The IUCN’s Regional Office for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean is seeking candidates for a Communications and Outreach Specialist for an USAID-funded five year project entitled “Regional Coastal Biodiversity Project” for $14 million.

The Regional Coastal Biodiversity Project will focus on three binational areas of the Central American Northern (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador)—Miskito Coast (Nicaragua-Honduras), Motagua River (Honduras-Guatemala), and Paz River (El Salvador-Guatemala)—to pilot coastal-marine biodiversity conservation strategies which can then be scaled up to the national and regional levels. The project will strive to use biodiversity conservation as a means to enhance regional economic integration – with strong emphasis on investments, leverage funding and synergies with the private sector-, security, stability, and governance.

The USAID’s Regional Coastal Biodiversity Project will contribute to conserving biodiversity in coastal-marine ecosystems and their associated upland ecosystems in Central America in order to provide human wellbeing benefits for current and future generations. The overarching program objective will be achieved through four cross-cutting strategies: better science, climate-smart biocommerce, improved governance mechanisms, and adaptation-based mitigation to global climate change. The project will reduce threats to mangroves and other coastal wetlands, seagrass beds, and coral reefs by reducing: overexploitation of fisheries (Result 1), habitat change primarily focused on mangrove conversion (Result 2) and land-based pollution (Result 3), and global climate change (Result 4).

The program will be run from San Salvador and will have the support from IUCN national offices in Guatemala and Honduras, as well as from IUCN and GOAL regional offices (San Jose, Costa Rica and Tegucigalpa respectively). The project will have field operating offices in Puerto Barrios (Guatemala), Puerto Lempira (Honduras) and San Francisco Menendez (El Salvador).

The members of the RCBP consortium include International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN, prime recipient), GOAL, Coastal Resources Center of University of Rhode Island (CRC/URI), Institute of Natural Resources, Environment and Sustainable Development of the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast (IREMADES/URACCAN, Nicaragua), Agency for the Development of the Mosquitia (MOPAWI, Honduras), Regional Environmental Documentation and Interpretation Center (CREDIA, Honduras), Defenders of Nature Foundation (FDN, Guatemala), Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Association (ARCAS, Guatemala), and Salvadoran Ecological Unit (UNES, El Salvador).

He/she will design and implement the Regional Coastal Biodiversity Project communication and dissemination strategy at local, national and regional level. Communication and dissemination tasks will include developing and fine-tuning key messages and products for target audiences in order to mobilize stakeholders and draw attention to the three prioritized sites as well as at regional level. He/she will supervise the design and production of all audio-visual and written materials and check quality before their distribution or release into the public arena, as well as compliance with IUCN’s and USAID’s branding and marking policies. . He/she has to work closely with the Regional Communications Coordinator.

He/she will implement social behavior change communications activities as well as creative outreach activities to youth, women, and other vulnerable populations. He/she will also manage and supervise all the services providers for communications of project results and public and press events. He/she will develop, orient and supervise, in close coordination with URI/CRC the systematization of best practices, case studies, information from the Regional Coastal Biodiversity Project and other initiatives to provide inputs for decision making and for action both at site and regional level. He/she will lead the activities for producing policy and advocacy briefs and the design and implementation of permanent cross- sectoral dialogues on coastal and marine biodiversity and society, and other local, national and regional dissemination activities. Under the technical orientation of URI/CRC specialist, and with the technical support from the other project specialists and backstopping, he/she will support the Alliance for Education and Research for training and research capacity development and implementation.