Lawyer*, Forest Governance (0891)

ClientEarth is seeking a qualified lawyer for its Forest Governance program in Jakarta, Indonesia, focusing on social forestry and community-based natural resource management. The role involves legal research, capacity building, and stakeholder engagement to support sustainable forest governance and protect biodiversity. This fixed-term position runs from July 2025 to December 2026, with potential for extension. Fluency in English and Bahasa Indonesia, along with relevant legal expertise, is required.
This is an excellent opportunity for a qualified lawyer in Indonesia to contribute to the forest governance work of ClientEarth's Food, Oceans and Land Use (FOLU), Asia Programme. The successful candidate will play a key role in advancing the work on forest governance, particularly on social forestry, leveraging their expertise in community-based natural resources management and biodiversity protection in Indonesia. This is a fixed-term position from July 2025 to December 2026, with the possibility of extension or conversion to a permanent role based on performance and organizational needs.

The work relating to forest governance in Indonesia aims to reduce deforestation and forest degradation, by increasing engagements between government, civil society organisations (CSO), and Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLC) representatives through research, legal analysis, training, and awareness raising. It aims to support IPLC achieve sustainable livelihoods, as well as to protect natural ecosystems and biodiversity. Moreover, our team also engages at regional level with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to support them enact, revise, and more effectively implement forest governance laws.

Meet your Manager

In this role, you will be managed by Amalia Rodriguez Fajardo. Amalia joined ClientEarth in March 2022 and is based in the Brussels office. She holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and a European Master’s degree in Human Rights and Democratisation from EIUC. Prior to joining ClientEarth, Amalia worked extensively on human rights and environmental protection, in particular supporting Indigenous Peoples' rights and advocacy at the European Union and United Nations levels. At ClientEarth, she provides legal support and capacity strengthening to Indigenous Peoples and local communities, civil society organisations and governments to develop and implement sustainable forest management legal processes in Southeast Asia.

Main Duties
• Legal Research and Analysis
• Capacity Building: Support legal capacity-strengthening efforts with CSO, IPLC and local and national government on forest governance issues, especially on the effective implementation of social forestry.
• Stakeholder Engagement

See the job description (below) for a full list of duties for this role.

Role requirements
• Fluent in (CEFR level C2) English (essential) and Bahasa Indonesia
• Law degree or equivalent
• Working knowledge of environmental protection, community-based natural resources management, forest governance, and IPLC rights
• Experience working on law and policy development, either with governments, CSO, communities or private sector

See the job description (below) for a full list of requirements for this role.

Note to candidates: We know that long lists of criteria can be daunting and that some candidates will not apply for a role unless they feel they are 100% qualified. If you feel you meet at least some of the essential criteria, we still encourage you to apply.

Further Information

Have a question about this job? Please visit our Careers site for advice on applying, FAQs, and more.

Flexible working: We are proud to be a Flexa accredited Employer. Visit our Flexa Employer page for more information on our approach to flexible working. Our flexible working policy allows our people the choice to decide to work from home/another location in the country where their contract of employment is issued for 80% of their month, with the other 20% of their month being office-based See our Benefits page for more.

ClientEarth values diversity and inclusion and the benefits this brings. We aim to appoint the most suitable candidate at all times and welcome applications from people from all different backgrounds.

Please note that ClientEarth is only able to employ those who have the pre-existing legal right to work in Indonesia.

ClientEarth is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services to third parties.