Impact and Knowledge Lead

We are looking for an experienced stakeholder engagement professional with exceptional people skills and a good understanding of nature recovery to help take ANT to our next level of impact by leading on landowner engagement for the Lower Chew Landscape Recovery project.

Job Purpose
Your legacy will be a tangible impact on slowing down climate change, helping nature recover and creating social impact by leading on landowner and stakeholder engagement for the Lower Chew Landscape Recovery project that will see thousands of acres of local land managed in harmony with nature. You will join a fast-growing organisation that started in 2019 with four volunteers and has grown to a staff team of thirteen (which will double over 2024), over 1,000 volunteers and ownership of 170 acres (soon to be 600 acres) of land that will grow woodlands of over 160,000 trees.

The project
Landscape Recovery is one of Defra’s three environmental land management schemes. Avon Needs Trees has been awarded development phase funding for Landscape Recovery in the Lower Chew. This is a unique opportunity to help co-design nature’s recovery and social impact at a landscape scale. The project will engage existing landowners and managers across over 867 hectares of land in the Lower Chew, an area where good quality but fragmented woodland provides a basis for woodland connectivity and large-scale woodland creation, as part of a mosaic of grassland and woodland habitat. This locally-cherished landscape of rolling farmland on the edge of Bristol is the strategic setting for delivering local environmental and social priorities. 

Main responsibilities
● Leading on stakeholder engagement for the landscape recovery project, including:
      ○ Designing and delivering engagement workshops
      ○ Gathering and baselining landowner data and existing farm practices
      ○ Ongoing landowner engagement
      ○ Collating and incorporating landowner feedback
      ○ Homeowner liaison with those living within or adjacent to the project site
      ○ Outreach, engagement and events, working alongside our Outreach and Communications staff
● Helping to write plans for ecological and social impact that will be delivered over the next 20-25 years
● Contributing to land management, monitoring and evaluation, and access planning, including:
      ○ Desk based analysis and research
      ○ On site appraisals and information gathering
      ○ Ecology appraisals
      ○ Carbon and soil surveys
      ○ Sensitive habitat / species assessment
      ○ Helping to identify social, economic and ecological impacts
● Being a strong advocate, internally and externally, for the landscape recovery project and the benefits it will deliver
● Work with the wider Avon Needs Trees team to help build a resilient, multi-site charity and undertake any other work necessary to pursue our aims
● As with all Avon Needs Trees roles, contributing to grant writing and fundraising activities
● Other duties and opportunities as required.