We are recruiting an Adviser: Finance to work on our Natural Capital Partnerships project.

Our Natural Capital Partnerships team is part of a new project created to work across Scotland’s community, private and public sectors, supporting the transition to net zero. As investment increases in nature-based solutions to address the climate and biodiversity crises, it is important that the opportunity to engage communities appropriately is embraced, to secure greater community benefits from natural capital developments, support community wealth building objectives and reduce the risk of communities being marginalised.

The Scottish Government’s recently published Natural Capital Market Framework sets out its ambition to attract greater responsible private investment into values-led, high-integrity natural capital projects, by promoting its Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital. These principles highlight the need for shared public, private, and community benefits.

However, challenges like language, power dynamics, and expertise can hinder collaboration between communities, investors and developers. This new team will bridge these gaps, developing partnerships that will support delivery of the SG Natural Capital Market Framework and ensure meaningful community involvement and alignment with the Just Transition Commission’s 2021 report, which advocates for fair land management and wider benefit distribution in the shift to net zero.

The posts and the project are funded with the support of Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Foundation Scotland, Scottish Forestry, South of Scotland Enterprise and others.

Other project supporters include the Scottish Land Commission, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Cairngorm National Park Authority and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.

The team will be supported by a Partnership Board comprising a range of organisations but will sit within Community Land Scotland.

About Community Land Scotland

Community Land Scotland (CLS) was established in 2010 to provide a collective national voice for community landowners in Scotland. We have over 130 member organisations across Scotland, ranging from large crofting estates in the Western Isles to inner city community hubs. Collectively, members own and manage over 550,000 acres of land and a wide range of buildings in rural and urban areas.

Community Land Scotland is a small organisation with a big impact. It works to: be a collective voice for community owners; encourage more community ownership of land and buildings; facilitate mutual support and knowledge exchange between community landowners and collaborate with other organisations to ensure community landowners get the support they need.

Community ownership has shaped Scottish land reform and played a key role in the Community Empowerment Act. Over 500 community organisations now own land or buildings across rural and urban Scotland. Further information about Community Land Scotland and community ownership can be found at: communitylandscotland.org.uk

Natural Capital Partnerships

The Scottish Government has emphasised that natural capital investment should be “values-led” and “high-integrity,” as outlined in its Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital. These principles highlight the need for shared public, private, and community benefits.

However, there are a range of challenges that can hinder collaboration between communities, landowners, investors, and developers. This new team will bridge these gaps, supporting partnerships to develop that will ensure meaningful community involvement and alignment with the Just Transition Commission’s 2021 report, which advocates for fair land management and wider benefit distribution in the shift to net zero.

The new team will:

• Develop relationships and productive collaboration between local communities, landowners, developers and nature finance investors to deliver socially just natural capital investments across Scotland. It is expected this will lead to individual agreements between landowners, developers and communities to share the benefits of Scotland’s natural capital more equitably
• Strengthen relationships among funders, stakeholders, community intermediaries, government bodies, landowners, and the nature finance sector to support project development
• Develop and share case studies to enhance community benefits and wealth building from natural capital developments, following Scottish Government's principles for responsible investment, as set out in the Natural Capital Market Framework, alongside best practice protocols.
• Cover all forms of natural capital projects, be they land or marine based, be they focused on climate change mitigation, climate change adaption or biodiversity, they will be within the scope of the project. We are looking to appoint team members with an understanding of land and marine natural capital developments, nature finance and community engagement and empowerment

About the role

The Adviser: Finance will have three principal responsibilities in the Team: 1) as part of the NCPT, support communities, landowners, developers and investors to develop partnership projects; 2) As part of the NCPT, provide support and guidance to colleagues in the Team around financial, investment and funding issues and complexities in partnership projects; 3) Within Community Land Scotland, lead on overall financial management of the project’s finances including management reports for the Board and grant claims.

Each team member within the Team will have responsibility for a region but will also bring thematic expertise. The Finance role will have a caseload of their own clients in a particular region of Scotland (Highlands and Islands, Central Belt or South of Scotland) but will also work with colleagues in the rest of the team to ensure that communities have access to financial expertise.

The key responsibilities for this post are:

• Set up financial management processes and be responsible for budgeting, claims and reporting for the project. This postholder will also stay on for a short period after the rest of the project has ended to ensure the project to manage any final claims and financial reporting.
• Sit on and report to Community Land Scotland’s Finance Sub-Group and work with Community Land Scotland Treasurer and Finance and Administration Officer to help prepare the organisation for audit
• Provide support to colleagues in the NCP team to ensure that communities across Scotland are able to access financial expertise
• Raise awareness and generate good practice in delivering community benefits from natural capital projects within a selected region of Scotland
• Actively promote the use of shared governance and asset ownership arrangements where appropriate to increase community agency in decision making over land use change arising from natural capital developments
• Contribute to the development of national policy on community benefits from nature finance
• Develop effective relationships with local and specialist stakeholders, including third sector intermediaries, to support the delivery of the team’s objectives that will result in an increased impact of the project, looking for communication opportunities to increase the impact of and reach of the project
• Develop and share financial models, case studies and best practice protocols.
• Work collaboratively with Community Land Scotland colleagues to ensure the work of the Nature Capital Team contributes to the policy and operational objectives of the organisation
• Help to build relationships with the media and identify appropriate stories for media coverage in your region
• Work with NCP team members to strengthen relationships among funders, stakeholders, community intermediaries, government bodies, landowners, and the nature finance sector across Scotland
• Any other tasks as identified by Community Land Scotland

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