Remote Project Management Officer

This is a NatureScot Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland (FIRNS) project, wholly funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Project Manager - Knoydart Credit: A partnership of nature and community
Contract: Fixed term contract until 28th March 2025
Location: Flexible; remote working requires frequent travel to Knoydart
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. Our community "owns" almost 0.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
• 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.
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.
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.
• 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.
• 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
- Skills in problem-solving, organisation, time management and analytical thinking
- Experience and knowledge of ecological and/or carbon sequestration surveying
- 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
Competitive salary
- Budget for travel and expenses
- Empower community-led organisations to enable their work to continue
- We maintain a commitment to ensuring equality and diversity in our workforce .