Sustainability and Impact Officer: Conservation

Our Client operates 18 luxury tented bush camps and lodges (and counting) amid untamed wilderness areas in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. They promote and influences safari travel to Africa on a global scale while operating with a strong focus on conservation and an environmentally sustainable footprint that celebrates the culture of communities in the areas in which they operate.

Their Foundation is a non-profit organisation that has been operating alongside the business since 2006. The Foundation supports community empowerment, education, human-wildlife co-existence, and conservation projects.

They now want to recruit a **Sustainability & Impact Officer** to track, monitor, record and evaluate impact and sustainability initiatives across their camps and projects.

This energetic, highly motivated and passionate individual will work with key internal and external stakeholders to drive our sustainability and impact vision across both their commercial business andr Foundation. The successful incumbent will therefore be required to work both within a commercial, for-profit business that balances the needs of luxury safari tourism while striving towards nature positive impact, as well as a non-profit structure that aims to drive positive community and conservation impact through targeted investments and projects.

This is a great opportunity for an early-career but future focused individual who has a desire to contribute towards tourism-driven sustainability, conservation, and community outcomes in remote areas in Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The role is based in Cape Town, with frequent travel to remote locations in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

**Brief description of duties**:

- Develop a sustainability policy and framework in line with the commonly accepted 4C framework in nature-based tourism;
- Design and implement a monitoring and evaluations process for collecting, analysing, and understanding sustainability data
- In collaboration with internal stakeholders, identify and implement opportunities to improve the sustainability of their operations, including the setting and monitoring of goals;
- Conduct training on impact and sustainability best practices with internal and camp staff to help meet our sustainability and impact goals;
- Develop strategies and plan for the implementation of sustainability initiatives;
- Translate sustainability and impact data into understandable and communicable information for internal as well as external use, i.e. annual reports, etc.;
- In close collaboration with the Foundation Lead, design the impact parameters of new and existing projects, including the data points to be tracked and how they will be tracked;
- Identify ways in which the company can balance business demands with the goal of respecting, supporting and improving community and conservation within the local territories in which the business/Foundation operate;
- Ensure that the sustainability and impact monitoring and evaluation systems are implemented by staff in Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe as required;
- Research and identify suitable technological solutions for sustainability and impact data gathering, monitoring, evaluation and analysing;
- Research and identify suitable sustainability / impact-based tourism industry initiatives / groups / memberships;
- Manage the relationships and subscription of any associated memberships, compile necessary data and reports for these, as well as attend and present at events as might be required from time to time;
- Report on the effectiveness of programs and initiatives, ensuring desired outcomes are achieved and solutions identified to overcome business challenges
- Spearhead engagement for sustainability and impact within the business, driving staff engagement, passion and understanding oof the positive impact that a nature-based tourism business can have.

**Education and Experience**:

- A relevant tertiary qualification from a recognised University
- Preferably 2 years’ experience in impact measurement, tracking, and reporting and sustainability in the tourism sector
- Strong passion for and interest in conservation, community development and safari tourism
- Knowledge of sustainability practices, applicable laws and regulations would be an advantage
- Experience with data management/tracking software would be an advantage

**Required Skills/Abilities**:

- Exhibit high level commercial acumen and have business experience
- Attention to detail
- Proven capability in the area of stakeholder management
- Ability to analyse and understand relevant and valuable information
- Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
- Results driven
- Excellent communication skills
- Superior writing skills
- Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
- Ability to build, implement and manage M&E frameworks

**Salary**: From R20,000.00 per month