Peat Policy Officer (Conservation)
This is a Temporary, Full Time vacancy that will close in {x} days at {xx:xx} BST.
The vacancy
Full Time 35 Hours per week
12 Month Contract
Closing Date: 8 August 2021
First Interviews: 18 August 2021
The climate and nature crises require comprehensive, ambitious solutions and urgent action across all sections of society. As a grassroots movement of 46 independent conservation charities working on the ground to recover nature, The Wildlife Trusts have a vital role to play.
Peatlands are critical to our vision to see 30% of land managed for nature by 2030, halting the decline of biodiversity and starting to recover nature across the UK. They are home to rare and threatened species; unique breeding bird assemblages, fascinating invertebrates, and an abundance of mosses, sedges, dwarf shrubs and insectivorous plants. Restoring peatlands on a landscape scale is also essential for tackling climate change and achieving ‘net zero’ emissions; peatlands are vast carbon stores, yet when in poor condition they are a net emitter of greenhouse gasses.
As Peat Policy Officer, you will advocate for strong policies to prevent damage to peatlands and support their recovery, working with colleagues across the movement and in partner organisations.
You will use evidence, stories and resources from across the movement to advocate for:
• Targets for peatland restoration, and mechanisms to support their delivery;
• Reductions in damaging activity including burning, drainage and extraction;
• An end to peat use in compost and wider horticulture; and will seek to establish the movement as the foremost deliverer of peatland restoration and recovery.
Working with campaign colleagues you will help drive forward our campaign to ban sales of peat products, and will coordinate the movement’s response to a forthcoming Government consultation on this topic, as part of a wider push by the environmental sector. You will work alongside Wildlife Trusts and partner organisations to build the case for greater controls on other damaging activities, and draw upon expertise from across the sector to inform the mechanisms needed to reduce or reverse the damage caused to our lowland and upland peatlands.
You will help ensure active communication with and among Trusts on peat policy, to ensure local Trusts help inform central policy work, and are equipped to utilise and amplify policy messages. Working among and between teams, you will help ensure the central team effectively collaborates to deliver this programme.
We value courage, respect, integrity, trust and responsibility. Whilst we are passionate in promoting our aims, we are not judgemental, and we are inclusive. Our society is divided, and The Wildlife Trusts want to reduce, not increase, that division.
You will be part of a tight and dedicated central team, with a modest budget but an unmatched depth and breadth of human resources to draw on across The Wildlife Trusts. We are looking for an organised and driven character who can thrive in a grassroots movement. We need a team-worker, who will work collaboratively and strategically to deliver agreed priorities, but one who can display a degree of personal responsibility and autonomy too.
Who we are
We need nature and it needs us. We’re here to make the world wilder and make nature part of life, for everyone. We’re helping to make life better – for wildlife, for people, and for future generations.
The Wildlife Trusts are a grassroots movement of 870,000 members, 38,000 volunteers, and 2,800 staff across the UK. We are at an exciting moment in our 110-year history, with an ambitious new strategy in development setting out a vision of nature in recovery, with abundant, diverse wildlife and natural processes creating wilder landscapes where people and nature thrive.
Each Wildlife Trust is an independent charity formed by people getting together to make a positive difference to wildlife and future generations, starting where they live.
The next 10 years will be critical in determining what kind of world we will all live in. We need to reverse the loss of wildlife and put nature into recovery at scale as a matter of urgency if we are to prevent climate and ecological disaster. This will require big, bold changes in the way we think and operate, and the development of a strong, collaborative culture. It will require key stakeholders and the public to take action for nature’s recovery.
We want our people to be as diverse as society, so we particularly encourage applications from people who are underrepresented within our sector, including people from minority backgrounds and people with disabilities. We are committed to creating a movement that recognises and truly values individual differences and identities.
As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to offering an interview to anyone with a disability that meets all the essential criteria for the post. Please let us know if you require any adjustments to make our recruitment process more accessible.
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