programs, we are exploring the field of conservation finance to ensure that conservation outcomes are sustainable, and that benefits are shared equitably. WCS’s Southeast Asian Archipelago regional office is now seeking a dynamic, experienced individual to help coordinate, manage and support WCS’s efforts in Conservation Finance across the region.

**Job Summary**:
Based in Singapore, this position will coordinate and manage a regional program of conservation finance initiatives, partnerships, and related project activities and work in close coordination with country program, regional and global colleagues. The incumbent will consolidate technical and strategic resources from WCS and partners to build regional capacity for sustainable finance initiatives across WCS’s portfolio of programs (including within the CTI-CFF).

**Major Responsibilities**:
**WCS’s EU/KfW regional Coral Triangle marine project**:

- Devise and manage an annual workplan focused on regional conservation finance initiatives (WCS’s EU/KfW funded regional marine project), in partnership with regional / country programs and strategic partners (esp. the Conservation Finance Alliance, CFA).
- Work closely with and coordinate the conservation finance partners (CFA, CTI-CFF, EDF and consultants) involved in WCS’s EU/KfW funded regional marine project - to ensure successful delivery of related project activities and outcomes in Indonesia and Philippines.
- Coordinate and host regular internal and external calls / meetings with WCS teams and partners to ensure knowledge sharing, for the project remain on track, and that risks/issues are mitigate