Site Coordinator Vacancy at LEMoN

Job Title: Site Coordinator for Long-term Forest Monitoring Plots in the Andamans & NSTR

Location: Andhra Pradesh, Andaman

Organizations Profile:

LEMoN, a Long-Term Ecosystem Monitoring Network for forests across the Indian region is  a recent initiative from the Ecosystems Ecology Group at the National Center for Biological  Sciences, Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, Bangalore, India (http://lemon.ncbs.res.in).  LEMoN was initiated in response to a perceived need to develop a comprehensive network of long term forest monitoring plots across India to enable accurate regional scale estimation and  forecasting of forest carbon across the Indian region, as well as to set-up the infrastructure to enable diverse research pursuits relating to tropical forest ecology.

 LEMoN’s immediate objective is to establish a network of one-hectare long-term forest monitoring plots at multiple sites across India. All sites will follow a common data collection protocol which matches with international forest monitoring protocols. At the current time, LEMoN has established one-hectare long-term forest monitoring plots in four locations across India including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh and the Andaman Islands. We are currently seeking site coordinators for the Andaman Islands & Andhra Pradesh.

 

Job Description:

Your responsibilities will be to oversee the monitoring of existing one-hectare plots and ensure regular data collection and data entry to a central database, initiate and manage herbarium collections of plants and a database of plant functional traits, and conduct regular maintenance of the plots and associated equipment. You will also be expected to establish new one-hectare plots following on-site training in the required skills. You will report to the Nodal Coordinator and the Science Director of the LEMoN program at regular intervals. You will be encouraged to address a research question of your own interest in the context of the plots.

Eligibility: Your required qualifications for the positions will be an MSc or PhD in Forestry, Ecology,  Botany and/or Environmental Sciences. You will demonstrate high competency in basic field vegetation work and plant identification skills, and you must have excellent data management skills.

You will be based at field sites in the Nagarjuna Sagar Tiger Reserve in Andhra Pradesh or the Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Trust, Andamans. Language proficiency in Telugu is a must for the Andhra Pradesh site, while proficiency in Hindi will be desirable for the Andaman site. You must be able to live and work in remote conditions at these forest sites for extended periods of time. On a daily basis, you must be able to sustain long hours working in the outdoors. Your inter-personal skills and ability to work and manage field assistants from different cultural backgrounds than your own will be important.

How to apply:

Interested candidates should their CV and contact details of 3 referees to cwc@ncbs.res.in. Please also clearly state in the email header and covering letter which position you are applying for – Andaman Islands or Andhra Pradesh. Salaries will be commensurate with experience and based on standard government scales.

Last date for the application: 15^th of November, 2013

Reference: http://lemon.ncbs.res.in/