GIS & Monitoring Intern – Conservation Programs

About the role

The GIS & Monitoring Intern will support AWF Rwanda’s rollout of five online decision‑support platforms across the Volcanoes National Park landscape. Working closely with the Conservation Geography team, the intern will bridge platform functionality and field application, ensuring high‑quality spatial data informs conservation actions.

Key responsibilities

• Assist in deploying, configuring, and managing GIS‑based monitoring platforms.
• Collect, clean, validate, and analyse spatial and non‑spatial datasets from field teams, partners and remote‑sensing sources.
• Create maps, dashboards and storymaps to visualise program outcomes for staff, partners and donors.
• Support integration of AI‑based analysis tools for biodiversity and land‑use monitoring.
• Help design and implement wildlife, habitat and human‑wildlife conflict monitoring protocols, including eDNA field campaigns.
• Compile data from KoboToolbox and other collection tools for quarterly and annual indicator tracking.
• Provide training and documentation for field staff and community monitors on platform use.
• Contribute data and analysis to donor progress reports and participate in team meetings and field visits.

Required profile

• Recent graduate or final‑year student in Geography, Environmental Science, GIS, or a related field.
• Strong interest in conservation, wildlife monitoring and data‑driven decision making.
• Ability to work independently and travel frequently within the Volcanoes landscape.

Required skills

• GIS software (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS)
• Remote sensing and spatial analysis
• Data cleaning, validation and visualization
• AI‑based analysis tools for ecological data
• eDNA monitoring techniques
• KoboToolbox data collection
• StoryMaps or similar storytelling platforms