Conservation jobs

Head of Funding and Green Finance - Western Forest

This is a rare, unique and exciting opportunity to take a lead role in developing the programme and setting the strategic path for the Western Forest – the first new national forest in over 30 years.

The Western Forest is a brand-new programme launched, with national and Ministerial profile, in March 2025. The Forest will support over 2.5 million people, cultivating a greener, more connected future by creating a landscape with trees and woodlands at its heart. The Western Forest will deliver landscape scale change and real green investment, connecting people and nature across three regions – Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and the West of England (including North Somerset).

The Western Forest’s Head of Funding and Green Finance will drive, direct and manage the delivery of a diverse range of funding sources to deliver the new national forest. They will ensure the development of sustainable income streams and models of delivery by 2030. This role will be responsible for the development and delivery of the Western Forest’s fundraising strategy to generate £13mn or more in additional income over the next five years to ensure effective long-term delivery of our strategic plan.

Reporting directly to the Western Forest Director, the Head of Funding and Green Finance plays a key role, helping to set the direction for the Western Forest.

Salary: £50,000-50,146, with annual pay review

Hours: Full time, 37.5 hours per week, with flexible working hours

Contract: Permanent

Location: Bristol with the option of hybrid working. Travel and meetings across the Western Forest area and working at partner offices will also be required.

Benefits include: Staff pension, Employee Assistance package, 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays, volunteering days and staff training and social events.

Closing at 5pm on Monday 30th June 2025

Interview: Week commencing 14th July

Founded in 1989, the mission of Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) is to support Indigenous Peoples and other communities of the world’s rainforests in their efforts to protect their environment and fulfil their rights to land, life and livelihood.  Locally, it supports forest communities to gain land rights, challenge destructive industries, manage their forests and protect their environment. Globally, it campaigns to influence laws and policies that protect rainforests and their inhabitants. 

The DRC Fieldwork Coordinator role sits within RFUK’s largest Programmes team: Land & Livelihoods. A central aspect of the L&L team’s work is supporting communities to establish and manage community forests as well as working at the national and policy levels to achieve wider impact. This role will be pivotal to a new phase of community forest expansion in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is being supported by the Rainforest Trust. In partnership with five local organisations, the role will contribute to the objective of expanding community forests in two highly biodiverse landscapes: the periphery of the Maïko National Park in North Kivu province and the area surrounding the Salonga National Park in Maï Ndombe province. 

The ideal candidate will bring at least 3 years’ experience of project management support in a charity or international development context, as well as 3 years’ of experience in supporting community land use planning and livelihoods initiatives in rural contexts. We are seeking someone who has a firm grasp on forest governance and human rights, is familiar with the requirements of institutional donors, and is eager to play a key role in a new phase of community forest expansion.

As Research Associate you will work in the Corporate Performance Research workstream, which is home to our programmeʼs work on creating and developing methodologies, datasets, and guidance across our projects.

You will be responsible for Forest IQ at a methodological and planning level, enabling the delivery of the platform’s annual plans and releases. Forest IQ brings together aligned, best-in-class, and actionable data on how more than 2,400 major companies are addressing their links to deforestation and associated human rights abuses.

In particular, your work will focus on creating methodologies to enable the ingestion and alignment of a number of datasets, and overseeing the integration of these datasets for the bi-annual data releases.

This is a great role for an experienced research and data lead in the forestry and human rights space, who is also passionate about continuous improvement and following best practice. You will be able to work effectively in the context of a fast-growing and dynamic non-profit delivering on complex and impactful projects around the world.

You will be joining a team of researchers and will have visibility of other research projects too, including how they complement each other and interact, with opportunities to work collaboratively and to share learnings across research.

Finally – as we ask of all colleagues – you will contribute to a culture of kindness, collaboration, rigour and accountability in equal measure. You will come to work with a sense of urgent mission, but one balanced by emotional intelligence in all you do. You will share our conviction that it is not just what we do that matters in our working life, but how we do it too.

To be successful in the role, these things will matter the most:

Essential behavioural competencies:

• Appetite for acquiring new skills and embedding improvements
• Excellent interpersonal skills, working collaboratively
• Solutions-oriented and flexible 

Skills and experience:

Essential

• Experience and strong interest in research work, data stories and analysis, and using data to support decision-making in an applied setting
• Experience producing methodologies and awareness of key methodological concepts
• Detailed knowledge of commodity supply chains and deforestation-risk
• Understanding of corporate assessment methodologies
• Ability to think creatively and identify innovative ways to use existing and new data and metrics to strengthen platforms
• Knowledge of relevant IT packages including everyday office suites

Desirable

• Familiarity with the Accountability Framework Initiative
• Previous experience in applied sustainability research, ideally with focus on corporate performance on deforestation or human rights
• Experience in working on related issues such as corporate social responsibility, and finance
• Previous experience of aligning and synthesising multiple sources of complex information
• Experience of working in multicultural and multilingual teams
• Prior line management experience
• Knowledge of R-scripts, statistical testing/data analysis software would be an advantage

Benefits

Holidays

36 days (including bank/public holidays) for discretionary use across the annual leave year. Option to purchase up to an additional 5 days or equivalent of one week’s leave.

Pension

Employer pension contribution of 8%.

Healthcare cashback plan

Covering dental fees, eye-care, wellbeing, physiotherapy, chiropody and much more – for you and any children. 

Group Life Assurance 

Paying a lump sum of 3 times annual salary

Group Income Protection

Paying 75% of annual salary for up to 2 years (for long term sickness).

Employee Assistance Programme

Which provides free, confidential advice on personal and legal matters.

Other

Huge range of discounts and cashback deals at gyms, restaurants, holidays, and much more.