TERMS OF REFERENCE
LANDSCALE ASSESSMENT 2023
About Rainforest Alliance & the Lamas Landscape
The Rainforest Alliance has been implementing several initiatives in the province of Lamas, San Martin region, one of them being the development of a landscape assessment with the LandScale (LS) tool. Through this initiative, an Action Plan was generated in a participatory manner in 6 districts of the province of Lamas, in which landscape problems were identified and solutions were proposed to achieve sustainable development by 2030 through the mobilization of private and public investment. LandScale provides a set of scientifically rigorous, yet practical principles, criteria, and indicators for assessing the status and sustainability trajectory within a landscape, which could be a jurisdiction, watershed, or ecoregion. The standardized framework and quality assurance allows for comparative assessment across different regions. Producers, governments, companies, and investors can use LS to track and demonstrate progress toward sustainability commitments at the landscape scale. LS can also help companies understand the sustainability risks and opportunities associated with sourcing or investing in a particular environment. By providing reliable performance data to improve decision making in sourcing and investment schemes, LS links market incentives towards continuous improvement of sustainability at the landscape scale, thereby motivating stakeholders to work together towards common sustainability goals.
In that line, within the framework of The Business Case for Collective Landscape Action, supported by USAID and in compliance with the objectives set forth; it is important to carry out a new landscape assessment in the 11 districts of the Lamas province using the LandScale tool and the consequent update of the Landscape Action Plan (LAP).
About the Initiative
The business case for collective Landscape action: Through this initiative, the Rainforest Alliance will work with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Clarmondial, CDP, and Conservation International to address global environmental challenges associated with commodity-driven deforestation in some of the world’s most important tropical ecosystems and sourcing regions. We will convene the private sector, governments, and local farmers and organizations in Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, and Indonesia to pilot a globally replicable landscape approach that leverages the complementary expertise of our partners while benefiting local and Indigenous communities and enterprises.
The overarching goal of this initiative is to unlock international finance for sustainable production, channel it to well-planned landscapes, and ultimately stabilize critical deforestation frontiers. To facilitate this work, we will use the newly launched LandScale tool, a collaborative initiative co-led by the Rainforest Alliance, Verra, and Conservation International that enables the private sector, governments, and civil society to assess risk and adaptively invest in, monitor, and measure sustainability impact at the landscape level.
The initiative promotes, among other objectives, the formation of alliances between different stakeholders in the territory. Because of this, as a previous step to the creation and adoption of an LAP for the territory, it is necessary to carry out this baseline assessment using the LandScale tool.
About LandScale
LandScale is a tool to assess and communicate landscape sustainability performance. It helps landscape stakeholders gain critical insights, make more informed decisions, and share credible stories of impact. Companies, industry initiatives, NGOs, governments, donors, and financial institutions can use LandScale to measure the sustainability status and trends of any landscape with substantial natural resource-based economies and supply chains.
The LandScale system which is to be used to conduct this work is comprised of the following:
The LandScale Platform: an online tool that facilitates conducting the five LandScale steps described below and exposing the products of the assessment to a global audience, if desired.
Assessment Framework: the goals, indicators, and performance metrics that constitute the scope of an assessment.
Assessment Guidelines: detailed guidance on the process of conducting a LandScale assessment, accessible through the LandScale platform.
Validation Mechanism: The process of reviewing the assessment methodology and results by the LandScale team (LandScale validation) and local experts (local review).
Communications and Claims Policy: information on the type of claims that may be made based on LandScale assessment results and the process for communicating such claims.
Scope of Work
The Lamas landscape assessment is carried out within the framework of the objectives of “The Business Case for Collective Landscape Action” supported by USAID. One of the main objectives of the initiative is the elaboration of a Landscape Action Plan (LAP) in a participatory manner, following this assessment, which will allow focusing actions for biodiversity conservation, reduction of greenhouse gases emissions and deforestation caused by commodities in the landscape.
General
All inputs to the LandScale platform are required to be in English using proper spelling and grammar.
In addition to the specific requirements below, the assessment team will, at the conclusion of each step, request a validation by the RA team, stakeholders (participative workshops) and LandScale team (at the platform) as work with LandScale to achieve satisfactory validation of completion of each step.
During the process, the Consultant Team should ensure the mainstreaming of gender and Indigenous People and Landscape Communities (IPLC). Describe in the work plan how this topic will be approached.
The assesment must consider incorporate the GESI (Gender and Social Equity and Inclusion) approach. Describe in the work plan how this topic will be approached.
The field visits are necessary for workshops or collect information about the four pillars of the landscale tool. These workshops are organized by RA team and consultancy members.
The group of consultants (>1 members), one must act as the project manager for the assessment, so as “leader” of the team to facilitate coordination and responsibilities. Owner may fulfill this role.
The consultant(s) is(are) appointed to perform the role of “Assessment Specialist(s)”, including the role of stakeholder coordination and technical role in data collection.
The following are the 5 steps to be followed. The consultant should take in consideration that there is a LAP (6 districts) and detailed information on the landscape under evaluation. For steps 1 and 2, it will be necessary to coordinate with the RA team to access the information. However, the consultant will oversee uploading all the information to the platform for its respective validation.
Step 1: Preparation
In this step the assessment team works on the preparatory steps of an assessment:
Document the assessment objectives.
Develop a plan for stakeholder engagement.
Validate objectives about the 1st LAP (6 districts) and generate new information to define new landscape goals for the new LAP (11 districts) through on-going workshops. The objectives of the new LAP will be elaborated in coordination with the RA team and landscape stakeholders.
Complete the landscape partnership module.
Create the landscape profile.
Compile documentation and submit the step for validation.
Identification of local experts to participate in the information validation process. This information will need to be consulted with the organization's landscape-based team, as they have linked information.
Step 2: Boundary Selection
In this step, the assessment team works on the process of defining an appropriate area for which to conduct the assessment based on the landscape’s context and characteristics.
Compile the landscape overview.
Document boundary limitations
Submit the step for validation.
PS: The limits were previously established by the RA team. Validations would need to be made and the information uploaded to the platform.
Step 3: Indicator and Metric Selection
In this step the assessment team works on selecting the indicators and metrics that will be used to assess landscape performance and trends.
Validate and update indicators to include in the assessment.
Validate and update metrics to include in the assessment.
Set targets for any metric.
Compile documentation and submit the step for validation.
Initiate coordination with potential local experts for the review
Step 4: Data Evaluation and Metric Assessment
Following the indicator and metric selection, the assessment team will define data needs, collect relevant data, assess data suitability, generate results, and conduct local review.
Specify data requirements to measure each metric.
Identify and procure candidate datasets[1] (the team should work with the Assessment Owner to jointly determine where data collection may be needed).
Evaluate candidate datasets for suitability, procure supplemental data as necessary and feasible, and finalize data selection.
Process and analyze data to generate results for each metric, including, assessment against targets if included in Step 3
Compile documentation and submit the step for the first LandScale review.
Conduct the local review.
Address feedback from the initial validation and the local review
Compile updated documentation and submit the step for final validation.
The previous activities may require:
Integrating data from multiple sources
Organize workshops with stakeholders, minimum 4. As described on step 1 point 3.
Classifying and coding data
Reviewing, validating, and editing data
Transforming data values or attributes
Imputing any missing data values, if possible
Deriving new variables and their values based on the source data
Calculating descriptive statistics, such as averages and distributions
Calculating quantitative measures of trends or rates
Assigning variable weights and calculated weighted averages or sums
Disaggregating data by appropriate variables and calculating metric values according to this disaggregation.
Finalizing data files
Step 5: Reporting and Publishing Results
In close collaboration with the RA team, this final step uses results and inputs from the previous steps to craft a standard LandScale Report and a custom report and publish the final report.
Using the LandScale platform, generate the standard report which entails a combination of auto-populating fields and writing additional content such as interpretations and conclusions.
Integrate additional features to the report such as photos and data visualizations from the assessment results.
Obtain local review of the report and address comments and revise accordingly.
Obtain final LandScale validation and publish the report. This document will be validated by RA team prior the publication. The publication will follow the Branding and Marking Plan of the Business Case approved by USAID.
Upload the report and the export file of all inputs to the LandScale platform and provide to the organizer.
Activities Required for Pillar 2, Goal 2.2 on Human Rights
Timeline
Budget
The budget will be validated with the proposal of the consultant(s) and all variables must be considered. In other words, the consultancy will be at full cost.
Payment Schedule
Payments will be made upon successful LandScale validation of each step.
Qualifications
Subject Matter Expertise
The team needs to have technical expertise in all sustainability themes within the assessment scope. This includes interdisciplinary expertise in issues related to land use, natural resource management, commodity production, social development, and governance, as well as agriculture or forestry if these are significant sectors in the landscape.
The assessment team must have the relevant expertise across all pillars of the LandScale framework. Below are some of the areas where expertise is needed provided by “Assessment Specialists” for the topics under each pillar below. An indication of “(optional)” is for areas of landscape-dependent or optional indicators so this expertise is not required if those indicators are not selected:
Ecosystems
Natural ecosystem’s protection, conversion, and degradation
Restoration of converted and degraded ecosystems (if included)
Connectivity and fragmentation of natural ecosystems (if included)
Biodiversity habitat protection, conversion, degradation, and restoration
Water resources measurements (if included)
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (sources) & sequestration (sinks) associated with AFOLU (if included)
Ecosystem services measurements (if included)
Governance
Land and resources tenure
Land and resources conflicts
Transparency, participation, inclusion, and coordination in land-use policy, planning, and management
Illegality and corruption related to land and resources (if included)
Production
Productivity of agricultural (crop and livestock), agroforestry & tree (optional) production systems for major production systems in the landscape (if included)
Efficiency of input use in agricultural, agroforestry and tree production systems for major production systems in the landscape (if included)
Adoption of sustainable land management (SLM) and waste management practices in agricultural and forest plantation operations for major production systems in the landscape (if included)
Expertise in other natural resource-based production sectors (if included)
Data and Analysis Expertise
The team should include expertise in social and environmental data and data analysis so that it will be able to identify data sources, assess data quality, and calculate metrics based on secondary and possibly primary data.
GIS and Data manipulation and Management
Spatial information is a key component of a LandScale assessment. For this reason, the team should include one or more people experienced in collecting and managing spatial data and deriving metric results from these data, including proficiency in spatial analysis using geographic information systems (GIS). Mapping abilities are also required to complete the landscape overview (see Step 2).
Preferred Qualifications
Writing skills: The landscape report must be written in English (reporting of results to local audiences in locally suitable languages and formats is also encouraged, where appropriate). It is recommended that the team includes a skilled writer and editor to support the production of the assessment report.
Data visualization skills: The landscape profile and report will be enhanced by including visualizations of the data including maps, charts, and other graphics. Assessment leads are encouraged to include team member(s) that are able to produce such graphics and visualizations.
Criteria for Selection
The requirements described are the minimum requirements for the evaluation leader and the team member(s). The lead consultant will have the authority to hire one or two additional individuals to continue and complement the assessment and knowledge, this will not be Rainforest Alliance's responsibility. RA will enter into the contract exclusively with the selected natural person/ or legal entity.
In case the lead consultant decides to have one or more members in his team, he/she shall decide and be responsible for the activities proposed in this ToR. In addition, the financial proposal shall be at full cost.
The following criteria will be prioritized by Rainforest Alliance when evaluating technical and financial proposals.
The lead consultant:
Natural person or legal entity
University studies in Agronomy, Forestry, Statistics, Economics, or other related fields.
Have 5 or more years of experience in productive projects related to coffee, cocoa, palm, agroforestry or others.
At least four services, studies or consultancies regarding collection and loading of information (databases), information and indicator management, and web platform management.
Verbal and written communication skills in English (intermediate).
Live or be able to travel to Tarapoto monthly (minimum 25%) (required).
Have leadership skills.
Experience of managing a team (desirable).
The lead consultant and team members:
Natural person or legal entity
University studies in Agronomy, Forestry, Statistics, Economics, or other related fields.
Have 2 or more years of experience in productive projects related to coffee, cocoa, palm, agroforestry or others (required).
Knowledge in management, analysis and downloading information from public and private geoservers on issues related to Human well-being, Productivity, Ecosystems and Governance (MINAM, IGP, SERNANP, IBC, etc.).
Solid knowledge in Geographic Information Systems with software such as ArcGIS, QGIS, Google Earth Engine, etc.
Excellent document writing skills, preparation and systematization of reports and briefings.
Verbal and written communication skills in English (desirable).
Experience in coordinating with different stakeholders, training and providing technical assistance.
Knowledge of the intervention area of the province of Lamas or a province in the San Martin region.
Availability to travel to the 11 districts of the province of Lamas.
Car and/or motorcycle license (required).
Have personal vehicle (desirable).
At least one of the team members must live in Tarapoto or nearby areas (required).
The List Criteria to assess proposals from potential consultants are:
Technical proposal (40%) – The extent that the Applicant’s proposal demonstrates a clear and effective overall technical approach and presents an effective and realistic work timeline.
Qualifications (35%) – Demonstrated expertise, experience, and availability through a CV that meets the requirements of the technical specifications.
Past Performance (25%) – Demonstrated capabilities and experience related to the technical specifications, capabilities, and quality of products or services.
The proposals should contain:
Fixed price: request budget needed to complete deliverables.
Note: state currency required.
Note: RA prefers not to define budget amount for the opportunity. Instead, we prefer to gather proposals to determine market price for activity.
List of previous engagements that address the above experience desired
Current C.V.(S)
Due date for proposals: May 31, 2023
[1] e.g.: oil palm data, restoration data, etc.