International Conservation GIS Capacity Building Partnership

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation December 31, 2008 International Conservation GIS Capacity Building Partnership Grant# 684 YEAR THREE REPORT Presented By: Society for Conservation GIS (SCGIS) The Nature Conservancy Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 Selected Program Participant Comments The experience of being among other scholars has been invaluable to me…Lately, during the training courses, I discovered that we have a common language: GIS Adriana Paese, Conservation International (CI- Brazil) I am doing great with my work to implement MIST-GIS for Law Enforcement Monitoring in all conservation project sites of WCS Cambodia Program, incorporate using GIS tools to process all analyzed data I have made much progress in using GIS tools after applying what I learned from the SCGIS event Sorn Pheakdey, MIST Database and Training Coordinator WCS Cambodia The experiences we shared were all wonderful From the Mongolian and Russian steppes, the experiences on working with the penguins, the Great Amazon forest, the life as it is within the mangroves, the great grasslands and plains of southern Africa, the outstanding encounters from the Madagascar to Central African Community and the associated Congo fores—the home to my ancestors You made my stay in the US to be what it was, a great one Alex Ngari It's difficult to explain exactly how much this means to someone from Madagascar but; in addition to making a valuable contribution towards his practical training which he already really appreciated, the friendly interactions of the SC_GIS over e-mail and this surprise offer of additional assistance is making him feel really valued I should add that I've also had a lot of pleasure just from witnessing his reaction Alison Cameron, Internship Host, UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science & Policy The courses were brilliant and changed the way I see GIS forever It will surely help me to better support conservation efforts in Southern Africa Willem van Riet, Scholar, Peace Parks Foundation South Africa I was already an SCGIS Scholar for the second time and I know that the experience I gained in both visits helped a lot in understanding SCGIS, building a supportive community (this takes time) and also in being able to help other people with experience and knowledge Dejan Gregor, Leadership Intern, SCGIS Slovenia In my group there are people from Africa, Asia, South America and Europe Each one has an interesting story to tell about his or her GIS work in conservation I cannot stress enough the importance of this exchange of knowledge, technical tips and methodological approaches… I’m always thinking of my own work with the Ethiopian wolves and frantically making notes It’s so much clearer in my mind what I want to and how to achieve it!" Jorgelina Marino, Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme The fact of meeting people of around the world and identifying that our activities are similar in many ways has been such a great relief for me So, now we are part of a virtual list on which each one of us have the chance to ask and help to solve problems about process, theories that we, the scholars, have But also we share news around the globe about conservation practices that are happening in our countries Patricia Polo Almeida, University of Ecuador I even conducted a GIS demonstration with it while testifying in Court last October to show to the Judge the map that I produced for the community that is taking legal action against an oil palm company for encroaching and damaging their native customary land and forest Mark Bujang, Borneo Resources Institute, Malaysia Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 Partnership Goals The founding goal of the International Conservation GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Partnership is to "increase the capacity of conservation organizations, governments, and individuals to make effective use of geographic information systems to support biodiversity conservation, by developing and supporting a global community of conservation GIS practitioners." This partnership between The Nature Conservancy, the Society for Conservation GIS (SCGIS) and the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) contained three outputs: A Conservation GIS Training Scholarship Program, designed to bring dozens of individuals to the United States to receive advanced GIS training and to attend the Annual SCGIS and ESRI Conferences B Conservation GIS Leadership Program, in order to support a select group of international individuals with demonstrated leadership and technical skills to assess needs and build GIS capacity and networks in their home countries C SCGIS International Program Support, to include a range of activities needed to manage, support, and sustain the SCGIS Capacity Building Program Overall Summary of Achievements The key concept for our program's success was leverage ESRI has been making capacity building donations for 20 years, and we know the power that technology support in GIS can endow in leveraging minimal nonprofit resources to achieve great conservation impacts We are pleased that overall we were able to multiply the $331,000 value of the Moore Foundation’s investment to over $5.4 million in grant value, representing a leverage of over 16:1 We feel that this represents a strong return, and is indicative of how GIS, as a whole, empowers and multiplies abilities for groups who can incorporate it into their operations Total participants We exceeded our original goals for the total number of people trained by over 100 percent From 2005 thru 2008 we recruited 152 Scholars from 50 different countries across all five continents, from a selection pool of applicants in excess of 300 As the above quotes demonstrate, our participants’ responses were overwhelmingly positive Equipment and technology We secured agreements for donations of equipment and technology from other hardware vendors ESRI donated full computer setups to each scholar and several large computer labs to our chapters and leaders $35,877 in hardware support from the Moore Foundation was thereby leveraged 75:1 to achieve a total technology grant value of over $2.6 million    TOTAL Scholar HARDWARE from OTHER/ESRI: $64,632 TOTAL Leaders HARDWARE from OTHER/ESRI (40 laptops & peripherals @ 450 ea): $18,000 TOTAL HARDWARE from OTHER/ESRI: $82,632     152 full GIS suites donated by ESRI, avg $13,000 each, total value $1,976,000 152 grants of GIS book set donated by ESRI, avg $730 each, total value $110,910 40 full GIS training lab suites for Leaders program (@13,000 each): $520,000 TOTAL SOFTWARE from OTHER: $2,606,910  Total in-kind technology grants: $2,689,542 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 Capacity building ESRI and several other GIS training firms, such as Juniper Systems of Oregon, provided specialized trainers from their staffs for the training program Training was also provided by SCGIS and Water Resources Institute of California volunteers We were therefore able to leverage the Moore Training Support budget of $3000 almost 300:1, to achieve a total training grant value of $803,865 The Leadership Program was a similar success, with many funded proposals from many countries Each proposal defined objectives and programs aimed at GIS community building in each home country Many leaders also attended the summer conferences in California and received customized training programs and packages of hardware, software, and books In continuing to refine guidelines and procedures for the Leadership Program, we incorporated requests from The Nature Conservancy to include specific biodiversity impact and assessment protocols and more rigorous requirements for work plans and reporting An experimental Internship program began in 2006 to help build a stronger bridge from Scholars to Leaders and to encourage more scholarship recipients to begin SCGIS chapters and support activities back home Seven advanced scholars stayed an extra 1-6 weeks in this program at carefully selected host institutions As a prototype not part of the original Moore Foundation grant, it was funded entirely from ESRI and outside sources, but it's results had a powerful effect with new chapters begun right away from first-time scholars who were given the chance to participate as interns The benefits from this internship program were integrated completely into the other Moore Foundation funded programs and a more detailed report is included as a new section below An experimental Conservation Missions program also began in 2006 which sought to send the best experts on Biogeography and GIS out to field researchers and activists in other countries to teach local courses and work closely with local experts who could benefit from senior GIS analytical support and advice Because this was initially funded by ESRI, we began our search among the 200 or so Ph.D staff at ESRI who had specific background, publications and international recognition in conservation or ecological science We sought to find the best match for their knowledge with active SCGIS chapters possessing researchers and activists in those same specific areas ESRI has donated $40,000 of in-kind resources to this program In terms of Support and Strengthening of SCGIS Operations, we secured funding and commitments from many additional institutions and a growing number of private donations This includes the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Christensen Fund, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Birdlife International/BP Conservation Program, and Scholar and Private contributions Combined with the hundreds of thousands in ESRI in-kind support we exceeded significantly the $100K fundraising goal to support SCGIS operations The new partnership between SCGIS and the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) resulted in a joint SCB/SCGIS Conference in 2006 in San Jose, CA SCGIS courses and trainers were also supported at the 2005 SCB Conference in Brazil and the 2007 SCB Conference in South Africa The benefits to SCGIS thus far have been exposure to and funding by a new group of SCB donors interested in expanding the international reach of the best Conservation Science techniques in collaboration with SCB Joint conferences with larger organizations also offers the promise of a much larger pool of potential new members and this has indeed begun with SCB albeit more slowly The original proposal listed three outputs, each with separate activities for execution and evaluation Because our evaluation and review were an ongoing process integral to the execution of the program, we have simplified the activity listings for each output by grouping the execution and evaluation activities together Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 Expected Outputs, an Overview Output A: International GIS Training Scholarships "Bring dozens of individuals to the United States each summer to receive advanced GIS training and attend the Annual SCGIS and ESRI Conferences"  Design program and organize annual logistics for Scholar visits to US: COMPLETE MAR 05  Recruit 75 SCGIS Scholars (average of 25 per year): EXCEEDED AUG 08  Host Scholars during annual visits to US: COMPLETED AUG 08  Deliver annual GIS training to Scholars: COMPLETED AUG 08  Organize annual progress reports from Scholars: COMPLETED AUG 08  Work with Leadership program grantees co-located with Scholars to monitor/support progress: COMPLETED AUG 08 Output B: Conservation GIS Leadership Program "Will support a select group of international individuals with demonstrated leadership and technical skills who can assess needs and build GIS capacity and networks in their home countries."  Design Conservation GIS Leadership Program: COMPLETED MAR 05  Develop work plan, timeline and deliverables for each grantee: COMPLETED AUG 08  Administer work plan: COMPLETED AUG 08  Recruit 21 Conservation GIS Leadership Candidates: EXCEEDED AUG 08  Evaluate grantee work and improve/modify program : COMPLETED AUG 05  Evaluate Impact on Local Conservation Ngo's: COMPLETED AUG 08 Output C: SCGIS International Program Support  Support and Strengthen SCGIS operations, coordination and international training through increased membership by 50% and increased membership renewals by 50% : EXCEEDED AUG 08  Raise an additional $100,000 (or FTE equivalent) to support SCGIS capacity building programs; EXCEEDED AUG 08 In Detail, Output A: International GIS Training Scholarships  Design program and organize annual logistics for Scholar visits to US The design of a training scholarship program was completed in 2005 The following subactivities were identified as distinct tasks with separate program management procedures that were designed by 2005 and executed beginning with the 2005 Scholars Group: Scholar Recruitment, Publicity and Marketing From November thru February of each year, scholarship announcements were sent out via dozens of discussion groups, affiliated websites, and growing networks of prior scholars Incoming applications more than doubled each year from 2004 thru 2006, topping out at 163 in 2007, the last formal year of the program In 2008, scholar selection was handed over to the chapters as an experiment to help them develop further Scholar Selection During review it became apparent that the quality of the applications had increased dramatically Many of those 350 rejected applicants would have been accepted in any prior year As a result, we began providing software and training grants to the rejected applicants beginning in 2006, with the result that some of them improved their capacity enough to be awarded full scholarships in later years 2005: 73 applied, accepted 45 scholars (37 international and eight US/Canada scholars) 2006: 156 applied, accepted 62 scholars The remaining 93 were given software and self-paced training grants from ESRI Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 2007: 163 applied, accepted 35 scholars The remaining 128 were given software and self-paced training grants from ESRI 2008: 27 applied, accepted 10 scholars Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 Scholar Preparation and Visa Negotiations Visa problems have been a significant source of loss of finalist scholars in prior years After losing only one person to visa denial in 2005, we experienced a dramatic increase in denials in 2006, despite intense lobbying and embassy communications Looking at the case by case reasons yielded no pattern other than unpredictable bureaucratic decision-making, such as denying a married parent of children a visa because they were labeled to be at risk of not returning home after their visa expired In 2007 and 2008 visa denials remained at a high rate Scholar Training Program: A custom training program was designed and organized for each scholar, based on their specific needs and capabilities Thanks to extensive donations of courses, materials and trainers from ESRI, we were able to provide a total of 1792 student days of training representing an in-kind donation from ESRI of $804,000 Days of GIS Training Provided by ESRI 2005: 385 student days 2006: 630 student days 2007: 777 student days (provided by ESRI and the Water Resources Institute) Scholar Conference Program Presenting scientific papers on Conservation GIS at an international conference was an important part of the GIS Training Scholarship Program For many scholars it was their first time presenting a paper before a major scientific or technical conference In recognition of this, we began offering small workshops in presentation skills in program year two which by 2008 had grown into full-fledged multi-day presentation workshops with practice sessions and several dedicated trainers The three conferences that we were involved in were the Society for Conservation GIS, ESRI, and the Society for Conservation Biology Scholars attended multiple conference venues The annual SCGIS conference attracts about 150-200 Conservationists worldwide in a small conference with a focus on building communities of sharing, support and relationships Society for Conservation Biology annual conference is a more academic venue of about 3,000 attendees In 2006 SCGIS was invited by the SCB to hold a joint conference with them in California, and SCGIS Scholars presented papers in both formal SCB science sessions and separate SCGIS sessions Despite the loss of intimacy typical of a smaller conference, all scholars and SCGIS members felt that the merger was a success and planned to repeat it whenever possible In 2007 the SCB Annual conference was held in South Africa and many local SCGIS members and local African chapters attended on their own initiative Scholars also participated in the annual ESRI User Conference in San Diego This conference attracts about 15,000 GIS practitioners worldwide for the largest software industry conference of its kind ESRI's conference focuses on advanced technical issues and user applications in GIS across all sectors ESRI provided a special sub-venue for SCGIS where SCGIS sessions and events were featured This program was further coordinated conferences and workshops of Native and First Nations GIS users, Climate Change specialists, U.S National Park Service GIS staff The interactions led to many additional opportunities for the scholars to expand relationships with other networks of conservation GIS practitioners For example, we organized a special internship at Yosemite National Park for Andrew Scanlon from Jiuzhaigou National Park in China, following his formal SCGIS training This led to the selection of Jiuzhaigou National Park as a "sister park" with Yosemite, creating a permanent relationship of scientific and cultural exchange to the benefit of both parks Training/Conference Equipment Logistics The expanded size of the Scholar pool meant that we could not rely solely on the pro-bono training facilities used previously We found pro-bono locations but had to organize all of our own training equipment and hardware for four different venues That meant obtaining loaner training equipment pro-bono and finding systems engineers able to prepare equipment, travel to set it up and maintain it, and take it down We were able to find ESRI Staff people who provided dozens of person/days of support, paid for in part by ESRI and in part from their own volunteer donations, for a total in-kind benefit of $20-$40,000 per year We were able to obtain an equipment loan and donated shipping from ESRI each summer for 30-60 computers and projectors spread across three months Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 Scholar Travel logistics We provided $41,249 in airfare support to the scholars For ground transportation, ESRI and personal volunteers donated vans, van rental and charter buses in an estimated in-kind value of $15,000 per year, with the remaining $2,000 annual fuel costs assigned to the Moore Foundation grant Scholar Food/Lodging logistics Following the guidelines of the review and qualification process for Scholar requirements to contribute some of their own food costs, $190,159 in food and lodging was distributed for the four years of 4-12 week annual programs, representing over 3,000 paid person-nights of lodging at courses and conferences and lodging with SCGIS volunteers and the University of California 700 donated person-nights of lodging in Redlands with ESRI and SCGIS volunteers represent a $40,000 value if these students had to be housed within walking distance of the ESRI courses they attended The 2000 person-nights of lodging donated by the University of California James Reserve represented a retail value of $100,000 if students were to be housed near the Reserve Scholar Technology Grants (Hardware and Software) This continued to be a large activity because of our goal of providing all program participants, not just leaders, with their most critically needed hardware Our Moore Foundation budget expanded from $7,000 to $15,000 in 2006, allowing much greater flexibility in leveraging donated hardware because better upgrade funding allowed a broader range of hardware to be useable ESRI donated over 120 laptops with an estimated market value of $300-$450 each at the time of donation ESRI also provided full GIS software suites to each of 152 scholars with an estimated average retail value at the time of donation of $13,000 each Required upgrades of RAM and disk were covered by the Moore Foundation funds Overall $35,877 in Moore Foundation funds were spent to upgrade or acquire hardware and software with a market value at the time of donation in excess of $2.1 million Technology Item Expenditures included the following:  50 GPS-fitted field Compaq palmtop units  120 laptop upgrade costs (covered by Moore Foundation)  30 Large external hard drives to support large GIS data sets  portable flash drives  92 Garmin GPS units  Total HARDWARE from Moore Foundation: $35,877 Technology Matching In-Kind grants secured included the following:  152 laptops and peripherals donated by ESRI market value $413 each, total $62,632  16 of the advanced Garmin GPS units were discounted by $125/unit,(= Garmin subsidy of $2000)  TOTAL HARDWARE from OTHER: $64,632    152 full GIS suites donated by ESRI, avg $13,000 each, total value $1,976,000 152 grants of GIS book set donated by ESRI, avg $730 each, total value $110,910 TOTAL SOFTWARE from OTHER: $2,086,910  Total in-kind technology grants: $2,151,542 Leverage for Moore Foundation technology support: >60:1 Over all years we were able to leverage the $37,000 Moore Foundation hardware budget over sixtyfold to obtain over $2 million in matching hardware and software grants from ESRI and Garmin Book donations  Total in-kind ESRI grants: $110,910 (included in technology support figure above) Books permit conservation activists to learn important theories and methods of spatial analysis and mapping even if they don't have access to a computer Books include the category of self-paced GIS lessons and tutorials, with a functioning classroom GIS program to permit independent learning for the many who lack Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 internet access Thanks to the generosity of ESRI Press, their complete catalog of over 100 GIS and Science titles is available by grant to our scholarship recipients Each year Scholars are allowed to select as many books as they can carry home, typically over a dozen books at an average retail value of $60 each, representing an average grant value of $730 per person In addition, because of the extraordinary response of qualified candidates who we were not able to select as finalists, we offered donations of their choice of any five books, representing an additional ESRI donation of $60,000 that was not included in the final figures above for the 152 selected finalists  Recruit 75 SCGIS Scholars (average of 25 per year): EXCEEDED We exceeded our recruitment goal From 2005 thru 2008 we recruited 152 Scholars from 50 different countries across all five habitable continents, chosen from a selection pool of applicants in excess of 400 The Amazon, South Pacific and Africa were regions of special emphasis, with increased numbers of scholars and more active chapter building efforts A complete list of all of our scholars and their countries of origin is available upon request In addition to the increased numbers and increase in the quality of applicants, we strove to improve our visa support program so that we could maintain the 100 percent visa approval rate we were able to achieve in 2005 that allowed every scholar to attend Despite those improvements, we had many visa rejections in 2006  Host Scholars during annual visits to US: EXCEEDED This goal was exceeded From 2005 thru 2008 we hosted 152 Scholars from 50 different countries for training programs ranging from 4-12 weeks, including special internships with partners like the National Park Service and the Wildlife Conservation Society  Deliver annual GIS training to Scholars: EXCEEDED Thanks to extensive donations of courses, materials and trainers from ESRI, we were able to provide customized training to 152 Scholars at an average in-kind value of 5,288 per person ESRI provided the bulk of this training, with help from the Water Resources Institute, Juniper GIS Systems, and individual SCGIS volunteers The total of over 1250 student-days of capacity training provided to these scholars represents a leverage of the Moore Foundation contribution of 268:1    Total TRAINING & MISC from ESRI and Other in-kind (planned): $3,000 Total TRAINING & MISC from ESRI and Other in-kind (actual): $803,865 Planned vs actual ratio: >268:1 Organize annual progress reports from Scholars: COMPLETED AUG 08 Status reporting and feedback is integrated into all communications with the scholars, before, during and after their experiences From experience, this has turned out to be more reliable and more successful in encouraging scholars to be mindful of the long-term perspective of SCGIS throughout their experiences here Reporting guidance has also been sought from academicians and graduate student programs to determine how schools and their donors evaluate and monitor their own scholarship programs A very important measure of success in the university scholarship community is whether a program causes an individual to make a fundamental change in life direction, causing them to devote the rest of their lives to the mission or goals of the scholarship program Because devotion to conservation seems to be a fundamental and deeply rooted belief in the people who hold to it, we felt that this was an appropriate goal for us to include Unfortunately, the university had no guidance on how to measure and evaluate beliefs up front Their documentation of a major life change was based solely on anecdotal evidence over many decades following a scholarship We felt that getting some sense of a person’s beliefs and goals was worth trying, and so we continue to include opportunities for our scholars to talk about this before, during and after the program Below are the guidelines and rules we developed for effective status reporting during all phases of our program The appendix includes selected examples of status reports based on these guidelines Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 General Guidelines for Scholar reporting at all times: Don't ask more than what people are capable of; otherwise they will feel they have failed in what was asked of them Most scholars are extremely grateful and want to whatever they can to help SCGIS Giving them reporting and community building tasks they can handle helps maintain their motivation Giving them tasks beyond their ability and availability discourages them and detracts from community building Keep requirements informal When a scholar or leader feels overwhelmed by what is being asked of them in reporting or workplan, they will typically fall silent and instead spend time on other activities more comprehensible and rewarding to them Know how much they are able to provide and don’t ask them to things you know they won’t have time or ability to Allow for a wide variety of reporting styles and options Some individuals and/or cultures may be more comfortable presenting only a written paper rather than a live conference presentation; some may prefer a map composition to a narrative report For the sake of training, try to encourage or require all scholars to try their hands at all forms of expression, but be prepared to gracefully accept that some may only be comfortable in one form Guidelines for Scholar reporting prior to each year's program: Try to collect each scholar’s vision of their next year as it exists prior to program participation, in the application itself About six months after the training, enough time for them to incorporate their new ideas with the hard realities of home, have them re-describe what they think the next year will bring Try to collect both personal and professional goals of each scholar as an individual, as well as their program goals within their institution The primary expression of change due to a program based on training and community is likely to first appear in personal and career changes Request photographs of scholars at work Photographs often offer a view of conservation work that is hard to put into words, and they are an important component of any report that seeks to qualitatively describe what conservationists and how it may be changing Also, try to get a baseline idea of their GIS capacity and their involvement or effectiveness with local NGOs Guidelines for Scholar reporting during that year’s program: Try to collect scholar experiences, thoughts, feelings, discoveries as close to the event as possible, using some sort of daily diary requirement that won’t take too much time out of the day Allow for a wide variety of reporting styles and options Some individuals and/or cultures may be more comfortable presenting only a written paper rather than a live conference presentation; some may prefer a map composition to a narrative report For the sake of training, try to encourage or require all scholars to try their hands at all forms of expression, but be prepared to gracefully accept that some may only be comfortable in one form Guidelines for Scholar reporting after that year’s program: Always encourage scholars to think like leaders, ask them to think about how SCGIS can be useful in their home areas, what it can bring to their colleagues who were not able to attend Scholar and leader assessment will be mostly similar in quality, just different in level A key difference is the institutional goals of a leader will always be SCGIS rather than their “day job”, and leaders will have the specific responsibility of reporting on financial disposition of program funds in their care Request photographs of scholars at work Photographs often offer a view of conservation work that is hard to put into words, and they are an important component of any report that seeks to qualitatively describe what conservationists and how it may be changing Request finished map compositions that scholars produce, to evaluate both their raw GIS and geographic abilities, and their abilities to tell their story and communicate their mission on the printed page 10 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 2006 reporting products: -Pre-program reporting products: 100% of the Scholars -During program and conference presentations: 100% of the Scholars -Post program scholar Status Reports: 50% of the Scholars -Leader status reports: received from all 2005 grantees (see below)  Work with Leadership program grantees co-located with Scholars to monitor/support progress: COMPLETED AUG 08 Resident Leader Support Program We funded several leadership program grantees over the years to come to the scholars training program to serve as resident assistants and on-site leaders This program allowed participants to build their organizational skills and leadership experience with scholars, build a stronger relationship with the international community of SCGIS beyond their local communities, learn how to organize training and conference events, meet with the grant program management for detailed consultation and planning on their various leadership and chapter-building proposals, and expand their own GIS skills thanks to advanced training and mentorship resources provided to them by ESRI It also allowed scholars to see what an SCGIS leader was like up close and to be better inspired to start and lead their own SCGIS chapters on returning home Without exception these experiences were positively received by both leaders and scholars In one case, J G Nasser Olwero was chosen by the World Wildlife Fund to be the head of their international GIS unit following his leader internship, so success sometimes conferred as much upon the individuals and the greater conservation GIS community as it conferred onto SCGIS The Leadership grantees who participated as on-site Scholar Leaders in the summer program included: 2005 Misha Paltsyn, SCGIS Siberia 2005: J.G Nasser Olwero, SCGIS Kenya 2005 Leonard Mubalama, SCGIS DR Congo 2006 Dejan Gregor, SCGIS Slovenia 2006 Lucy Chege-Waruingi, SCGIS Kenya 2006 Jose Beltran, SCGIS Mexico 2006 Trina Galido Isorena, SCGIS Phillippines 2007 Jamie King, UC James Reserve Steward 2007 Andrew Scanlon, Jiuzhaigou National Park, China 2008: Abe Padilla, SCGIS Phillippines In 2008, we extended this idea further by asking that all scholar selection be conducted by the chapters themselves This put the duty and responsibility for scholars directly with the chapters themselves rather than any centralized authority as before We provided support and resources to help the chapters with this task, and provided final quality control and global level review and feedback The approach succeeded in that all of the finalists recommended by chapters were funded This is another powerful incentive for chapter formation that we hope will help create new chapters Additional Programs funded by ESRI and SCGIS as extensions to the capacity building program: Conservation GIS Internship Program In 2006 we conducted an internship program to allow selected scholars a longer period of study and work with institutional hosts closely matched to the scholars’ interests, needs and skills The primary goal was to establish additional pathways and opportunities for leadership growth due to the lack of available candidates in the leadership program A primary strategy was to combine and coordinate Leader internships and Scholar Internships so that scholars and leaders could work more closely together A particular need identified by our 2005 scholars was the chance to applied GIS work with mentoring organizations following their intensive training program So much training is crammed into such a short time that this would have the benefit of helping scholars digest and apply what they had learned It also has the benefit of introducing them to new technical resources and skilled practitioners who can teach them the additional skills needed to make their technical work back home a success 11 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 In its first year, the Internship program was offered as an additional grant of living expenses that scholars would apply for At the same time, candidate hosts drawn from the nearly 5,000 organizations who are members of the ESRI Conservation Program were approached and solicited to match contributions and host a practical work program of two weeks minimum for each potential scholar Review for internship was limited only to those scholars who finished at the top of the standard scoring, and for whom there was an excellent match with an internship host in terms of their professional affiliations and GIS program needs The table below lists the interns who were funded to pursue advanced GIS and Leadership training at the host institutions indicated Hayk Yeritsan Armenian National Academy of Sciences & Third Nature NGO Andrew Scanlon, Jiuzhaigou National Park China Lucy Fish UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, UK Janna Rist, Equatorial Guineau Inselbergs Project Lucy Waruingi African Conservation Centre, Kenya Nono Gonwouo Cameroon Herpetology Project Andriamandimbisoa Razafimpahanana, Wildlife Conservation Society Madagascar Ramaswamy Hariharan UC Irvine Geology Dept and GISCorps Volunteer PROJECT: “Web-based Interactive Map of Volcanoes in Armenia” Joe Meyer, GIS Dept, Yosemite National Park PROJECT: “National Park GIS Management Principles and Practices Charles Convis, ESRI Conservation Program PROJECT: “Re-Design of the World Databank on Protected Areas” PROJECT: "Creation of a global support chapter for SCGIS in the UK" Christopher Kernan and Juan Carlos Bonilla Conservation International Centre for Applied Biodiversity Science Washington DC Charles Convis, ESRI Conservation Program PROJECT: “Planning of the First Kenya National Conference on Conservation GIS” Theodore J Papenfuss, Ph D Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, UC Berkeley PROJECT: "CAMHERP Cameroon Herpetology Project" Alison Cameron, UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management PROJECT “Biodiversity Network for Madagascar Project” Conservation GIS Teacher Training Program ESRI currently provides an "Authorized Trainer Program" which consists of four weeks of study and highlevel testing that result in private individuals able to offer ESRI-Certified training independently of ESRI, with formal certification for students Grant Extension Year 2008 As a result of promoting many chapters to more management and responsibility in the scholarship program starting in 2008, The SCGIS Scholarship Program that year was reduced to ten participants, which reduced our expenses compared to the three preceding years Grant Extension Year 2009 We anticipate that our chapters will gain confidence and capacity for the management and support of their scholars in 2009, but to be conservative we project the Scholarship Program 2009 will be about the same size as 2008, and our expenses, accordingly, will be at a similar level Because of severe drops in SCGIS dues, we anticipate needing to use Moore Foundation funds for most or all of this Proposed budget for 2009 Scholarship Program 2009 Scholarship Budget Total: approximately $33k 12 Grant Commitment: approximately $33k Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 In Detail, Output B: Conservation GIS Leadership Program Overview of Activities Of the initial 25 leadership candidates identified in 2004, 17 grants to six countries involving 25 chapter leaders and candidates were disbursed from 2005 thru 2007 In 2008 we adopted a new leadership-building strategy of combining the scholarship program more fully with Chapter work Active chapters became responsible for the selection and review of Scholars from their regions and any other regions they wanted to "sponsor" in 2008 The result was a marked increase in the sense of confidence, authority and ownership among the chapters Unfortunately this put a heavy workload on them in 2008 with the result that the leadership and chapter development proposals being developed and refined with International Committee staff were delayed by many months In 2008, 40 laptops were donated to establish Conservation GIS Training Labs at our chapters, an activity that did not impact on Moore Foundation funds at all, which is why there is so little leadership budget activity in the spreadsheet Lots of work was done, but very little Moore Foundation funds were spent The Leadership Program received seven funding proposals in 2006 Stricter selection and reporting criteria were implemented to include biodiversity metrics Three proposals received funding We awarded $30,000 of our $50,000 leadership budget for 2006 We are currently reevaluating our selection and reporting criteria Status reports for all four leadership grants made in the first program year of 2005 were received between August 1, 2006 and February 21, 2007 Proposals for Program Year 2006 were received between August 1, 2006 and December 31, 2006 Of the seven proposals received, three were funded by February 2007 and the remaining four are still pending Of the first group of four leaders funded, three were able to make it on their own resources to the SCGIS 2006 conference Misha Paltsyn from Siberia was the only one who could not come, in part because the field season for ecological conservation work in Siberia is very short and most field staff cannot afford to lose even a couple weeks of time during that period Of the second group of three leaders funded, all three were able to send representatives to participate and help lead at the 2006 Scholarship and Conference Programs Program guidelines The primary guideline of our leadership program is that Leaders determine for themselves what the best way is to achieve progress in Conservation GIS support and community-building in their countries We are very concerned that no developed-country assumptions or biases creep in, because GIS is already a difficult technology and very challenging to apply and adopt in developing country circumstances It is therefore essential to allow each leader the freedom to exercise their judgment in creating a new community To be sustainable, a new organization devoted to conservation NGO service must be intimately engaged in and grown from the local conservation communities A sign of the success of our approach so far is that all of our chapters consist exclusively of members from the local community 13 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 (Above: Inaugural meeting of the SCGIS Philippines Chapter, 2006) Based on these policies and our experiences with the first year, we developed explicit guidelines to be able to evaluate and select candidates that we believe will have the greatest ability to create locally-appropriate GIS support institutions and have the best chances of conservation GIS success We also want to ensure that Leaders are setting achievable, realistic objectives that they can report on at the end of each year However, the good leader with both the social skills to get a new chapter going and gain the trust of colleagues and with deep mathematical, analytical and scientific skills needed to address a complex series of outcomes evaluations and statistical measures appears to be very rare, and no one even approaching that level of capability has surfaced thus far in our applicant and membership pool The review and selection of leadership candidates is currently based on: Ability to write a detailed workplan and understand the tasks and costs associated with mounting a successful GIS technology project Ability to express themselves as conservation activists and both exemplify and communicate the SCGIS values of service to one another and commitment to nature conservation Ability to gain the trust and cooperation of their colleagues in their home region and to work collaboratively with them and facilitate collective projects such as conferences, workshops and courses Ability to secure the support of other donors For the most part they must also have a “day job” because as yet the SCGIS grants are not enough for someone to support themselves full time, so they need to have a generous host institution who will allow them time away from their day jobs to SCGIS projects Persistence: the ability to demonstrate a life-long commitment to the cause of conservation International Funds Transfer Procedure Thus far all new SCGIS chapters have been able to establish their own bank accounts Wire transfer to these accounts has proven to be inexpensive, although at times not as simple as more expensive options We not have central procedures for how to form and govern a chapter because countries differ in how non-profits are defined Each leader or collaboration has set up the structure that best fits how they wish to work together 14 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 Most of the first four leadership grantees have established local bank accounts There are no central procedures yet defined for how to this because countries differ in how non-profits are defined and how bank accounts are set up We had to rely on each leader to use their best judgment and adhere to all applicable laws and regulations The first round of funding was disbursed to each leader in person, in cash, so as to allow maximum flexibility while maintaining the security of direct contact US-based support organizations exist for the purpose of supporting and simplifying cash grants to non-profit conservation groups in other countries without the need for bank charges but with full security and accountability Many of these are US-based offices of existing country-based conservation support groups We plan to find more of these and work with them as partners to help set up no-cost secure funding disbursement mechanisms for other countries Leader Selection Leadership Proposals typically define activities in the following four general areas:  Program Continuation of successful 2005 programs that achieved very good results  Direct GIS community building: workshops, conferences, meetings, fundraising and classes in Conservation GIS for local NGO's and scientists  Indirect GIS community building: Focused Technical Activities that would support a worldwide community but not specific to local Conservation GIS users  Direct Conservation: Focused Conservation Programs that work with specific local communities or stakeholders, but which not have a primary goal of supporting other Conservation GIS users in the area generally Funded Leadership Program Proposals: (Full proposals are in a separate zip file) $117,455.74 total Mexico: Conservation GIS Information for Conservation in the Northwest of México Project Lead: Pronatura A.C Noroeste, Jose M Beltran, GIS Manager for PNO Project Budget Total $20,000 Grant Awarded 2005: $5,000 Grant Awarded 2005: $12,030 Russia: GIS support for Biological and Cultural Diversity Conservation in Altai-Sayan Ecoregion Project Lead: Mikhail Paltsyn, Arkhar NGO, Altai Republic, Russia Provisional budget $2,000 Grant Awarded 2005: $2,000 Laptop purchase budget $1,680.74 Grant Awarded 2005: $1,680.74 Project budget $10,545 Grant Awarded 2005: $10,545 Kenya: Promoting Application of GIS to Conservation in Kenya Project Lead: JG Nasser OLWERO and Lucy Waruingi, SCGIS Kenya Provisional Budget $7,995 Grant Awarded 2005: $4,000 Leader travel budget $1,975 Grant Awarder 2005: $1,975 Provisional Chapter Budget $8,005 Grant Awarded 2005: $10,045 Phillippines: A Proposal to Establish the Society for Conservation GIS Project Lead: Sabino Padilla and the Philippine Chapter: SCGIS Pilipinas Project Budget Total: $29, 233.21 Grant Awarded 2005: $2,000 Brazil: GIS Community Building in Brazil: a proposal to the SCGIS Project Lead: Adriana Paese, Conservation International Brazil Project Budget Total: $31,258 Grant Awarded 2005: $3,000 15 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 Kenya: Promoting Application of GIS to Conservation in Kenya Phase II Project Lead: Lucy Waruingi SCGIS Kenya, African Conservervation Centre Project Budget Total $10,515 Grant Awarded 2006: $10,560 Conference budget request $7,500 Grant Awarded 2007: $5,045 Kenya: Promoting Application of GIS to Conservation in Kenya Phase III Project Lead: Lucy Waruingi SCGIS Kenya, African Conservervation Centre Project Budget Total $11,000 Grant Awarded 2007: $11,045 Cameroon: A Proposal to Facilitate the Development of a Society for Conservation GIS Chapter in Cameroon (2006) Project Lead: Nsoyuni Ayenika Lawrence Coordinator, Global Forest Watch – Cameroon Project Budget Total: $5,000 Grant Awarded 2006: $5,000 Philippines: A Proposal for the Activities of Society for Conservation GIS Philippine Chapter: SCGIS Pilipinas (2006) Project Lead: Collaboration Project Budget Total: $13,550 Grant Awarded 2006: $13,595 Philippines: A Proposal for the Activities of Society for Conservation GIS Philippine Chapter: SCGIS Pilipinas (2006) Project Lead: Collaboration Project Budget Total: $13,550 Grant Awarded 2006: $13,595 Brazil: GIS Community Building in Brazil: A Proposal to the SCGIS Project Lead: Adriana Paese, Conservation International Brazil Project Budget Total: $8,000 Grant Awarded 2007: $8,045 Russia: Development of GIS for Effective Protection of Biodiversity of Altaisky, Sayano-Shushensky, Khakassky and Ubsunurskay Kotlovina Nature Reserves, Russia Project Lead: Mikhail Paltsyn, Arkhar NGO, Altai Republic, Russia Project budget $11,800 Grant Awarded 2007: $11,845 Grant Extension Year 2009 Pending Leadership Program Proposals: Final Grant Commitment: $33,000 (expected) Uganda: Building Network for Conservation GIS in Uganda Project Lead: Muyambi Fortunate, Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund Project Budget Total: $3,500 Grant Commitment: $3,500 (expected) South Africa: Proposal for an Africa-wide community of Conservation GIS Project Lead: Craig Beech, Peace Parks Foundation Project Budget Total: $5,000 (expected) Grant Commitment: $5,000 (expected) 16 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 England: Proposal for a Global Support Center for SCGIS based at the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre Project Lead: Lucy Fish, UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre Project Budget Total: under review Grant Commitment: $3,000 (expected) Brazil: GIS Community Building in Brazil: Training lab proposal Project Lead: Adriana Paese, Conservation International Brazil Project Budget Total: $10,000 (expected)Grant Commitment: $10,000 (expected) Philippines: Activities of Society for Conservation GIS Philippine Chapter: SCGIS Pilipinas (2006) Project Lead: Collaboration Project Budget Total: TBD Grant Commitment: $5,000 (expected) Kenya: Conserving Biodiversity of the Kenya-Tanzania Borderlands in the face of Climatic Change (submitted for joint funding by SPOT Planet Action and SCGIS international program) Project Lead: Lucy Waruingi SCGIS Kenya, African Conservervation Centre Project Budget Total: in-kind only Grant Commitment: In-kind only (expected) Kenya: Promoting Application of GIS to Conservation in Kenya Phase III Project Lead: Lucy Waruingi SCGIS Kenya, African Conservervation Centre Project Budget Total TBD Grant Commitment: $5,000 (expected) Nepal: A Proposal on Hardware Grant (Laptop) for Community GIS Project Lead: Mahesh Pathak, Soc for Wetland and Biodiversity Conservation Project Budget Total: $1000 (Shipping costs) Grant Commitment: $1,000 (expected) Leader work plan, timeline and deliverables Every proposal was required to provide a timeline and budget In meetings with each finalist leader, proposal activities were identified and prioritized for the initial funding phase Because the initial funding provided to each was less than requested, each grantee had to modify their initial budget and timeline to reflect the twophase funding process Budget and timeline revision also resulted from other circumstances, such as when proposed program staff members were no longer available Finally, a midterm status report was due from each leadership grantee by December 31, detailing the progress made with the initial funding stage and presenting a new revised budget, timeline and formal request for second phase funding Leader Training Program All four of the finalist leaders were able to attend the 2005 scholarship training program and fully participate in the advanced GIS courses they required Frequent additional meetings with partnership staff helped to train them on the documentation, reporting and recordkeeping requirements, as well as resolving specific political and social issues about formation of a new organization in their countries Email and Instant Messaging communications with the program managers have continued on a daily basis since then, with plans to expand this to conference calls and/or Skype conferences Leader support to Scholarship Program All four leaders worked closely with the 2005 Scholars, serving in formally-designated positions of responsibility according to their abilities and interests This included living with them at the reserves, serving as food coordinators, hardware coordinators, on-site liaisons, and conference and workshop coordinators 17 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 They gained valuable experience in the specifics of managing a training and support program More importantly, they gained socialization about SCGIS community values and principles, and how to behave in a way that exemplifies the support, competence and inclusiveness that SCGIS strives for 18 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 Conservation GIS Missions Program (Above: ESRI's Kevin Johnston (background right) with some of the local SCGIS wildlife and conservation workers he helped to train during his 2006 conservation mission)  Recruit 21 Conservation GIS Leadership Candidates: EXCEEDED AUG 08 In support of the SCGIS International Committee, we recruited advanced Ph.D Conservation GIS volunteers to conduct Conservation Science training workshops and provide specialized development support to senior scientists beginning in 2006 These missions were co-organized by SCGIS country chapters to address not only members’ needs, but the critical conservation science needs of their country and region A full report from the first such Mission is attached Feedback from these missions has been consistently positive, with many of the senior scientists claiming that the short visit with senior GIS scientist changed analytical methods and scientific assumptions they had held for decades Tangible models produced during this mission are being used in management decisions right now  Evaluate grantee work and improve/modify program: COMPLETED AUG 05 The design of an evaluation and improvement program is complete The following sub-activities were identified as distinct tasks with program management procedures that are complete as indicated: Organize Leader Status Reports Initial results indicate that it will take much longer to get reports and materials back from grantees than initially thought The problems associated with starting new programs in developing countries indicate that it is more reasonable to expect status reports approximately 18-24 months after startup Setting realistic objectives and accurate and timely reporting of progress are important components of leadership and management However, our attempts to create tighter formal guidelines for reporting did not have the desired effect so we intend to return to a more collegial approach of regular, open communications and simple requests for reports and information when they are needed and when the leadership grantees can make time available Until we can afford to support them more substantially we have to balance our needs against the often-pressing demands of their conservation GIS "day job." 19 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 (Above: Siberian Leadership grantees conduct field conservation research and NGO support in Siberia) Status of reports from grantees (Detailed Reports for each program are in separate file): Mexico: Conservation GIS Information for Conservation in the Northwest of México Project Lead: Pronatura A.C Noroeste, Jose M Beltran, GIS Manager for PNO Grant Awarded ($5,000): August 3, 2005 Interim Report Received: November 28, 2005 Grant Awarded ($12,030): May 16, 2006 Preliminary Report Received: September 19, 2006 Final Report Received: December, 14, 2006 Russia: GIS support for Biological and Cultural Diversity Conservation in Altai-Sayan Ecoregion Project Lead: Mikhail Paltsyn, Arkhar NGO, Altai Republic, Russia Grant Awarded ($2,000): August 5, 2005 Grant Awarded ($1,680.74): November 22, 2005 Interim Report Received: January 5, 2006 Grant Awarded ($10,545): January 13, 2006 Final Report Received: September 22, 2006 Kenya: Promoting Application of GIS to Conservation in Kenya Project Lead: JG Nasser OLWERO and Lucy Waruingi, SCGIS Kenya Grant Awarded ($4,000): August 3, 2005 Grant Awarded ($1,975): August 3, 2005 Interim Report Received: December 20, 2005 Grant Awarded ($10,045): May 16, 2006 Final Report Received: September 29, 2006 Phillippines: A Proposal to Establish the Society for Conservation GIS Project Lead: Sabino Padilla and the Philippine Chapter: SCGIS Pilipinas Grant Awarded ($2,000): August 3, 2005 Status Report Received: June 2006 Status Report Received: June 13, 2006 Brazil: GIS Community Building in Brazil: A Proposal to the SCGIS Project Lead: Adriana Paese, Conservation International Brazil Grant Awarded ($3,000): May 25, 2006 Status Report Received: December 14, 2007 20 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 Kenya: Promoting Application of GIS to Conservation in Kenya Phase II Project Lead: Lucy Waruingi SCGIS Kenya, African Conservation Centre Grant Awarded ($10,560): November 28, 2006 Grant Awarded ($5,045): May 29, 2007 Status Report Received: July 27, 2007 Status Report Received: March 12, 2008 Kenya: Promoting Application of GIS to Conservation in Kenya Phase III Project Lead: Lucy Waruingi SCGIS Kenya, African Conservation Centre Grant Awarded ($11,045): March 20, 2008 Final Report: Pending Cameroon: A Proposal to Facilitate the Development of a Society for Conservation GIS Chapter in Cameroon (2006) Project Lead: Nsoyuni Ayenika Lawrence Coordinator, Global Forest Watch – Cameroon Grant Awarded ($5,000): December 14, 2006 Interim Report Received: January 29, 2007 Status Report Received: January 1, 2008 Final Report: Pending Philippines: A Proposal for the Activities of Society for Conservation GIS Philippine Chapter: SCGIS Pilipinas (2006) Project Lead: Collaboration Grant Awarded ($13,595): March 7, 2007 Final Report: Pending Brazil: GIS Community Building in Brazil: A Proposal to the SCGIS Project Lead: Adriana Paese, Conservation International Brazil Grant Awarded ($8,045): December 21, 2007 Final Report: Pending Russia: Development of GIS for Effective Protection of Biodiversity of Altaisky, SayanoShushensky, Khakassky and Ubsunurskay Kotlovina Nature Reserves, Russia Project Lead: Mikhail Paltsyn, Arkhar NGO, Altai Republic, Russia Grant Awarded ($11,845): March 31, 2008 Final Report: Pending Kenya: SCGIS International Committee Kenya Mission Report 2006 Project Lead: Kevin Johnston, PhD Grant Awarded ($2,000): May 25, 2006 Status Report Received: Oct 2006 Nepal: SCGIS International Committee Nepal Mission Report 08 Project Lead: Kevin Johnston, PhD Grant Awarded ($2,312): Oct 2008 Status Report Received: December 16, 2008 21 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 Evaluate Reports to Improve and Modify Program The design of an evaluation and improvement process is complete As described in the "Organize Annual Progress Reports from Scholars" goal above, all scholar and leader status reports are reviewed and discussed in a year-round schedule of review meetings of the entire SCGIS international committee and officers to determine how country programs are going and what specifically needs to be encouraged or supplemented in each case In addition, scholars and leaders are in daily communication with Sasha Yumakaev, program coordinator In 2006, Mr Yumakaev was elected to the board of directors of the Society for Conservation GIS along with several former international scholars ESRI and Moore Foundation travel funds were used to send training staff and coordinators to other countries where needed for chapter support, courses and SCGIS coordination In addition, scholars have spontaneously set up internet discussion groups, internet messaging groups, and internet phone (Skype) groups, which appear to be getting steady use in the six months following the 2006 program Depending on how these are able to persist and be useful to the local groups we are considering several forms of support to them Yahoo! groups created and used by SCGIS scholars: Scholars 2003: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scgis2003/ Scholars 2004 (California group): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCGIS-IS2004 Scholars 2005: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scgis2005 Scholars 2006 (SCGIS conference group): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scgis2006s Scholars 2006 (ESRI conference group): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scgis2006e Chapter Websites, Blogs and Forums: SCGIS Kenya listserv: SCGIS-KENYA@listserv.uri.edu SCGIS Kenya website: http://www.scgiskenya.org SCGIS Slovenia website: http://www.scgis-si.org SCGIS Russia, forum at the web resource GIS Lab: http://gis-lab.info/forum/viewforum.php?f=9 SCGIS Russia, online form for SCGIS Scholarship Program applications submission: http://gislab.info/projects/scgis/apply.html SCGIS Brazil listserv SCGIS Philippines (SCGIS Pilipinas): http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/scgispilipinas/  Evaluate Impact on Local Conservation NGOs Anecdotal evidence from status reports indicates a high and growing level of involvement in the new SCGIS chapters by other local NGOs Attendance at new SCGIS chapter events is in the dozens to hundreds of local conservation activists Local chapter memberships are reported to be in the hundreds There is a great deal of anecdotal and project description data in our detailed applications which could be harvested for all kinds of qualitative or even quantitative work However, we know that it is possible to build a more rigorous GIS-based dataset that will integrate donor expenditures, national policy, land use changes and conservation NGO ground activities We feel this would provide a potent tool to aid in the assessment of grant effectiveness, more direct linkages to grant outcomes and more capable visualizations of conservation problems in relation to NGO activities We have been unsuccessful thus far in building this foundation primarily due to shortages in resources and time This program is being operated without any core funded staff; instead it relies on the ability of ESRI and The Nature Conservancy to allow staff time to work on this program ESRI is already providing the equivalent time of more than two full time employees; even at that rate we are barely able to keep up with the core basics of operating the scholarship program and annual reporting Any new development of databases, analyses and quantitative assessments of the type described here are currently beyond our budgeted capabilities 22 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 In Detail, Output C: SCGIS International Program Support  Support and Strengthen SCGIS operations, coordination and international training through increased membership by 50% and increased membership renewals by 50% EXCEEDED AUG 08  Raise an additional $100,000 (or FTE equivalent) to support SCGIS capacity building programs EXCEEDED AUG 08 Overview of Activities General program support was somewhat limited in the first year due to the demands of the expanded Scholarship program and initiation of the Leadership program In our second year we had notable success in the areas of fundraising and partnership development We are pleased to have obtained over $60,000 of inkind labor, equipment, and transportation resources from ESRI, as well as a cash grant of $18,000 from the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service to fund Latin American scholars in 2006 These grants bring us 80 percent of the way to reaching our three year goal of raising $100,000 to support SCGIS operations Other support included sending a representative to the first GIS user group meeting held in mainland China We are especially pleased about a new partnership between SCGIS and the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), which resulted in SCGIS sending trainers and recruitment materials to the 2005 SCB Conference in Brazil, and organizing a joint SCB/SCGIS Conference for 2006 in San Jose, CA We are hopeful that this partnership will lead to increased membership and support from this larger, more established, and complementary sister organization  Support and Strengthen SCGIS operations through increased membership by 50 percent and increased membership renewals by 50 percent EXCEEDED AUG 08 Due to the popularity of the expanded international program, we were able to increase membership and renewals by over 300 percent over the course of the grant, a six-fold improvement over the 50 percent increase hoped for As of May, 2005: SCGIS International Membership = 271 This date is close to the commencement of the program, as far as the other members of the SCGIS are concerned, and is suitable as a baseline for measuring achievement over the three years of the program As of February, 2006: SCGIS International Membership = 383 As of February, 2007: SCGIS International Membership = 746 63 new members were added from the 2006 Scholarship Program, and the four international chapters are now reporting that they have from 50 to 100 members each As of December 2008: SCGIS International Membership = 783 Official membership figures increased to 583 and international chapter members not yet in the database estimated at about 200 based on repeat attendance at chapter events In addition to the significant membership growth, this area of program activity also built stronger logistical support for the annual SCGIS international conference This conference grew from its origins with 30 people to nearly 200 people relying solely on volunteers led by a dedicated overall volunteer coordinator, Susan Miller of The Nature Conservancy The growing size of the SCGIS conference and its international scholar activities has required finding additional dedicated conference support staff Beginning in 2005, ESRI provided professional conference organizing support in-kind grant to the Moore Foundation/SCGIS partnership ESRI Publications/Printing Grants and web services for SCGIS Conferences, newsletters and conference printed materials $11,357 ESRI A/V equipment Grants $6,500 23 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 ESRI Other conference support Grants $9,000 Another focus was supporting Prashant Hedao, the SCGIS international networks coordinator, to take advantage of any strategic conference presentation and chapter networking opportunities that might be appropriate A third area was support for Conservation GIS training at the Society for Conservation Biology annual meetings in Brazil, the U.S and South Africa With help from ESRI, trainers were arranged to teach GIS classes at these meetings, and SCGIS materials were handed out ESRI donated all of the support costs in this case, at a total estimated value of $36,000 ESRI also supported advanced analytical staff to conduct Conservation GIS training workshops under the "Conservation GIS Missions Program" described above  Raise Additional $100,000 (or Equivalent) Overall we were able to raise an additional $132,000 in matching grants and an additional $2.1 million in inkind technology grants, representing a manifold improvement over the original goal The ESRI contributions have been described in detail above As an example of the kinds of third party cash donors we secured is the following list of donors and amounts from the 2006 program year: Trust for Mutual Understanding $8,000 Christensen Fund $1,500 US Fish & Wildlife Service $18,000 Birdlife International/BP Conservation Program, $1,150 Private contributions $555 SCGIS contributions: $24,082 Scholars’ contributions: $15,615 ESRI Equipment rental, Van rentals, Travel funding $120,000 Total $188,902 The Nature Conservancy has long been a supporter and leader of SCGIS programs and operations, including the FTE (Full Time Equivalent) time of two past presidents and two committee chairs (Annual Conference and Communications) Through this grant, The Nature Conservancy provided substantial support in terms of grant administration and oversight, as well as program design and evaluation This support was on the order of approximately $20,000 this year Summary The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation grant for the International Conservation GIS Capacity Building Partnership has provided the foundation for the success of this important program Through 2008, we have trained 152 individuals from around the world in the technology that will allow them to build biodiversity conservation capacity in their home countries Thanks to your support, we now have GIS leaders and practitioners building communities of professionals; adapting technology and strategies for appropriate use in their particular cultural, governmental, and natural environments; and expanding the potential of GIS technology throughout the conservation world One outcome, in particular, has greater significance than originally expected: the program’s ability to inspire a level of dedication and passion for conservation biology and GIS technology that is unprecedented Both scholars and leaders have reported not only an increase in their knowledge and capacity, but also a lifechanging experience The program’s ability to help talented but sometimes overwhelmed individuals become committed professional leaders in the conservation community will certainly help advance the field of biodiversity conservation well into the future The importance of the presence, partnership, and commitment of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in our ability to leverage additional donations also cannot be overstated Your support continues to be instrumental in our ability to gain the interest, trust, and funding of third party donors and participants We 24 Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation Grant 684 December 2008 are extremely grateful for your ongoing collaboration, and for your vision and leadership in this vitally important initiative 25 ... Forums: SCGIS Kenya listserv: SCGIS-KENYA@listserv.uri.edu SCGIS Kenya website: http://www.scgiskenya.org SCGIS Slovenia website: http://www.scgis-si.org SCGIS Russia, forum at the web resource GIS. .. biodiversity conservation, by developing and supporting a global community of conservation GIS practitioners." This partnership between The Nature Conservancy, the Society for Conservation GIS (SCGIS)... Recruit 21 Conservation GIS Leadership Candidates: EXCEEDED AUG 08 In support of the SCGIS International Committee, we recruited advanced Ph.D Conservation GIS volunteers to conduct Conservation