Livestock and Agriculture Lead

Location: Remote with regular travels to Panama and Mexico

Ponterra is a developer and operator of biodiverse carbon projects on degraded cattle ranching lands in Panama and Mexico. Its vision is to develop nature projects at scale in partnership with local communities, and to integrate sustainable land and livestock management practices with biodiverse restoration. Founded less than two years ago by a passionate international team, Ponterra now has sites in the Azuero Peninsula, Panama and Venustiano Carranza, Puebla, Mexico.

To support its growth plans, Ponterra is hiring for an Agriculture (Agronomy) Lead to guide the design and implementation of sustainable livestock practices with Ponterra's carbon projects. The ideal candidate will bring expertise in sustainable agriculture, particularly in cattle management practices like rotational grazing, silvopasture, and the establishment of living fences.

Working closely with both the topco and the operations, you will play a key role in developing and managing a participatory design process, ensuring that cattle management aligns with Verra compliance standards and reflects local stakeholder interests and priorities.

Your role will involve:

• Carbon Project Design: Develop and support the integration of sustainable livestock practices within Ponterra's carbon projects, emphasizing biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and sustainable grazing.
• Participatory Cattle Management Design: Facilitate a stakeholder-driven design process for cattle management, ensuring that project strategies reflect local knowledge, community needs, and best practices in sustainable livestock management.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Lead the agricultural aspects of Verra compliance, particularly in stakeholder engagement, to ensure that community voices are integral to project development and are documented according to regulatory requirements.
• Livelihood Strategy Development: Design livelihood strategies aligned with sustainable agricultural practices, enhancing community resilience, economic stability, and environmental impact.
• Project Implementation and Monitoring: Oversee and guide field teams in implementing sustainable grazing systems, including silvopasture and rotational grazing, and establishing living fences, ensuring ongoing assessment and adaptive management to meet project goals.
• Data Management and Reporting: Track and report on agricultural metrics, carbon impact, and progress to support internal assessments and third-party audits, ensuring alignment with MRV (Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification) processes.
• Collaborative Development: Work closely with cross-functional teams (e.g., monitoring, finance, science) to ensure that sustainable agriculture initiatives are integrated across project areas for maximum impact.
• Knowledge Sharing and Capacity Building: Facilitate training and capacity-building sessions for both internal team members and local stakeholders, reinforcing Ponterra's commitment to skill-sharing and long-term sustainability.
• Site visits: Quarterly travel to sites (Panama and Mexico) to coordinate with local teams and to facilitate project implementation.

You will be able to leverage the following skills in this role:

• Experience in Sustainable Livestock Management: Background in sustainable grazing systems, silvopasture, or similar; experience in carbon projects involving livestock is highly desirable.
• Facilitation Skills: Demonstrated experience in participatory design and facilitative processes, with strong interpersonal and communication skills to work effectively with diverse community members.
• Compliance Knowledge: Familiarity with Verra standards, particularly stakeholder engagement requirements and processes as required by VCS 4.7 and VM 0047.
• Livelihood Strategy Development: Practical experience integrating agricultural and community livelihood strategies to support both economic and environmental goals.
• Data-Driven Decision-Making: Proficiency in data management for agricultural metrics, with experience in GIS, remote sensing, or other relevant agricultural software tools preferred.
• Cultural and Environmental Sensitivity: Demonstrated understanding of local socio-environmental factors, particularly within Latin American contexts.
• Language skills: You will ideally be a fluent Spanish speaker to enable effective collaboration with the field teams.
• Carbon Market Literacy: Knowledge of carbon market dynamics, carbon registries, and emerging methodologies, such as soil carbon and silvopasture's sequestration potential.

If you wish to join an ambitious, fast-growing carbon projects developer and operator, with strong emphasis on project quality and integrity, then look no further. In return, you will work with a highly qualified international team, with equal ambition to scale climate/ biodiversity solutions as well as creating long-term commercial value.

Please contact Canace Wong at canace.wong@acre.com should you have any questions or would like to discuss the role.