Carbon Project Developer Blue Carbon

Job Description

The ideal candidate is an experienced (blue) carbon project manager that knows the ins and outs of the carbon credit production standards and methodologies, and provides additional ecological perspectives with the obtained degree in climate science several years ago. Mangrove trees, coastal ecosystems, and wildlife in general excite him or her and there is an intrinsic drive for restoration of biodiverse habitats. He/she has a really good set of writing skills, allowing him/her to write and develop impressive Project Design Documentation, that always passes accrediting body evaluations. The candidate has ideally also led projects on the ground in remote geographies such as Sub-Saharan Africa or the Amazon, and understands complex stakeholder management. The candidate must have the desire to be part of a fast growing and quickly scaling international, well-educated, highly mobile team, whereby the candidate is able to switch between performing basic feasibility operations, design complex project estimation models and senior advisory to the management.

Your work will help drive funding to coastal wetland restoration and conservation partners to adopt best practices that improve ecosystem services, increase carbon storage, and build resilience to future climate change and sea level rise. You will focus particularly on developing coastal wetland restoration and conservation projects that aim to increase vegetative biomass in tidal wetlands and shallow seagrass environments.

A day in carbon management at DGB could look like:

Tuesday: you still need to finalise some research on your upcoming trip to some major seagrass beds in Tanzania in 3,5 weeks. The feasibility study of last month has generated positive results, and you are creating the framework for the Project Idea Note. You take a call with our Project Leader in Tanzania to work out some of the logistical details. He reminds you that you can apply for the fast-lane service for obtaining the Visa on arrival. Yesterday, you have circulated the first complete version of a Project Design Document with the DGB management team for expansion of an existing project in West Africa, and have received the first sets of comments to be incorporated in the documents. You contact the required accreditation body for this project to set dates for the first meetings on this project expansion. You still have a whitepaper to read, which you received from an alumni of your university on a new set of methodologies for measuring mangrove biomass via the use of drones. Finally, you write up some notes on your recent ideas on how to improve the Project Idea Note creation, to discuss with the IT guys.

Specific functions you will be responsible for:

• Manage the credit creation process for a portfolio of international projects
• Understand the various standards and methodologies of blue carbon credit production available and determine the best fitting sets for the projects, as well as understanding emerging jurisdictional approaches / nesting approaches
• Design, implement, and monitor the projects in accordance with the determined standards and methodologies
• Develop the Project Idea Notes (PIN) and Project Design Documentation (PDD) in accordance with an internationally accepted standard for tradeable VERs, such as the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), Gold Standard, or Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standard (CCB)
• Determine net project emission reductions, forest carbon stocks, leakage risks, and required project buffer provisions
• Ensure quality control of all project generated documents, including quantitative control of the values of (the potentials to reduce) the effect of greenhouse gas emissions of the projects, costs, biomass content, biometrics, forest sampling, mathematical modeling, (de)forestation statistics, as well as modeling of geographic information systems on (de)forestation generated in the projects
• Lead communications with accreditation bodies and lead the registration process of the VERs
• Maintain good working relationships with variety of stakeholders, including global team members, partners, industry regulators, government departments, indigenous organizations, and other third party organizations
• Serve as a key point of contact for external validation; Manage preparation and support of all external verification
• Continuous improvement of (standardization of) feasibility study, PIN and PDD processes
• Provide technical and business development support with project sourcing and lead periodic technical monitoring meetings to evaluate the progress of the objectives
• Implement preventive, corrective and improvement actions that guarantee the feasibility and profitability of the projects in the portfolio
• Support training in projects for the local teams, guaranteeing that the internal capabilities of the organization are strengthened in the viability, evaluation, formulation, validation, verification and registration of the projects
  

Requirements

• Proven experience as Blue Carbon Project Manager is a plus, but must have extensive experience working in and understanding of developing Project Design Documents (PDD) in accordance with internationally accepted standards such as Verra’s. VCS & CCB, Redd+, and Gold Standard.
• University degree in relevant scientific or quantitative field such as: Forestry, Natural Resource Management, Marine Studies, Climate or Environmental Science, Tropical Biology, Mathematics, Statistics
• Ability to solve complex project-related problems relatively independently, whilst receiving general direction on assignments or projects
• Ability to work on assignments that are diverse in nature, geography, partner landscape, and maturity, whilst constantly applying company policies, processes and procedures
• Excellent ability to write, synthesize, and analyse data combined with ability to meet deadlines
• Willing to travel to remote global geographies, experience in working in Africa and South America is a plus
• Fluent in English, French is a plus
  

Benefits

• Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)
• Work From Home
• Training & Development
• Stock Option Plan