Open Position **opportunity**
Scholarship advertisement
Multi-Actor Adaptation Plan to cope with Forests under Increasing Risk of Extensive fires (MAP-FIRE)
Research Assistant
Diagnostic of Operational and Community based strategies of fire monitoring and prevention in MAP
Requirements:
- MSC completed by April 2019 in the following areas: Geography, sociology, anthropology, economy, journalism, correlated areas
- Experience with qualitative methodologies from the social sciences
- Fluent in speaking Portuguese and Spanish, writing in those languages. Writing in English will be considered an additional qualification.
- Ability to communicate with different sector of the society
- Ability and organization to document and write reports.
- Live in the MAP (Madre de Dios-Peru, Pando-Bolivia and Acre-Brazil) region and flexibility to travel in the region and to São Paulo.
- It is desirable to hold a bank account in Brazil.
This position is from Cemaden´s MAP-Fire project co-shared with the following institutions: UFAC (Brazil), Herencia (Bolivia) and ACINCIA (Peru).
Supervisors:
Dr Victor Marchezini (Cemaden, Brazil)
Dr Cesar Ascorra (ACINCIA, Peru),
Dr Liana Anderson (Cemaden, Brazil)
Dr.Foster Brown (UFAC)
Application dates : 1 April to 31 May 2019
Selection and interview: 3rd to 6th June 2019
Application process:
Please send to Victor Marchezini < [email protected] and [email protected] the following documents:
- Short cv
- Copy of diplomas
- 2 letters of recommendation
- A presentation letter, explaining why you are interested in the project and how you expect to contribute to it.
2. Expected results
The Research Assistant will collect and analyse the operational and community-based strategies for monitoring and fire risk prevention, under the supervision WP-2 and WP-3 PIs: Dr. Victor Marchezini (Cemaden, Brazil) and Dr Cesar Ascorra (ACINCIA, Peru), and Dra. Liana Anderson (Cemaden, Brazil) and Dr Guillermo Rioja (Herencia, Bolivia), respectively. Dr Foster Brown (UFAC) will be a focal point. The findings of this diagnostic will be shared in a technical report and will provide important inputs for the activities of workshop 2 (WS-2) (Figure 1). The Research Assistant will also assist in the preparation of participatory methodologies of workshops 1 and 2 (WS-1 and WS-2). In the workshop 1, the main product will be action plans designed and planned by people. In the workshop 2, the main outcome is the identification of challenges for the adaptation of future fire prevention routines. These outcomes will be important for other outcomes of working package 3, such as the policy paper and letter of recommendations.
3. Dataset and methods utilized
To analyses operational and community-based strategies for monitoring and fire risk prevention (Objective 3), the Research Assistant will use the frontline methods, which aims to listen the voices of local people to understand their perceptions about their everyday wildfires risks and impacts. Two stages will subsidize this objective. The first refers to survey not only official documents but also to carry out interviews with official agencies, organizations, and also in communities in areas affected by fires in the past (to be provided by the project team). These interviews will occur in Rio Branco, Pando and Madre de Dios and they aim to generate a diagnostic of fire prevention, monitoring and fire risk for the MAP region. The project Stakeholders will support the identification of key local people to be interviewed by the Research Assistant. The second stage is based on a series of three workshops (WS). The Research Assistant will help to plan and to coordinate the activities. In the first workshop (WS-1) we will introduce the project and dialogue with stakeholders and community representatives in order to produce a first overall diagnostic of the current status on fire prevention, monitoring and risks in the MAP region, according to the views and experiences of the stakeholders and communities. This workshop will also be used to collect intergenerational views on the fire cycle targeted by this proposal (risk, prevention and monitoring). The “oficina do futuro” technique, to be carried out in a school, aiming to identify: 1) the “dreams” of a community safe from fire risks; 2) the “rocks on the way” (“barriers”) to make these dreams come true; 3) the actions that can reduce these barriers. Then, the participants will vote and choose four actions to be prioritized and planned (how to do, when, by whom etc.). This method will guide the students in each country to develop an action plan, which is a continued activity for one year, based on the challenges, bottlenecks and solutions expressed by them during the workshop. This first workshop will be divided in the three phases: (i) to be carried out in Rio Branco (Brazil), where the project stakeholders, community representatives, a teacher and students from the three countries will participate in a one day activity in a rural school. (ii) The same method used in the school in Rio Branco will be replicated in the selected school in Pando (Bolivia) (workshop 1b), and in (iii) Madre de Dios (Peru) (workshop 1c). These plans will be assessed by the research assistant and will be used in the second workshop (WS-2, details below). The MAP-Fire Project will use some participatory methodologies, such as provided by the Ecominga Amazónica program (http://www.ecominga.uqam.ca). Topics will include fire risk, prevention and monitoring, aiming to identify the workflow of information and data used for planning and to guide decision making. The data will be analyzed using vulnerability frameworks, focusing on economic, social and institutional dimensions.
Based on the analysis from working packages 1 and 2, the project team will discuss and disseminate the current and future fire risk scenarios among scientists, policymakers, practitioners and communities at risk through one dialogue-oriented workshop (WS-2). The Research Assistant will help to prepare this second workshop. WS-2 will be divided in two stages. First, the team will discuss the results of action plans proposed in the workshop 1 (WS-1). Then, based on action plans of WS-1 and operational and community-based diagnostic generated in working package 2 (WP-2), this workshop will discuss the challenges and conservation strategies to deal with future fire risk and impacts based on outcomes of working package 1 (WP-1) (Figure 1). The WS-2 aim to identify not only the current challenges for understanding and using the available information on fire risk and its prevention, but also will promote the discussion on fire risk reduction under the scenarios presented. This method will guide the stakeholders from each country to develop a draft of Multi-Actor Adaptation Plan to cope with Forests under Increasing Risk of Extensive fires.
