Overview
The CIFOR Value Chain, Finance and Investment (VFI) team has been studying the legality and sustainability of value chains associated with tropical forests for many years. In Central Africa, numerous studies have been carried out on value chains for the wildlife and timber sectors, and more recently for cocoa. The challenge today is to understand how these commodity chains can become sustainable and formal under the pressure of external events, such as the COVID crisis, media campaigns in favor of green consumption or changes in consumer attitudes.Three projects will cover this research.First is the project entitled “Identifying and mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 on legal and sustainable wildlife trade in low and middle income countries” (LMICs). The aim of this project is to develop evidence-based guidelines for regulating wildlife trade to address the risks of COVID-19 without undermining legal and sustainable wildlife trade economies. This project will use trade data, interviews and the Delphi method to achieve the following objectives: (1) track changing wildlife trade trends during the pandemic; (2) assess the impacts of these changing trends on people engaged in wildlife economies; and (3) formulate new guidelines for safe, legal and sustainable wildlife trade in the COVID-19 era.Second, the project entitled “Essor des transactions de sciages d’origine légale au Cameroun” aims to increase the use of legal timber in Cameroon by increasing the quantity of legal timber produced, supporting the emergence of national demand for legal timber, and facilitating transactions between suppliers and consumers of lega timber products.Lastly, the project entitled “Appui à la conservation de la forêt communautaire de la COPAL” supports measures for forest conservation in the COPAL community forest, accompanied by investments in the surrounding area for sustainable eco-development for the benefit of local communities, through legal and efficient cocoa production, forest plantations and the legal small-scale exploitation of timber.This assignment will involve conducting semi-structured interviews with participants in bushmeat supply chains, including exporters (if relevant), intermediaries and harvesters/hunters; advocating for consuming timber with legal origin in Cameroonian domestic markets; and integrating sustainable value chains in the revision of the Simple Management Plan for the COPAL community forest.
Duties and responsibilities
Reporting and scientific writing: A track record of co-authoring or contributing to one (1) publication (journal, book chapter, policy brief, OP, etc.).
Education, knowledge and experience