Seeking professional services to strengthen the Land Pillar

Professional service is selected to strengthen Menorca Preservation’s pillar of action dedicated to Land

CONTRACTUAL CONDITIONS

  • Location: on-site in Menorca (essential)
  • Type of contract: professional service (freelance or company)
  • Duration: 5 months
  • Estimated start date: 15 November 2024
  • Timetable: part-time (20h / week), flexible, with availability and timetable adaptability.
  • Total remuneration: 8.000 € – VAT included
  • Other conditions: driving licence and own vehicle.

REQUIREMENTS

  • Education: open, although preferably in the field of agronomy, agri-food and rural environment.
  • Experience in projects related to sustainable agriculture, especially regenerative, and knowledge of agricultural challenges in Menorca.
  • Inter-sectoral coordination skills, effective communication and diplomacy to work with the primary sector, companies, entities and public bodies.
  • Languages: Catalan, Spanish and English.
  • Previous experience in management and justification of public or privately funded projects will be highly valued.

RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Strengthen the dedicated Land action area in Menorca Preservation, developing a roadmap for 2030 to support the transition of the local agricultural sector towards more sustainable practices.
  • Meet and collaborate with other key actors to coordinate efforts and avoid duplication and inefficiencies, optimising the impact of available resources.
  • Organise or support the organisation of a training session in the field of regenerative agriculture techniques and cross-cutting sustainability of agricultural and livestock activity.
  • Monitor and report on the implementation of the action plan of the Sustainable Agriculture Pilot Farm project promoted by Menorca Preservation focused on the transition of the S’Ullestrar farm (Ciudadela) and the farms that receive technical support, monitoring the environmental and economic impacts, together with the contracted consultancy.
  • Encourage participation and cooperation between the different actors involved (farmers and stockbreeders, public administrations, environmental organisations, tourism sector and residents).
  • Create a sectoral map.
  • Identify funding opportunities and prepare proposals for calls for proposals.

APPLICATION DOCUMENTATION

CV and motivation letter explaining how they would approach this process and what challenges and opportunities they think they might face during the process. The deadline is 06/11/2024 (inclusive) to the following email address: contact@menorcapreservation.org

INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROJECT

Menorca Preservation works to promote agriculture that is more resilient to climate change and economically viable for the primary sector. In this sense, we want to help them to adapt to the new challenges, providing them with tools that help them to make their farms more sustainable and resilient economically, socially and environmentally.

Our efforts to advance towards this purpose are focused on two blocks: on the one hand, by supporting initiatives of other local entities that are already working successfully in the field, such as Custodia Agraria of GOB Menorca, and, on the other hand, by developing our own projects when we identify needs that are not being covered by any other entity, such as our MENORCA PRESERVADA programme. This project, which started at the end of 2021 as a totally free training programme in sustainable agriculture, currently continues as a platform from which we provide personalised advice to farmers and farms that took part in the training programme and who want to implement the lessons learned on their farms. In this line, we are working on the implementation of the Action Plan for the transition of the Finca Piloto S’Ullestrar (€68,000 of funds committed by Menorca Preservation), in order not only to help them obtain organic certification, but also to be able to demonstrate the environmental impact, the improvement in the quality of their products and the economic benefit that this transition will bring to the farm. To ensure the success of this project, in addition to The Regen Consulting’s technical expertise in the field, we need human resources to closely monitor its progress and have the technical capacity and dedication to demonstrate its long-term impact and replicability.

In parallel, funds are being allocated to support consultancy support to three conventional farms that wish to apply regenerative techniques learned in the MENORCA PRESERVADA programme, with the technical support of The Regen Consulting agronomist consultants, and for this project we expect the selected person or company to monitor their progress to learn from the challenges and solutions that may arise.

Finally, ensuring the adaptation of the countryside to climate challenges, encouraging diversification and healthier local food production and supporting the primary sector to become economically viable are priorities for Menorca Preservation. For this reason, we consider it urgent to rethink the current model with regard to its environmental, economic and social sustainability in the light of the news about the fall in milk prices, the abandonment of farms, the lack of generational replacement or the necessary new agro-ecological perspective on agricultural and livestock activity.

For all these reasons, the selected professional will play a key role in defining the roadmap for this area of action, proposing objectives and actions for the coming years, ensuring coordination with other initiatives and seeking synergies at both local and European level.

Information on the state of the art and development of projects related to the Land Pillar: https://menorcapreservation.org/areas-of-interest/landscape-conservation/