Project Manager – Knoydart Credit: A Partnership of Nature and Community

This is a NatureScot Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland (FIRNS) project,
wholly funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Background: 25 years of regenerating nature and community

The Knoydart Foundation is a community landowner that has guardianship of 7,000 hectares of
land on the Knoydart peninsula. Knoydart Forest Trust, a community led charity, manages the
woodland resource on behalf of the Knoydart Foundation.

Scotland’s goal is to reach net-zero by 2045. In tandem with reducing emissions, major changes
to how our land and seas are used are needed to lock up carbon and restore biodiversity. Our
community “owns” almost 0.1% of Scotland and has a proven track record of collaborative habitat
enhancement at a landscape scale. We have an opportunity to build on and significantly increase
our land and community’s contribution to the climate and biodiversity crisis.

Since 1999 land management has focused on deer management and woodland creation and
management. This has directly achieved significant habitat and biodiversity gains and increased
the woodland cover. This has resulted in an increased capacity to sequester carbon and tangible
growth of community wealth through employment, development of enterprises and circular
economies, and recreational and social resources. Our organisations have a 25-year, well
recognised and respected track record of sustainable land management, focused on the community
owned Knoydart Estate and in conjunction with neighbouring landowners.

Having commenced in 2022, the 3,000 hectare Black Hills habitat regeneration project is taking
this to a new level. This landscape scale ecological restoration, funded by NatureScot’s Nature
Restoration Fund, includes elements of new woodland, peatland restoration and community
regeneration. It will increase biodiversity and the resilience of a full range of habitats,
lock up carbon, enhance and diversify the landscape and, support local livelihoods and the
local economy.

The wider Knoydart community has a reputation for sustainable community development and
regeneration, with a thriving village hall and the pub recently taken into community ownership
and refurbished to a high standard.

The Knoydart Credit: A partnership of nature and community

Knoydart Foundation (KF) in partnership with Knoydart Forest Trust (KFT) are seeking a Project
Manager to oversee the development of a place-based natural & social capital credit. This
credit will enable direct investment in the restoration of Knoydart’s natural habitats and the
regeneration of our community. We intend that the model for this credit can be shared with
and/or replicated by other communities.

We are recruiting a Project Manager, who will work alongside the community and our partners to:

• Identify, develop, and communicate the baseline metrics and methodologies that will
  evidence the ongoing positive carbon, biodiversity and community impacts of our work and
  therefore provide assurances to investors.
• Work closely with the community to assess and evaluate the social value of nature
  restoration and community development
• Explore the demand for a place-based bundled credit, and the needs of investors and buyers
• Model how our interventions will continue to improve the ecosystem services in the future.
• Explore and develop the most impactful way to tell people about what we do.
• Develop a Natural Capital Master Plan including the nature and community regeneration plan,
  and a business plan that will demonstrate how investment will be used and how the carbon,
  biodiversity and community outcomes will be delivered.
• Present the Natural Capital Master Plan to the community and potential investors and seek
  feedback.

We believe that by developing a community conceived natural capital product, we and other
communities will be able to attract high integrity investors to the delivery of nature and
community aspirations.

This project will be funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s ‘Financing Investment-Ready
Nature in Scotland’ scheme (FIRNS) development stage. Part of this project will include
preparing the application for the next stage of funding, ‘Market and Investment Readiness’
(MIR). The role is offered as a fixed term contract until the end of March 2025, and extension
beyond this would be subject to funding and performance.

About you

We are looking for someone who is highly motivated to take on this ambitious and exciting
project, to develop the Knoydart Credit to the next stage of market and investment readiness.
The project bridges many disciplines and specialisms, from ecological surveying, community
engagement and social research, to business development and financial modelling. We are seeking
an individual with expertise and experience in community engagement, project management and
finance/investment models, ideally within land management or nature restoration, having
delivered highly sophisticated, larger-scale projects with long term outlooks. Experience
working with natural capital financing and/or community-based research would also be highly
valued.

You would be working closely with the Knoydart Foundation, Knoydart Forest Trust, the Knoydart
community and our advisory partners. It is important to us that you share our values and
aspirations for nature restoration and community development, and recognise and value the
connection between these endeavours. Experience of working with, or being a part of,
community-run organisations would be a valuable asset, alternatively experience in the third
sector or research would be beneficial. You will be an excellent communicator, working with the
community to tell the story of Knoydart and our efforts to regenerate nature and the community
together. You will also be engaging with potential investors and will need to have the ability
to engage with them, listen to their interests and requirements and inspire them about the
project, the land and the community.

Responsibilities

• Establish and maintain a dialogue with the community through workshops, discussion groups,
  surveys, mapping exercises and participatory research to develop metrics for assessing and
  evaluating social value in nature restoration.
• Alongside specialist partners, develop the baseline metrics and methodologies, and collate
  and interpret carbon, biodiversity and social data into the credit model.
• Develop a Natural Capital Master Plan, including the business plan, nature and community
  regeneration plans for the Knoydart credit model.
• Maintain a close relationship with the Working Group, providing regular feedback and taking
  on board direction.
• Regular communication of project progress with the community
• Develop a monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system to ensure ongoing capacity to
  assess land and community improvements beyond the project timeline.
• Explore and identify third parties to independently verify the carbon, biodiversity and
  community progress to purchasers of credits.
• Train community volunteers to continue monitoring progress into the future.
• Engage in knowledge sharing with partners, other communities and wider natural capital
  community of practice.
• Identify and engage with potential investors, to assess their needs and gain insight into
  market appetite.
• Prepare supporting information for a subsequent FIRNS MIR stage application as required.

Essential and desirable criteria

Essential

• Degree level or equivalent professional experience in community engagement or social
  sciences
• Proven experience in delivering larger programmes or projects to deadlines and budgets,
  preferably within land management or nature restoration
• A sound knowledge base and experience of financial and investment models
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written, for professional and non-professional
  audiences, including a proven ability to communicate clearly in plain language
• Passionate about community-led nature restoration
• Experience of building strong relationships with partners, businesses and communities
• Confidence in working with both quantitative and qualitative datasets
• Skills in problem-solving, organisation, time management and analytical thinking
• Ability to work effectively individually and as part of a team

Desirable

• Experience in social research, third sector work or similar
• Experience and knowledge of ecological and/or carbon sequestration surveying
• Familiarity with Scottish natural environment funding streams (e.g. FIRNS, NRF etc.)
• Experience working with or in natural capital financing businesses or NGOs
• Experience and knowledge of nature restoration accreditation schemes (e.g. Woodland Carbon
  Code, Peatland Carbon Code, Biodiversity Metric, JNCC etc.)
• Experience of working with and/or training volunteers

Benefits of the role

• Competitive salary
• Budget for travel and expenses
• Opportunity to develop new methodologies in an emerging sector
• Empower community-led organisations to enable their work to continue
• We are a Fair Work First and National Living Wage employer

We maintain a commitment to ensuring equality and diversity in our workforce, and encourage
applicants from underrepresented backgrounds in the environment sector to apply.

To apply email [email protected]

Closing date for applications May 10th 2024