TEEB Mexico Spatial Landcover Assessment (GIS) Consultant at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

The consultant’s duties and responsibilities will include:

• Review existing data and spatial layers on cacao production and cacao’s environmental footprint (including deforestation and ecosystem services in cacao production systems) and identify data gaps
• Produce national-scale timeseries maps (GIS) of cacao production and deforestation
• Model and map agro-ecological suitability for cacao production, at the landscape scale 4. Evaluate deforestation trends in landscapes suitable for cacao production
• Recommend methods for mapping provision of ecosystem services in landscapes suitable for cacao production, such as carbon storage, biodiversity habitat, and erosion control.
• Determine scaleable methodologies and efficient data management systems for spatial traceability of cacao products, to satisfy the EU Deforestation Free Rule Contribute to an agroecological and economic baseline report and fundraising proposal for TEEBAgriFood for cacao in Mexico (To be completed through a separate UNEP consultancy.)

Qualifications/special skills

• An advanced university degree in Environmental Science, Agronomy, Environmental Economics, or a related field is required.
• A first university degree with a combination of two (2) years professional and academic qualifications may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.
• A minimum of five (5) years of professional working experience in the field of GIS, ecosystem services modeling, landcover modeling, or food systems assessment is required An understanding of spatial modeling of deforestation in the context of agriculture is required.
• An understanding of the political economy of agriculture in Mexico is desired.