South West Moors Project Officer

Job summary

What you’ll do…

Forestry England launched its resilience strategy in the autumn of 2025, building on both science and practical forestry expertise (see: Forests fit for the future , Forestry England).

The South West Moors Project Officer will lead a focused piece of work to critically understand the values of Forestry England’s highly productive plantations on Dartmoor, Exmoor and Bodmin Moor. To understand the threats posed by our changing climate to those forests and the wildlife that lives there, and the opportunities presented. To bring those issues together in a single vision and high-level strategic plan that will inform the renewal of the next generation of Forest Plans.

The South West Moors Project Officer will inspire others to support our work in growing the future, championing our Forestry England values. Together we are Forestry England, we grow forests for all, for life.

Please see the job description below for more information and details about what we need from you.

Where you’ll work…

The postholder will be based at our forest office at Haldon Forest Park, Exeter, Devon (other Forestry England office locations within the district may be considered).

The postholder will be expected to travel to different office and depot locations as well as remotely located woods & forests to support the remotely located delivery teams as may be required; and to attend national meetings and training events. This will most likely require travel by car, and thus a current driving licence is seen as a requirement of the role although candidates may put forward a proposal that satisfies the business need to travel without recourse to driving.

Job description

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

Collaboration & Research

• The initial focus of the work will be to establish the value of our forestry plantations on the South West moors today, understanding the ecology, people and economic values and potentially using a natural capital approach to objectively quantify those values. This may require the commissioning of additional research and survey work to fill in critical gaps in our collective knowledge. Document using Forestry England’s Sharepoint, the evidence base collated for the project.
• Foster a positive team working relationship between the operational beat teams, and the area ecology team so as to inspire and engage everyone in the project, deriving knowledge, harnessing expertise and building insight and trust. Be open and realistic as to the challenges inherent in the business, promoting transparency and constructive dialogue.
• Collaborate and build relationships with stakeholders including statutory bodies, NGOs, academic institutions and community groups to support sustainable forest management. Co ordinating with other team members to ensure consistent messaging and avoiding of duplication of effort.

Community engagement and communications

• After the initial stages of the project, undertake a programme of community and stakeholder engagement and consultation to help shape the vision and strategy as it develops. The future of our forests on the south-west moors is likely to be sensitive and contentious requiring pre agreement of a communications plan for the project.
• Liaise closely with the communications and marketing team to champion and promote the work
  undertaken and direction of travel.
• Support the production of a publicly available final strategic management plan for the South West Moors (the Our Shared Forest plans for the Forest of Dean and Savernake Forest’s may be a useful template – see: Our Shared Forest , Forestry England and Our shared forest - Savernake Forest , Forestry England).

Project Management & Monitoring

• Positively collaborate with finance and business support to maintain clarity on approved expenditure plans and monitoring of spend against delivery.
• Undertake realistic project planning and adherence to existing Forestry England systems and processes to manage the project delivery on time and to budget.
• Feed into monitoring and reporting on progress of the Nature Recovery Programme in a timely, transparent and accurate manner.

Nature Recovery

• Identify, develop and implement nature restoration projects in the south-west moors
  consistent with the emerging strategy, ensuring readiness for funding opportunities and supporting both existing and new initiatives.
• Deliver strategic ecological monitoring and analysis, contributing to evidence-based decision
  making and natural capital approaches.

And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• Knowledge and experience of working with protected species, and designated habitats (including peatland) and thus understanding of application of environmental legislation.
• Proven ability to work positively and collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams.
• A strong track record of successfully research and writing land management plans & strategies with varied community and other stakeholder engagement.
• Strong networking, communication and influencing skills.
• Ability and competence in use of IT packages including MS Office and GIS mapping software.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Understanding of climate science and climate change scenarios and impacts on native species and habitats of Dartmoor, Exmoor and Bodmin Moor.

Qualifications

Essential

• A degree or equivalent in one of: forestry, ecology, nature conservation or environmental management.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,854, Forestry Commission contributes £9,807 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

How to apply…

You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

You will be assessed on experience and behaviour questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Changing and Improving
• Making effective decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

If candidates pass the interview but are not the leading candidate they can be placed on a reserve list. We may offer candidates on the reserve list for this role the opportunity to be considered for other roles at the same or lower pay bands.

Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.

If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines here first.

Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : FC Recruitment Team
• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Further information

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.

Attachments

Forestry England Job Description - South West Moors Project Officer (PB5) Opens in new window (pdf, 118kB)