The consultant’s duties and responsibilities will include:

• Review existing data and literature on cacao production and cacao’s environmental footprint (including ecosystem services in cacao systems)
• Review literature on the domestic and international cacao market, economic threats and opportunities
• Summarize the environmental, agronomic, and economic threats and opportunities facing the cacao sector, nationally and at the farm-level
• Map (GIS) cacao production, cacao agroforestry suitability, and deforestation
• Identify metrics for evaluating impacts and dependencies across the cacao value chain related to human, social, natural, and produced capitals, as guided by the TEEBAgriFood Framework
• Determine gaps in scientific evidence, agroecological and economic, which could guide decisions to ensure the economic and environmental sustainability of the sector
• Identify the risks and opportunities posed by the EU Deforestation Free Rule for the cacao sector
• Contribute input to a fundraising proposal for TEEBAgriFood Mexico. (To be completed through a separate UNEP consultancy.)

Qualifications/special skills

• An advanced university degree in Environmental Science, Agronomy, Environmental Economics, or a related field is required. A first university degree with a combination of two (2) years professional and academic qualifications may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.
• A minimum of seven (7) years of professional working experience in the field of ecosystem services modeling, forestry or agriculture modeling, or food systems assessment is required An understanding of the biophysical and economic modelling of ecosystem services in the context of food systems is required.
• An understanding of the biophysical and economic modelling of ecosystem services in the context of food systems is required. An understanding of the biophysical and economic modelling of ecosystem services in the context of food systems is required An understanding of the political economy of agriculture in Mexico is desired

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