Climate Adaptation And Conservation Intern

Job Description

Staff - Union Job Category CUPE 2950 Job Profile CUPE 2950 Salaried - Program Assistant 2 (Gr5) Job Title Climate Adaptation and Conservation Intern Department Program Support | Botanical Garden and Centre for Horticulture Compensation Range $4,188.00 - $4,400.00 CAD Monthly Posting End Date September 28, 2023 Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the Posting End Date above. Job End Date Sept 28, 2023 At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career. Job Summary
The Climate Adaptation and Conservation Intern reports to the Associate Director, Sustainability and Community Programs and works with the Climate and Conservation Coordinator to plan and develop a ‘menu of adaptation actions for botanic gardens’. This role will engage an international group of public gardens and conservation experts to produce a document outlining adaptation actions for public gardens in Canada and around the world. This menu of adaptation actions will be modelled after the work of the USDA Climate Hubs for other sectors such as forestry: https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/pubs/gtr/gtr_nrs203.pdf This role is also responsible for developing and delivering climate education team building experiences to businesses, organizations and youth with the goal of raising awareness of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and opportunities for Climate Action (Goal 13) and Life on Land (Goal 15). Botanic gardens globally and locally provide impactful community-based programs through their living plant collections and community educational programs.
Organizational Status UBC Botanical Garden is an operational unit within the UBC Faculty of Science. Our Vision is that plants are understood, valued, celebrated and secure in a healthy, biodiversity world. The mission of the Garden is to assemble, curate, and maintain a documented living collection of temperate plants for eh purposes of education, research, conservation, community outreach and public display. Work Performed Adaptation Planning for Climate Ready Collections and Botanic Gardens

• Help design and deliver a ‘menu of adaptation actions’ for botanic gardens that includes key strategies, approaches and tactics that garden can consider to accelerate adaptation planning and action.
• Identifies and evaluates opportunities for data management and integration of natural assets considering the needs to inventory, track management and species change over time.
• Using available expertise, develops or codevelops integrated datasets and in-house tools for climate adaptation planning for plant and biodiversity conservation.
• Research into climate adaptation and its impacts on plants, functional traits and considerations for future climate risks and vulnerabilities,
• Review current surveys from botanic gardens and develop new surveys to distribute and disseminate know of adaptation actions and data management techniques.
• Provide support to the climate planning process with development of mapping needs and assessment of spatial data available.
• Deliver a final report and publication that will be shared through botanic garden networks to showcase the menu of potential action and present at botanic garden conferences (in person and online)

Design and Delivery of Climate Education Experiences

• Supporting SCP team in training new students and new guides in how to deliver an effective and engaging climate learning experiences.
• Prepping and delivering ~ 1-2 tours a week.
• Providing outreach support to the SCP team in delivering climate education through garden events, programs and workshops.
• Support with marketing and Communications of the Field School to internal and external audiences through the design and creation of communication materials (e.g. brochure, reports, infographics, social media, etc).
• Other education and outreach duties as required.

Consequence of Error/Judgement
Works independently under the general direction from the Associate Director Sustainability & Community Programs. They will be required to exercise tact and discretion and be able to interpret and follow Program policies and practices. They will receive specific instructions on unusual problems or on matters that significantly depart from established policies and procedures.

Supervision Received
Works under the supervision of the Associate Director, Sustainability & Community Programs

Supervision Given
None

Minimum Qualifications
High School graduation, plus one year of post-secondary education, plus three years of related experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own

• Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications