Restoration Finance & Policy Intern, Global Restoration Initiative WRI's Global Restoration Initiative informs, enables, and invests in people that restore degraded land. Its flagship investment program, TerraFund, finances, trains, and monitors 200+ locally led enterprises and community non-profits across Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. The Restore Local initiative supports locally led restoration with a portfolio of 60+ million USD in priority landscapes in Africa, Brazil and India. This 3-month, full-time hybrid internship (flexible start and end dates) supports the Invest and Enable pillars, which focus on piloting innovative blended finance models and creating the political, economic, and social conditions for lasting restoration. The intern will report to the Restoration Policy Analyst and the Restoration Finance Project Manager, and will work mainly on the team's portfolio in Africa, plus preliminary research on opportunities in Europe.

Responsibilities and learning outcomes:

• Learn about restoration projects, policy, finance, and outcomes through data analysis, desktop research, literature reviews, product support tasks, communications materials, and programmatic activities.
• Conduct a stock-take of the European Restoration Economy and support stakeholder event coordination, to build a fundable concept for WRI's contribution to the restoration economy in Europe.
• Support policy research and analysis on nature restoration, including brief drafting, desktop review, and copyediting.
• Contribute to research design, including methodologies for data collection and analysis, and organize research materials.

Requirements:

• Undergraduate or graduate student, or recent graduate, with a focus on resource economics, development finance, environmental sciences, social sciences, public policy, environmental studies, data science, or a related field.
• Experience with quantitative and qualitative data analysis; familiarity with Excel, R, or similar tools preferred.
• Research background, including literature reviews, outlining, drafting, and proofreading.
• Ability to work independently and in a team, and to prioritize in a fast-paced environment.
• Understanding of ecosystem restoration, land use, forestry, conservation, or agriculture is a plus; economic and policy research experience in the European context is a plus.
• Proficiency in English is required; working proficiency in French, Spanish, Dutch, Danish or German is desired.
• Existing US work authorization is required.

WRI cannot sponsor visas. Applicants must be residents of DC, Maryland or Virginia at the start of employment, and work in the Washington, D.C. office at least 8 days per month.

Compensation:

$20/hour for undergraduates, $22/hour for graduate students, and $24/hour for PhD students.

Application Deadline:

October 3, 2026 HOW

TO APPLY

Submit a resume with a cover letter through the WRI Careers portal (Workday) by October 2, 2026. WRI may close applications sooner if it receives a high volume of qualified applications.

https:

//wri.wd501.myworkdayjobs.com/WRI/job/Restoration-Finance

• -Policy-Intern
• Global-Restoration-Initiative_2026-JR100476/apply