Restoration Finance & Policy Intern, Global Restoration Initiative

Location: Washington, D.C., United States

About the Program:

WRI’s Global Restoration Initiative informs, enables, and invests in people that restore degraded land. The team’s flagship investment program for locally led enterprises and community non-profits, TerraFund, currently finances, trains, and monitors 200+ growing organizations across Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.

Aligned with this broader vision, the Restore Local initiative supports locally led restoration efforts – with a growing portfolio of 60+ million USD of projects in selected priority landscapes in Africa, Brazil and India. Built through the TerraMatch platform, this includes grant-funded projects, as well as debt and equity investments in small and enterprises and first loss investment tranches in blended investment funds.

In the next phase of our strategy, WRI’s Restoration team aims to harness technology innovations built with our partners and the growing network of locally led restoration implementers financed through TerraFund. It is developing replicable finance structures and partnerships that crowd more public and private capital into restoration that delivers proven outcomes for people, nature and climate.

This is a hybrid position which requires 8 days per month in the office. You can be based in our office in Washington DC. Existing work authorization is required at the time of application submission as WRI is unable to sponsor any visa work sponsorship for this position. To be eligible for this position, you must be a resident of DC, Maryland or Virginia at the start of employment.

What you will do:

This internship supports work across the Global Restoration Initiative's Invest and Enable pillars, which focus on piloting innovative blended finance models and creating the necessary political, economic, and social conditions for impactful, lasting restoration.

In this role, you will learn about the rapidly maturing land restoration sector, one of the most cost-efficient, but under-financed, nature-based solutions. You will gain familiarity with a variety of funding mechanisms for restoration and conduct research about the public policies and incentives that encourage high-quality, locally led, and targeted restoration. As a valuable member of the team, you will work alongside experts in geospatial science, finance, and international policy working to scale restoration at local, national, and global levels.

The activities of this internship will be shaped by your learning interests and the needs of the team. Examples of current team priorities include piloting outcome finance models for restoration with potential buyers and government stakeholders, developing national payment for ecosystem services policies, and onboarding the newest cohort of TerraFund investees. Opportunities may arise for you to contribute more heavily to investor engagement, data analysis, or policy analysis.

Your work will primarily focus on the team’s portfolio in Africa and preliminary research for opportunities in Europe. You will report to the Restoration Policy Analyst and the Restoration Finance Project Manager.

Internship Learning Outcomes:

Learn about restoration projects, policy, finance, and outcomes through data analysis, desktop research, literature reviews, product support tasks, communications materials, and participation in programmatic activities across the Restoration team.

Conduct a stock-take of the European Restoration Economy and support stakeholder event coordination to ultimately build a fundable concept of WRI’s contribution to the restoration economy in Europe.

Support policy research and analysis related to nature restoration. Contribute to policy development and engagement with targeted research deliverables such as brief drafting, desktop review, and copyediting support.

Contribute to research design, including methodologies for data collection and analysis. Organize research materials (including literature, drafts, and references) using WRI file management tools.

You will gain experience in the following areas:

Land Restoration – Through familiarization with projects and businesses that restore land.

Building partnerships – Through attending calls with our numerous programmatic partners and contributing to shared activities requiring cross-team communication

Restoration Finance – Through discrete research and analysis tasks and , and hands-on support for our new and existing funded projects.

Policy analysis – Through researching and synthesizing policy issues related to land restoration and assisting with the drafting of issue briefs and other policy documents.

Proposal development – Through contributions to research and writing for Restoration team partnership and funding proposals.

What you will need:

This opportunity is open to undergraduate or graduate students and recent graduates with focus and interest in resource economics, development finance, environmental sciences, social sciences, public policy, environmental studies, data science or other related fields.

Comfort communicating insights derived from data analysis.

Experience with quantitative and qualitative data analysis, and familiarity with data tools such as Excel, R, or similar preferred.

Background in research, with experience contributing to fundamental research processes (literature reviews, outlining, drafting, proofreading).

Experience with learning on the job, with demonstrated ability to work both independently as well as part of a team.

Experience staying organized and prioritizing effectively in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented work environment.

Experience with economic and policy research in the European context is a plus.

Understanding of ecosystem restoration, land use, forestry, conservation, agriculture, or related topics. Academic background or professional experience working in these sectors is a plus.

We seek interns with diverse backgrounds and who are passionate about land restoration for