Job Announcement
Closing date: 12 June 2019, 17:00
Department of Biodiversity
Project: Developing a Comprehensive Framework for Practical Implementation of The Nagoya Protocol-ABS
Cambodia’s specific geographical location and long history and complicated topographical, ecological and social features has resulted in it becoming a prosperous, rich and diverse plants genetic resource country. While diverse climatic conditions diversified the country’s flora with both tropical and temperate plants, thousands of years if agricultural practice by ethnic groups enriched its crop genetic resources with great numbers of local cultivars and land race. In term of medicinal plants, the high level of genetic diversity make Cambodia an attractive country for bio-prospecting, especially given that there are approximately 800 known medicinal plants, many of which have associated knowledge.
However, Cambodia faces a wide range of issues that threaten its biological diversity and ecological security. These threats emanate from the transition from a subsistence-based agrarian economy to a consumption-based cash economy, competing land-use from urbanization and infrastructure development, poaching of wild plants and animals, localized overharvesting for timber, fuel wood and non-wood forest products, human-wildlife conflicts, and climate change. Because of the threat to biological resources, the traditional knowledge of local communities that is associated with genetic resources, the traditional knowledge of local communities that is associated with genetic resources is disappearing rapidly, due to the change of traditional lifestyles. A large volume of traditional knowledge, such as medicinal use of biological resources, is being replaced by modern technology.
To counter the various threats to biodiversity, the country has planned various strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources for socio-economic development. However, making use of its biodiversity and traditional knowledge for the promotion of bio-prospecting and of an access and benefits-sharing (ABS) national regime that is constrained by several factors. The country currently does not have a fully functional regulatory and institutional framework for ABS, and the institutional and personnel capacity to carry out bio-prospecting beyond basic level and develop and manage ABS schemes that are compliant with Nagoya Protocol. The project is intended to strengthen national capacities on access and benefit sharing of genetic resource to facilitate the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing. The above objective would be achieved through two components, namely: (i) Creating and enabling national policy, legal and institutional framework for ABS consistent with the CBD and its Nagoya Protocol, and (ii) Developing Capacity and administrative measure for implementation of national ABS legal framework.
The Project is seeking for :
- 1 Project Coordinator
- 1 Finance Officer
- 1 Administrative Officer
Interested individuals should submit a cover letter, CV with support references to Department of Biodiversity, General Secretariat of National Council for Sustainable Development, Ministry of Environment: Morodok Teacho Building (Lot 503), Tonle Basac, Chamkarmorn, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and/or email to preangk@gmail.com. For more information, please contact us through telephone: 096 353 5646. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for an interview. Closing date: 12 June 2019.