The FRA Nepal Project is a bilateral co-operation between Governments of Nepal and Finland for five years (2010-2014) to conduct forest resource assessment over the whole country. The key objectives of the FRA Nepal Project are: strengthening institutional capacity building, maintaining forestry sector information systems, collecting data of all forest based resources and data sharing among the forestry organisations. National level baseline data collection will be carried out by using Remote Sensing technology and ground based sampling. New global issues such as Climate Change and the REDD process are gaining more importance and they demand updated forest cover map and carbon-sequestration related data to reveal status of forests, biomass and soils.

The FRA Nepal Project is implemented under the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation and the Department of Forest Research and Survey is the executing organisation. FRA Nepal Project invites applications from suitably qualified experts having local/regional expertise for the following positions.

Regional Senior Remote Sensing and GIS Adviser

Duration: 8 months Duty Station: Kathmandu, Nepal

The successful candidate will work with the Senior Technical Adviser and with the multi-cultural team of international and local experts.

Regional Senior Remote Sensing and GIS Adviser should bring regional expertise for the successful design and development of satellite image processing techniques for forest cover and land cover/land use classification and mapping. S/he should have good knowledge of image segmentation and object based classification methods using high resolution satellite imageries. S/he should also have very good knowledge of GIS applications and open source GIS tools. In addition to those, s/he should assist in developing training curriculum and materials on remote sensing and GIS.

Regional Database and Data Sharing Expert

Duration: 7 months Duty Station: Kathmandu, Nepal

The successful candidate will work with the international Remote Sensing and FIS Expert and with the multi-cultural team of international and local experts.

The role of the Regional Database and Data Sharing Expert is to bring regional expertise and assist in creating and establishing the Open Source Forest Information System (OSFIS), its Database and Data Sharing System. S/he should give support in testing, using and maintaining of the established system. S/he should also provide training in use and maintenance of the server-based OSFIS system.

Regional LiDAR Technology Expert

Duration: 6 months Duty Station: Kathmandu, Nepal

The successful candidate will work with the international Remote Sensing and FIS Expert and with the multi-cultural team of international and local experts.

The role of the Regional LiDAR Technology Expert is to be a team member to plan and prepare use of LiDAR Technology in Nepal and organise and supervise the LiDAR laser shooting in the target areas. In addition to that S/he should assist in processing, interpreting and using of Air-borne Laser Scanning Data (ALS). S/he should also provide training in interpretation and use of ALS data for various natural resource data collection purposes.

Regional Forest Mensuration and Data Collection Expert

Duration: 7 months Duty station: Kathmandu, Nepal

The successful candidate will work with the Project Field Manager and with the multi-cultural team of international and local experts.

Regional Forest Mensuration and Data Collection Expert should bring regional expertise for the successful planning and implementation of sample tree data collection for creating and upgrading biomass models for tree species common in Nepal. In addition to that s/he should assist in establishing training area for field inventory crews and develop advanced technology for practical field data collection and storing of data. S/he should also provide training in sample data collection and use of inventory equipment and tools.

Regional Soil Sampling Expert

Duration: 2 months Duty Station: Kathmandu, Nepal

The successful candidate will work with the international Soil Sampling and Analysing Expert and with the multi-cultural team of international and local experts.

Regional Soil Sampling Expert should bring regional expertise for the successful planning of soil sampling design, collection of soil samples and their storing, and analysing of the samples. S/he is in charge about the designed soil sampling system to be feasible in local terrain conditions and fulfill the requirements set for national and international reporting about soil content and soil carbon. In addition to those, s/he should assist in training of inventory teams and laboratory specialists.

More detailed information of the qualifications, experience and duties of the expert posts will be given in the Terms of Reference for each Expert post. The Terms of References are available in the FRA Nepal Project Office (Babarmahal, Kathmandu) or could be sent via electronic post, if requested via our email address: [email protected].

Applications should include Applicant's CV (CV-format is available either in the FRA Nepal Project Office or sent via electronic mail). Applications should arrive no later than 13th September 2010 at 12 am.

The application could be either mailed or submitted (address: FRA Nepal Project, Babarmahal\ Kathmandu, Nepal) or sent via electronic mail to the email-address: [email protected].

Application envelope or electronic mail should be titled with the appropriate name of the Expert Post applied.

Please refer to the attached vacancy notice