Wildlife Health Technical Advisor

**Position:** Wildlife Health Technical Advisor

**Reports to:** Deputy Country Director, WCS Lao PDR Primary with Technical

Dotted Line to Global and Regional Health Program

**Location:** Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR (with national, regional, and occasional

international travel)

**Country Program/Sector:** Global Conservation Program – Wildlife Health (One Health)

**Position Type:** Full-time, fixed-term (renewable subject to performance and funding)

**Scope/Capacity:** Country (with regional and global technical linkages)

**Coordinates with:** Wildlife Health Program Manager; Laos Health Program; Global and Regional Health Program teams; Department of Livestock and Fisheries; Department of Forestry; research institutions and laboratories; technical partners and donors; WCS global One Health network.

## **Organization Background**

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a US non-profit, tax-exempt, private organization established in 1895 that saves wildlife and wild places by understanding critical issues, crafting science-based solutions, and taking conservation actions that benefit nature and humanity. With more than a century of experience, long-term commitments in dozens of landscapes, presence in more than 60 nations, and experience helping to establish over 150 protected areas across the globe, WCS has amassed the biological knowledge, cultural understanding and partnerships to ensure that vibrant, wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities. Working with local communities and organizations, that knowledge is applied to address species, habitat and ecosystem management issues critical to improving the quality of life of poor rural people whose livelihoods depend on the direct utilization of natural resources.

WCS began working in Lao PDR in the 1980s, surveying wildlife and habitats around the country to assist the government in creating Lao PDR’s national protected area system. In the early 1990s, WCS documented wildlife and habitats in many of the newly created national protected areas and began supporting the government to train protected area managers, as well as raise awareness about illegal wildlife trade. In 1994, WCS officially established a country office in Lao PDR. Over almost three decades, WCS Lao PDR has successfully implemented more than 30 projects with the Government of Lao PDR, supported by more than 30 donors, and has increasingly moved away from a project approach into a more integrated, strategic, and holistic approach to conservation focused around core landscapes and cross-cutting thematic programs.

Our vision for the Lao PDR Program is that the unique ecosystems of Lao PDR thrive indefinitely and are valued by the people of Lao PDR, and the world, for their biodiversity, natural beauty, and the services they provide to humanity. A core strategy to fulfil that vision is to improve protection and management of wildlife and wild places by building the capacity and meaningful participation of government and local stakeholders, raising public awareness through conservation outreach and education, providing alternative livelihoods including nature-based tourism to guardian villages, influencing institutional, policy, legal and regulatory reforms relevant to protected areas and wildlife, developing the national wildlife health surveillance network, and combatting illegal wildlife trade.

The current portfolio consists of (i) four conservation landscapes: Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park (NEPL NP), Bolikhamxay Protected Areas Landscape, Khoun Xe-Nong Ma Naitonal Protected Area of Khammouan, and Xe Champhone Wetlands of Savannakhet; (ii) cross-cutting programs on Counter Wildlife Trafficking, One Health, Conservation Policy, and Private Sector Partnership.

## **WCS Health Program**

The WCS Health Program (HP) is recognized as a global leader in health-conservation initiatives, implementing interdisciplinary, multi-sectoral programs around the world to prevent, detect, and respond to diverse health threats to wildlife, domestic animals, and people from a local to global scale. We work at the interface of wildlife, domestic animals, and human activity where the opportunity for infectious disease spillover, AMR, environmental pollution and other disruptions to ecosystems and health is greatest, and where proactive approaches can optimize benefits for all. The HP leads the WildHealthNet initiative, leveraging long-standing relationships with governments alongside innovative tools and technologies, including the WCS-developed Health and Wildlife Knowledge (HAWK) database, to operationalize wildlife surveillance networks for rapid detection, response, and mitigation of health threats to effect enduring progress at country, regional, and global levels for conservation, animal and global health.

The WCS Lao PDR Wildlife Health Program focuses on reducing risks at the wildlife–livestock–human interface through a One Health approach that supports biodiversity conse