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)
1
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 do 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 do 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
2
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
3
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.
4
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.
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.
5
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.
6
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
 2 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
7
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.
8
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 do 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 do
things you know they won’t have time or ability to do.
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 do 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 do 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.
9
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 do 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.
10
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
11
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.
12
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:
1. Ability to write a detailed workplan and understand the tasks and costs associated with mounting a
successful GIS technology project.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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 do SCGIS projects.
5. 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 do
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.
13
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 do 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 do 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:
Leader travel budget
$1,975
Grant Awarder 2005:
Provisional Chapter Budget
$8,005
Grant Awarded 2005:
$4,000
$1,975
$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
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
14
Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation
Grant 684
December 2008
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)
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)
15
Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation
Grant 684
December 2008
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. 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.
16
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."
17
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 8 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
18
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
19
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.
20
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
ESRI Other conference support Grants
$9,000
21
Year Three Report to the Moore Foundation
Grant 684
December 2008
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
are extremely grateful for your ongoing collaboration, and for your vision and leadership in this vitally
important initiative.
22