The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is a leading voice for US protected waters, is seeking an Island Resilience Specialist, a position responsible for supporting island resilience activities in partnership with the Local2030 Islands Network and across the NOAA offices participating in technical collaboration with islands.
Islands around the world are unique—each with their own specific natural and built environment, economies, social structures, and cultural norms—but they also all share a close relationship with the marine and coastal areas that surround them. Specifically, a future shaped by climate change poses significant threats for island communities and the conservation, restoration, and protection of the coastal and marine environments that they rely on. While islands face these climate threats, a history of resilience to social and environmental changes, along with current island innovation and action, demonstrates that supporting island efforts is critical for informing and enabling solutions that provide benefits to connected social-environmental systems.
Specifically, the Island Resilience Associate will provide support to the NOAA Climate Program Office (CPO), through its Climate and Societal Interactions (CSI) Division, for activities designed to enhance climate resilience in islands through a partnership with the Local2030 Islands Network (L2030IN) and NOAA’s Marine Protected Area (MPA) Center.
The L2030IN is an island-led coalition, of both US and non-US islands, committed to advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in island-centric ways. The Network provides a critical forum for islands to engage in peer-to-peer exchanges on shared challenges and solutions, on topics such as the role of Marine Protected Areas in diversifying economic sectors, climate resilience planning, and provision of key ecosystem and societal services.
Focus areas include:
Collaboration within and external to NOAA to advance partnerships and efforts; coordination with national and local extension and capacity building programs in support of L2030IN and its members; supporting a small grants program focused on sustainable tourism in island jurisdictions; coordinating engagement with island-led Communities of Practice focused on climate data to support resilience, sustainable and regenerative tourism; and monitoring and reporting on project progress.
The Island Resilience Associate serves as part of a core team supporting implementation of various activities aimed to address a wide range of support needs related to cross-NOAA technical assistance efforts for islands, in collaboration with the Local2030IN and NOAA’s MPA Center, and under the direction of the Climate Program Office’s CSI Division.
What You’ll Do
- Identify and analyze priorities as they relate to island resilience and marine/coastal areas for adaptation and co-benefits to islands, in order to inform program planning.
- Support NOAA’s Climate Program Office, through its Climate and Societal Interactions (CSI) Division, and its working groups, including organizing meetings, following up on action items, and preparing notes, reports, and other products.
- Work closely with NOAA’s National Sea Grant Office team, along with external partners to support implementation of extension, fellowship, and exchange activities for island resilience.
- Work closely with NOAA lead, along with external partners, to support the implementation of a small grants competition focused on sustainable and regenerative tourism, emphasizing critical marine and coastal resources, to provide direct benefits to islands.
- Support virtual and in-person workshops and training through planning, logistics and coordinating. These workshops and training will focus on priority topics (e.g., how marine conservation can be utilized as a mechanism to advance environmental and social priorities such as sustainable tourism; how restoration of marine and coastal habitats can aid in climate mitigation and adaptation co-benefits, food security, migration, sea level rise management, etc.).
- Monitor and report on project progress and spending for NOAA-led island resilience projects; collecting and compiling information across implementing partners to assess project outcomes across the various island resilience efforts.
- Coordination with cross-NOAA partners, as well as with external partners (including other US Federal Agencies), to ensure that island resilience efforts are leveraging existing resources and partnerships for maximum impact and are advancing science-informed management of coastal and/or island communities and ecosystems.
- Responsible for other deliverables related to climate change, MPAs and islands, as identified by CPO.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in biology, ecology, or earth sciences, environmental science or policy, or the social sciences.
- Minimum two years of specialized work experience related to two or more the following:
- Analyzing climate impacts and adaptation in the marine or coastal environment;
- Developing partnerships and supporting engagement among technical experts and stakeholders in order to foster science-informed management of coastal and/or island communities and ecosystems;
- Science and management of marine protected areas, including management of natural and cultural resources;
- Coordinating multi-disciplinary environmental planning and management efforts
- Communicating technical and/or environmental information verbally and in written format; and,
- Organizing and implementing training activities with relevance to challenges faced by island jurisdictions (e.g., MPA management, sustainable tourism, food security, migration, sea level rise management).
