Navigation:  2017 Scholar Project  2017Conference   ReferenceProject   CommunitiesPage   ConservationGIS  Scgis.org              Yogendra K Karna , University of Melbourne/Nepal Ministry Forests  xForest xPPP   xPublicParticipation Planning  xPlan  xCommunity  xResources   X2017Scholar  x2017Talk  xTalk  xScholar  xNepal  xAsia *-Organization name: School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne *-Organization full street address (in your local format): 4 Water Street, Creswick, Victoria 3363, Australia Parent Organization (Previous Employer): Department of Forests, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Kathmandu, Nepal *-Organization full mailing address, if different: *-Country: Australia *-Work phone with country and area code: +61353214257 OR +61410207191 *-Work fax with country and area code: *-Main email: ykarna@student.unimelb.edu.au *-Organization Web site URL if any: http://ecosystemforest.unimelb.edu.au/ *-ORGANIZATION’S WORK Presently, I am a Ph.D. student at The University of Melbourne, Australia but have worked for Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Government of Nepal for 18 years before joining the University. Therefore, I am going to describe my parent organization which is a government agency and mainly established for the conservation, management, and planning of forest resources in overall countries. It works for local communities, district level stakeholders to the national level organization and aims to conserve and manage the your personal role in the organization: While working as a DFO in Dolpa, one of the remotest areas of Nepal, there were significant issues of the sustainable and equitable harvest of Yarsagumba (Ophiocordyceps sinensis). Harvest and sale of Yarsagumba is a primary source of subsistence income for local people and revenue generation for government. However, residents were deprived of the benefits from the harvest of Cordyceps, since outsiders from adjoining districts encroach their areas and collect the Cordyceps illegally before maturity. Therefore, I developed a management plan and a guideline for the sustainable and equitable harvest of   Corcyceps, which is widely followed even to this day in Dolpa. Before the formalization of the management plan and the guideline, a comprehensive consultation was carried out with many different stakeholders such as collectors, traders, forest officials, Forest Users, Forest entrepreneurs, District Development Committee, Village Development Committees, local politicians, etc. Detailed resource inventory including social data collection, group discussions, and feedback sessions was conducted before finalization and approval from the government. I have accomplished the work in ensuring the equitable and sustainable harvest of Cordyceps for the locals, which will ultimately enhance the livelihood of the rural population. This hard work was well appreciated by local users, district level organizations, DoF and MFSC. I have worked in DoF as an Assistant Planning Officer for 20 months looking after the detailed planning process for the nationally   prioritized forestry development programs. Earlier, plans were formulated based on incomplete information and data in the absence of a proper database. I developed the first Forest MIS with the spatial database, which facilitated in speeding up the planned activities and delivering efficient and effective regular progress reporting system. I frequently visited the districts where conducted several GIS training from a grassroots level which involves the participation of field level staff as well as community workers who use this skill for the optimization of conservation of the forest resources at local and district level. history of your personal work in conservation and GIS: I had a dream from the beginning of my career to conserving and manage forest resources using RS and GIS as one of the vibrant and efficient tools which were only possible seven years ago when I was   posted in one of the District Forest Office. At that time, I took part in 15 day GIS training and accelerate myself the skill of GIS to integrate with local level conservation of forest resources, for example,delineating the hotspot of the threatened plant and wild animals in the districts. It develops my expertise for further exploration of GIS skills and knowledge as well as the use of this understanding in the field of forestry which ultimately conserve the resource to manage it sustainably and benefit the local people in the long run. After a couple of years, I was offered a scholarship to do my Master of Science Degree in NRM with GIS specialization which boosted up my knowledge in regular series.   After completing my MSc degree, I was planning to involve in a project which could design the spatial database and enhances the   governance system of the Ministry of Forests through the application of GIS and RS techniques. Thus, I drove myself towards planning the project with support from donor agencies such as DFID, SWISS, and Finland government. It was a great platform to develop my expertise as well as contribute to the conservation and management of the forest resources in the district. In the first year, I have planned a pilot project entitled as "Digital Demarcation and Mapping" in 2014 with the aim of developing the database and analyzing the data for updating the status of different forest management regime of the districts. From the next year, I have planned through the regular budget with the contribution of local people for delineation of several forest management system such as community forests, leasehold forest, protected forests, hotspots, encroachment area, etc. It provided the robust database and several thematic as well as individual forest type maps of each of the forests in the districts. Those maps and   database are still stored in the central server of the Department of Forests, Ministry of Forests and local Forest offices, as well as the community, forests offices in the district.   Thus, I am confident with the work that I could have done with the support from the local level to central level and move towards the conservation of the forest's resources from encroachment which will provide the maps of each forest types in the district that can be accessible from the concerned agencies and local offices. connection to the local SCGIS chapter:I had recently made contact with the Nepal SCGIS chapter and committed to being connected and involved in this chapter. Furthermore, I have already a member of Nepal GIS Society and Nepal Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society and recently been a member of SCGIS from January 2017. I have been contributing to GIS training, data sharing, tutoring and mentoring the GIS interested people, student and community in Nepal which provides me a tremendous opportunity to learn the several aspects of conservation issues and its solution through GIS platforms. what is the most unique and the most challenging about your work: . The most uniqueness and innovation of the work is an aggregation of all the data of the several forest management regime, threatened and vulnerable hotspots and forest   resource status which can be readily used by the local people, district forestry officers, community users, decision makers, researchers and students from one platform for different purposes. Nepal being a developing country has a weak implementation of research findings due to the financial constraints. There are less capable and competent human resources of implementing the new technology and knowledge. Lack of sufficient budget to implement the innovative techniques coupled with unpredictable bureaucratic procedures may inhibit me from achieving the envisaged tasks   successfully and on time. 2017 Conference Paper : "Development of participatory GIS approach for digital demarcation, database design, and update of several   forest management regime of Nepal." *-Abstract/summary:  Identification, demarcation and spatial database generation of several forest   management units remains a major challenge for long-term planning, administration, and monitoring work. The real status of these forest types both in socio-economic and geographic context is still unknown to the forest managers of the country. Hence, development of the geospatial database in a participatory approach are crucial for effective policies and planning, prioritizing interventions, valuation of forest resources and implementation of sustainable forest management. GIS is one of the promising and vibrant technology for planning, monitoring, and mapping of forest resources and its inventory. This paper aims to develop a community-based GIS approach for identification, digitization, and updating the database of several forest management regime of Nepal. Cadastral vector data, GPS data collected from the field, existing analog map and google earth imagery with expert knowledge and field verification was used for identification of different forest management regime of the district. Analog map prepared from Compass survey and google earth imagery was the prime source of data for digitization of the forest area. The grid sheet of the cadastral layer was used to find out the location and verification of the existing analog map. Geo-referencing in the ArcGIS software was mainly applied for co-registering the ground control points and delineation of the forest boundary. Field verification was carried out only for the unit which has more or less than 10% of the original forest area. This study introduced an integrated approach for delineation of several forest management regime by combining the community expert knowledge, GPS data, cadastral data and google earth as a base map. The study found that a geo-referenced cadastral data with the help of few ground control points can be readily used for the preparation of community forest map which was further stored in the geodatabase format of ArcGIS. The novel approach demonstrates a cost effective and efficient approach of digital demarcation of forests, development of geospatial infrastructure and generation of several thematic maps of the forest management regime with community participation. ... View more

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This is the SCGIS Global Scholarship Program application form with instructions. v.2020 Please read the instructions carefully before filling out and submitting your application. The form has changed this year, and we do not accept application forms from previous years! For more information on the SCGIS Scholarship Program and local Chapters see https://community.esri.com/groups/conservation-gis/projects/scgis-ttt-trainers/pages/2020scholars +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DEADLINES SUMMARY: DEADLINE TO SUBMIT APPLICATION TO YOUR CHAPTER/MENTOR FOR REVIEW:   FRIDAY DEC 27 th , 2019 DEADLINE FOR CHAPTER/MENTOR TO SUBMIT REVIEWED AND SCORED APPLICATIONS TO SCGIS GLOBAL: TUESDAY JAN 14 th , 2020 APPLICATION QUESTIONS: your local Chapter or Mentor, or mlotter@scgis.org , or mdiyan@scgis.org   *=== INTRODUCTION   The Society for Conservation GIS (SCGIS - http://www.scgis.org) Global Scholarship Program is not a typical scholarship program.  Rather, it is a support program that covers SOME of the costs to allow you to receive top level GIS training and attend and present your work at 1 of the best Conservation GIS conferences in the world: SCGIS. You will join a very tight-knit community of comrades as you will receive specialized 4-week training courses and attend the Esri UC and SCGIS conferences.  Local travel and accommodations will be simple so that we can afford to provide this opportunity annually. These support grants are PARTIAL in that you contribute some of the costs yourself, and you will be expected to do a lot of work as a scholar.  These grants are competitive in that your application will be considered in comparison to others, evaluating your work, your activism with NGO's and the conservation GIS community in your region, your needs, and your resources in relation to the environmental and economic issues of your region or country.  If our resources permit, these grants will also include software, books, and refurbished hardware, depending on your needs.   The specific amount of funding available for this year’s program hasn’t been clarified so the number of people who we will be able to award this year has not yet been determined. We do expect there will be a strong competition among the applications regardless of the program size decisions, so please study these guidelines and work hard to maximize your chances of selection.   Since the courses are conducted in English, and involve scientific and technical topics and often move quickly, they require a high level of English speaking fluency equivalent to attending university in an English-speaking country.   Therefore participants are required to be competent in written and spoken English.  In the below application form, you will need to demonstrate your proficiency or be prepared to be interviewed where your proficiency can be assessed. We have just found that those applicants who struggle with English are unable to take full advantage of the program at the expense of someone else you can.   In 2020, our program will span 6 weeks, covering the tentative dates June 19 - July 29, 2020.  Successful applicants would need to arrive on ether June 17 or 18 and depart on July 30. The program is located at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) from June 19 - Jul 5, then moves to the SCGIS and Esri User Conferences July 6-17. After this the group will move to Esri in Redlands, California from July 19-29 for cloud, online & conservation solution apps training.   The program will focus on the ArcGIS platform, including ArcGIS Pro, covering the complete scope of professional skills and practices needed to master this platform. Prior familiarity with ArcGIS is required such as self-taught skills or college courses.  The program will begin with some introductory material and progress rapidly to many intermediate to advanced topics including Geodatabase Management, Project Management, and Analysis.  The Esri Redlands segment will cover online GIS, webmapping, storymaps, field apps and Protected Area Management Solutions.  All courses will be taught by professional GIS instructors. In addition to teaching course modules, the instructors will work with each scholar individually on their specific GIS projects (please see details below in the instructions).     Besides the training, the group of SCGIS scholarship awardees will attend two GIS conferences: the 23 rd annual SCGIS Conference, held on July 7-10 in Monterey, California, and the 40th annual Esri International User Conference (UC) held on July 13-17 in San Diego, California.   The Esri UC is the largest GIS event in the world. Each year it brings together over 19,000 attendees from all over the world, providing an opportunity for GIS practitioners of all levels and backgrounds to meet, network, and learn about the most recent developments in GIS technology. The Environmental track plays an important role at the conference, attracting conservation GIS professionals and raising awareness about GIS in conservation among the general conference audience.  The annual SCGIS Conference is attended by approximately 100–200 conservation GIS activists, providing a convenient venue for the attendees to meet and have focused discussions on applying GIS in the field of conservation.   In 2020 our program will continue its partnership with Esri for core funding, and major conservation groups for additional funding and support, including Conservation International and The World Wildlife Fund Education for Nature program (WWF EFN).  EFN is a global program that provides professional training grants to deserving conservationists from the following countries: http://www.worldwildlife.org/projects/professional-development-grants-pdgs LATIN AMERICA: Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname ASIA: Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam AFRICA: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Dem. Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Republic of Congo, Uganda, Zambia OCEANIA: Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands EFN grants fully include support for GIS training programs like ours and they have been very generous to the few prior scholars who qualified in the past.    (SCGIS is an independent all-volunteer international society supported by membership donations and grants from Esri, Juniper GIS, University of California, Davis, and other foundations, partners, and vendors)   *=== APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS   Scholarship application requirements are as follows:   1) Applicants must be involved with a NON-PROFIT CONSERVATION ORGANIZATION or a UNIVERSITY or Government Conservation Program in their region or country, and involved in the SCGIS CHAPTER OR CONSERVATION GIS COMMUNITY in their region.   2) SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING MATERIALS to your Chapter/Mentor by DEC 27, 2019: a) COMPLETED APPLICATION FORM (see below).   b) AN ABSTRACT OF YOUR PROPOSED PRESENTATION should be included in a special section of the application (see below).   c) AN EXAMPLE OF YOUR CONSERVATION GIS OR MAPPING WORK, which may include map screenshots, database structure description, or other mapping or GIS related works that YOU created.   3) CLOSING DATE: Your Chapter or Mentor is responsible for reviewing your application before submitting it to SCGIS International ON OR BEFORE JAN 14 th , 2020 ,  so it is best to get started right away!.  Applications may only be sent VIA E-MAIL to your local chapter, mentor or sponsor as explained in the “ *=== How to submit your application” section below     *=== ELIGIBILITY   Grants are generally made on a competitive basis to individuals outside of the U.S.A. and Canada, unless they are part of a local SCGIS Domestic Chapter or member of a tribal authority. Applicants need to work with GIS in conservation or environmental science, and are strongly involved with their local conservation GIS community. Preference goes to those who are working for or associated with a non-profit or non-government organization, whose GIS research serves as basis for direct conservation action, who can show some ability to find local funding for their work, and who show an ability to teach about conservation GIS to other non-profit organizations in their region or country.   If you were awarded a SCGIS scholarship in the past, but for some reason were unable to attend the program, you have to apply again this year if you want a scholarship. We currently do not roll over earlier awards to the following year. Your prior effort and acceptance will be taken into consideration; however, your new application will be in competition with an entirely new group so you may receive a different score this time.     While Prior SCGIS scholars are not eligible, they are nevertheless strongly encouraged to participate in the program as reviewers and mentors, helping spread the word to potential candidates, supporting their local SCGIS chapter, starting a new chapter, or applying to be an SCGIS trainer in the Train-the-Trainer program   *=== YOUR OBLIGATIONS IF SELECTED AS A SCHOLAR   Scholarship awardees will be required to do all of the following:   a) A ttend the scheduled training classes during the indicated time period, and come prepared to work on your specific GIS project during the training.  You will need to bring your GIS data and any other raw data you need to incorporate in your project (please see also training details in the form instructions below).  You will be expected to create an online map using ArcGIS.com, based on your work (you will learn how to do this in class).   b) Present a talk and a map poster at the SCGIS conference describing your conservation efforts and projects within your organization.   c) Instead of, or in addition to a conference talk/poster, you may also serve on the Storytelling project. Taking photos, helping interview others, filming at the map gallery, and creating public Storymaps about the scholars. Training and equipment is provided for all of these. If interested in this option please mention it, and please include any available samples or links to your prior photo or film work. Examples of prior scholar Storytelling work can be seen on the Storytelling pages https://bit.ly/2qWtC8t and the 2019 interview page: https://bit.ly/33IS6kh.   Examples of prior scholar profiles with their photo & film work can be seen at the TTT project pages https://bit.ly/2CK3mB4   d) Be available to volunteer to help with the SCGIS conference and the Sustainable World Showcase at the Esri User Conference. The volunteer assignment may include helping setup/teardow n of the Showcase and working at the SCGIS membership booth.  We expect recipients to volunteer for approximately 4 hours over the course of the conference.  Some work may take place during sessions, but we will accommodate volunteers so they can attend the sessions that are most important to them.  Details for volunteers will be provided shortly before the conference.   e) Be available for other scholarship support activities in the evenings and weekends.  During the entire program give priority to the SCGIS events and activities over any other events nearby that are of your personal interest.   f) Complete and submit 2 reports: Scholar's report is an informal account of your experiences as a scholar and is due toward the end of your travels. Scholarship Final report is a formal account of your work back home and is due a few months after you return home. It describes how you have applied the training, software and other items of your grant, with example maps and photos, and specific suggestions and criticisms for improving the program.  Specific requirements and due dates are finalized later.   g) R ead and respond quickly to many emails related to the program organization.  There will be about 20 emails from us with important announcements, and you will be expected to read and respond to them.  Failure to do so in a prompt manner can result in the disruption or even loss of portions of your grant.   h) Take time to read and view certain technical guides and tutorials that will help prepare you for the training including but not limited to downloading and licensing new software donations you will receive.     *=== SCGIS OBLIGATIONS TO YOU IF SELECTED AS A SCHOLAR           You will receive a combination of fee waivers, travel expenses and in-kind grants that can be worth over $10,000. The specific components of this grant are:   a) Tuition fees for GIS training (retail value $535 per person per day) are FULLY waived.   b) Attendance fees for the Esri User Conference ($1,695) and for SCGIS Annual Conference ($150) are FULLY waived.   c) Travel expenses are PARTIALLY covered, depending on your grant level, beginning when you leave to attend the program and ending when you return home from the program, including the following categories of costs: Lodging, Food, Air and Ground Transport. Each applicant's grant allocation will be different and many factors will go into determining the grant for each scholar.   d) Travel preparation expenses are NOT covered, including fees or travel expenses you must pay locally to obtain Visas or pick up air tickets.   e) Software and eBooks grant: As a scholar you will be encouraged to apply for a customized grant of software and eBooks through a separate, customized application process based on the Esri Conservation Program guidelines at https://www.esri.com/en-us/solutions/industries/sustainability/conservation/overview.  You will receive details about this if you are selected.     *=== GENERAL APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS   Please review above the list of materials that are expected from you. A properly and thoughtfully submitted application form is the essential part of the list, but the other parts are also important! Applications submitted without the other required materials will stand a much lower chance of award and may be disqualified.   Before filling out the application form, please read the section-by-section instructions below, and think carefully about the overall structure of your application.   Please DO NOT ERASE ANY OF THE QUESTIONS from the application form. If you believe a question is not applicable to you, just leave the answer area blank.  Please DO NOT APPLY CUSTOM FORMATTING to the application form, the reviewers will expect to see all applications in the same simple format as included at the end of this document.   You will see that many sections are labeled in the instructions as ‘very important’, and this is true – we really need detailed and thoughtful answers to most questions we are asking. The competition for SCGIS scholarships is very tight, and if you limit your answers to short general phrases this will reduce your chances of winning a scholarship award.   Your application must be written in the English language.  Our training and conferences are all conducted in English and all successful applicants need to be proficient in conversational English. We feel strongly about successful applicants being capable of understanding and reading English so as to benefit from this fast-paced training. We will therefore require either an online certificate indicating your level of proficiency or an interview.   As indicated above, part of the application process is demonstrating your ability to pay some of the costs.   It is important for the applicants to make a very strong effort to supply as much of their own funding for travel as possible.  Preference will be given to those who make a sincere effort to obtain some of their own funding.  Accordingly, the applicant must supply information about additional funding they have been able to or hope to secure.  If you cannot pay anything, you will need to provide strong evidence about the financial circumstances of yourself, your organization, your country.  Each year we do make some grants to scholars who are unable to contribute anything, but the majority of the grants we make go to applicants who are able to contribute an amount that is appropriate and sustainable given their financial circumstances.    When you commit in your application to contribute an amount, it is a serious commitment, and if you are selected as a scholar, we expect you to honor that commitment to pay.  If you cannot, and you have not been in regular communication with us about your circumstances, then parts of your grant will be withdrawn.   If you have to use abbreviations in your application, such as names of organizations or projects, please clearly decipher these abbreviations before using them. Also, if you are referring to any local landmarks (a mountain name, a region name, a park name etc.), please provide a brief explanation of what these landmarks are and why they are significant.  Remember, your application will be reviewed by experts working in many different parts of the world, and an abbreviation or a landmark name that are a routine part of your daily work may not sound so familiar to a person living on the other side of the globe.   If you need more explanations or help in understanding the form, please contact the local SCGIS Chapter or conservation GIS community leaders.     *=== SECTION-BY-SECTION INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPLETING FORM   We designed these instructions with the intention to help you better understand specifics of our program and to guide you how to present yourself and your work the best way possible.   Please take advantage of this – read and follow the instructions carefully.   Remember, the following is not the application form; these are instructions only.  Please do not fill the form fields within these instructions.  Please do fill out and submit the actual form that follows AFTER the instructions, at the very end of this document ( Ctrl+click here to jump to the application form at the end of this document).   [ORGANIZATION DATA] *-Organization name: *-Organization full street address (in your local format): *-Organization full mailing address, if different: *-Country: *-Work phone with country and area code: *-Work fax with country and area code: *-Main email: *-Organization Web site URL if any: *-Name & email of your direct manager or faculty advisor: Please provide information about the organization, university or conservation project with which you are affiliated. If applying as an individual, you can enter your own name here, but you must still complete the contact data section in full.   Address formats are different in many countries. Please fill out the address fields the way you find appropriate. There are two separate fields for the address. Mailing address may be different if your organization prefers P.O. Box delivery. However, we need your actual street address as well.   This information may be shared with a third party only if we ask for and receive your special permission.   *-Organization subject keywords (please see instructions): Please use any eight of the following keywords that best describe or characterize your job description, organization, university program or project. Please also feel free to add any other keywords relevant to the organization activities!   admin, advocacy, agriculture, air quality, alternate energy, analysis, anthropology, aquatic, archeology, biodiversity, biology, birds, botanic garden, botany, caves karst, climate, climate change, coast, conservation, conservation planning, core-corridor, critical sites, database design, data center, data integration, data science, data source, desertification, ecology, education, emergency, envir education, envir justice, envir law, epidemiology, fire, first nations, fish, forest, GAP analysis, geology, greenways, haz mat, health, herptiles, history, hydrology, insects, inventory, invertebrates, landscape analysis, land trust, mammals, marine, mediation, mitigation, modeling, monitoring, museum, parks, planning policy, pollution, populations, protected areas, protected area planning, open space, ranch, recreation, recycling, remote sensing, restoration, river, soil, species, statistics, sustainable development, trails, tribal, vegetation, water, water quality, watersheds, web, wetlands, wildlife,  wildlife protection, wilderness, youth.   *-Confidential: your organization's last year total budget: *-Confidential: your last year's total GIS program budget: Please enter your best estimates of your last year total organizational or program budget, and your best estimate of last year's total GIS budget including hardware, software, salaries and maintenance. Please feel free to include any comments if you think they will help us better understand your situation.   This information shall remain confidential and shall not be shared with any third party.   [APPLICANT] *-Your first name: *-Your second name or surname: *-Your honorific (e.g. Mr., Ms., Dr.): *-Your Gender Identity (e.g. male, female, other): *-Your age in years: *-Your date of birth: *-Your preferred informal name or by what name should we call you: *-Your Nationality / Country of your passport: *-Do you have a valid passport that will not expire before the end of 2020(not a requirement): *-Do you have a valid visa to enter the USA (not a requirement): *-Your current country of residence: *-Your direct address if different: *-Your direct cell number: *-Your direct skype, whatsapp or other internet chat ID: *-Your direct email address(es): *-Are you currently enrolled to study at a university or college: *-If a student, give the name of your degree program and expected year of graduation:   *-Your job title or role in your current organization or program: *-Number of years you have been with your current organization/program/university: *-Do you have permission from your employer or faculty to participate in the proposed program? *-Your own interest keywords (please see instructions):   Please provide all personal information requested. Be sure to provide different ways to call you directly, especially cell phone and skype, whatsapp or chat ID’s.  (skype and whatsapp are the main apps used by SCGIS International.)   You can provide your full name to any extent that you find appropriate. The format is completely flexible, and it does not have to be exactly ‘full’ in legal terms. The diversity of naming traditions in the world is amazing, and the order that people use for family names and given names, the number of names, the name pronunciation, the name that is actually used in the society to refer to a person; all these can be different in different cultures on different continents. We respect your right to represent yourself to colleagues by the form of your name that is most comfortable for you.  SCGIS activists are constantly learning about these traditions from meeting international scholars, however, there is always something new for us to learn. Please understand that if in our communication we misinterpret your name by accident, we do not mean any offence. You can help us better understand you if you provide your preferred “informal” name for cases where using full name is unnecessary. The format for the “informal” name is completely open to your choice. You may leave this field blank if you want.   For your interest keywords, please select 8 words from the list of keywords above (see ORGANIZATION section), plus any missing keywords that you would like to include.   This information may be shared to a third party only if we ask for and receive your special permission.   *-Alternate contact full name: *-Alternate honorific (i.e. Mr., Ms., Dr.): *-Alternate contact direct phone number(s): *-Alternate contact direct email address(es): *-Alternate contact job title, role or relationship to you: Please provide contact details for an alternate contact person. We may ask this person to convey important information to you when you are in the field or out of contact for some other reason. These contact details will not be used for any other purpose, and will not be shared with any third party.   [TRANSPORTATION] *-Your departure airport to travel to the U.S.: Please let us know what airport you will be flying from if you travel to California, USA (the first airport in your entire trip). This helps us better understand your actual travel needs. If possible, please provide the 3-letter international code for your airport.   *- Total ROUNDTRIP airfare in U.S. dollars: Different parts of our program will be located in several distinct geographical areas: the training part will be held at the University of California, Davis, 80 miles northeast of San Francisco. The training will end in Redlands and Los Angles will be your best departure airport.  If you are selected as a scholar, SCGIS will arrange and cover transportation between these locations, but please be aware that there is a great distance between the opening and closing events of the program (the training and the Esri conference in San Diego, respectively) that takes a full day of travel.    We encourage you to base your itineraries on arrival in San Francisco (SFO) on June 17 and departure from Los Angeles (LAX).  Upon your arrival, the biggest international airport is SFO but scholars often find better fares to either of the 3 alternate international airports, Sacramento International (SMF) is the closest to the actual training location so you might start your search there.  Oakland (OAK) and San Jose (SJC) are both smaller international airports near SFO.  Multi-leg airfares with different arrival and departure airports can sometimes be considerably more expensive than simple roundtrip options.   It is very typical for big urban areas in the U.S. to have several airports, which is why we are asking you to research on different options.  For UC Davis, Sacramento (SMF) is in a very close proximity, and will be the most convenient to arrive in.  The next best choice is San Francisco International (SFO), and airfares to the larger SFO may be significantly cheaper than to the other, smaller airports.  Oakland (OAK) is about as far from UC Davis as San Francisco, and selection of flights will most likely be more limited than with the other two airports, however, in some cases you may be able to find more affordable airfares.   For your departure airport, Los Angeles (LAX) will probably be the most affordable however Ontario (ONT) airport is the closest to Redlands. You should get a quote on departing on the 30 July 2020.   Please research all possible travel options. This will allow you to identify the most cost-efficient way, and will provide you with back-up options in case you have to re-arrange your plans.   In your airfare research, please use June 17-18 for arrival in California (but not arriving in California later than 16:00 in evening to allow you to get to Davis), and July 30-31 for departure.    International airfares are not cheap, but please research for reasonable economy class options. SCGIS will not fund first-class or business-class travel. Sometimes opting for a flight with 1 or 2 stopovers might save you a significant amount of money compared to a non-stop direct flight. On the other hand, sometimes non-stop flights on a smaller airline are cheaper than flights with stopovers on a major international carrier.   We ask that you provide detailed cost estimates for as many itinerary options as reasonably possible. A demonstrated effort in trying to optimize the travel costs will be taken into consideration when we select the scholarship awardees. Your application form reviewer will in all likelihood check and confirm your quotation/estimates.   Please provide all airfares for a ROUNDTRIP, and in the U.S. Dollars, not in your local currency.   If you have to bear significant costs for traveling to the nearest airport, please indicate these costs separately in this section, too.   *-Airfare amount you can pay yourself (in U.S. Dollars): *-Airfare amount requested from SCGIS (in U.S. Dollars): Typically, we expect our applicants to cover a part of their travel costs, through additional fundraising or other resources. In very rare cases, we provide a full airfare, but to be eligible you must provide a thorough explanation in the justification section (below). We really appreciate every effort you make to cover at least some portion of the costs. In these two lines, please indicate (in U.S. Dollars) what part of the airfare costs you are able to cover, and what part you would like SCGIS to cover.   [ACCOMMODATION] *-Accommodation/Food/Local Transport costs that you can pay (in U.S. Dollars): If you are awarded a SCGIS scholarship, you will spend around 6 weeks in the U.S.  Typically, this may cost over $6,000 in expenses for accommodation, food, and local transport.  SCGIS volunteers work hard to reduce costs through finding discounts, ride sharing, affordable cooking options etc.  This allows us to reduce these per person costs to $3,000 on average. However, we greatly appreciate it when scholars are able to raise funds to cover a portion of these costs. Please indicate how much you can afford to contribute for covering these expenses.   *-Will you share a private home? *-Will you share a motel room?  *-Will you camp? *-Do you need to borrow camping equipment? One of the ways for us to reduce lodging costs is to provide accommodation at SCGIS activists’ homes, sharing hotel and dorm rooms, or sometimes even tents where conditions permit.   This year, as our training will be held at UC Davis and Redlands, most of your accommodations will be in the homes of people supporting the program.  During the conferences, accommodation will be offered in hotels and hotel-like facilities; however, there will be no single person occupancy options.   Please let us know about your willingness to accept various accommodation options. If for some reason you are not willing to accept a certain option, please don’t hesitate to explain. If you can bring your own sleeping bag and pad, please also indicate here.   *-Any special notes regarding Accommodation/Food/Local Transport in California: If you have any health or other conditions that require special food or lodging please let us know (this will not influence our award decision, but will help us better plan logistics for the group).  Also, please feel free to tell us anything regarding local accommodation or food or transport arrangements in California that you think we should know about. Do you have any allergies?   [GIS EXPERTISE LEVEL / COURSES] *-Describe your current GIS capability/expertise: In open format, please explain your current GIS expertise / capability level.  This section can include any GIS software (with version number) that you have used; a brief explanation of GIS methods and workflows that you apply in your work; data formats that you have worked with; any experience with web GIS technologies; any experience with extending GIS software with your own scripts and modules created in programming languages such as R, Python, Visual Basic, C and so on.  Please make sure that you not only list the GIS technologies you are familiar with, but also the level of familiarity with that.  We encourage you to use specific examples of your work if that helps you better explain your current ability to use GIS.   *-How are you currently learning GIS? Learning GIS is challenging! Some people are self-taught, some are able to enroll in a class or workshop, some get help from organizations or dedicated individuals who support nonprofit users in building GIS capacity through providing software, hardware, training, and general mentorship until the GIS program reaches maturity in the organization.  Please let us know your story of how you have been learning the GIS technology. We encourage you to mention any mentors that help you in this.   *-What GIS training are you interested in? (PLEASE SEE INSTRUCTIONS!): In a free essay form, please share with us your thoughts on the directions in which you would like to develop your GIS skills. Feel free to explain what difficulties of any nature you have encountered in your GIS work so far, what specific technical knowledge you think you’re missing to progress in GIS, and anything else concerning your GIS training needs.  Please try to avoid listing any specific course titles offered by any vendor as your training needs in this section.  Our training program is custom built for the group, even though parts of it may have commonality with some commercially offered courses.  Therefore, we are largely interested in your own, personal vision of your desired advancement in GIS, and more detailed and focused explanations will help us better tailor the training program to your specific needs.   Here is a brief outline of the materials that will be the foundation of the training program that will be offered:   ArcGIS Pro module The course will begin with teaching core and advanced ArcGIS Pro skills based on courses developed by the company Juniper GIS. All the materials and project scenarios in the class revolve around conservation themes and data. There will also be a very strong emphasis on students’ individual projects. We’ve found in the past that the real learning comes when you apply the classroom lessons to your own projects, because with GIS, each project is unique.   All the students will go through the same program, so there is a common base. Faster students will be expected to help the less experienced students and to tackle more advanced projects.  This is similar to taking a dual-level course in college where both undergrads and grad students take the same course, but more is expected of the graduate students.   The course will be taught in a “GIS Camp” format. What we mean by this is that while there will be a regular schedule, we don’t expect learning to stop at the end of the day, or only be confined to the classroom. In past years, much of the learning came from student and instructor interactions outside the formal classroom structure. The first week and a half will be more structured, but after that, more emphasis will be put on scholars’ projects, with time to work on presentations.   The ArcGIS Pro training will be based on the course ArcGIS for Environmental Analysis described at https://junipergis.com/class-descriptions/#environment, and on elements of other courses from Juniper GIS, and will be taught using ArcGIS Pro.  Descriptions for these classes can be found at: https://www.junipergis.com/training/class-descriptions. This is the material that was used successfully at previous years' training and has been taught to hundreds of students.   Here is a brief outline of the tentative agenda for the Esri Redlands training program   Web GIS: Using the ArcGIS Platform At the end of the Desktop GIS training, all the students will get a chance to further advance their knowledge by learning about the capabilities of ArcGIS as a platform beyond the Desktop limits.  The course will teach how to share maps, data, and GIS analysis (the results from the class project) by creating and publishing high-performing ArcGIS Online services that can be accessed from desktop computers, web browsers and mobile devices.   This course will also explore the mapping capabilities that ArcGIS offers for integration with non-GIS software packages, and will provide an introduction to ArcGIS Pro, the new desktop client software by Esri. A variety of field apps will also be taught as well as Storymaps.   After scholars have been accepted, our instructors will contact them and we will do our best to modify or add onto the modules above to try to meet everyone’s needs.   Student Projects This is a very important part of the course. Scholars will bring any current or planned projects and data with them, and provide an outline of the project, any problems, data needs, questions and expected outcomes, in advance.  These materials will be a foundation of the scholars’ advancement by applying the knowledge you gain in lectures and exercises to your real life data, with help from our instructors.  If you are new to GIS and don’t have a project, ask your organization what they need, and try to outline a vision of what you need to achieve using GIS.  The more you can tell us about your needs, the better we can focus the course for you. The goal is that at the end of this time scholars will have a completed or well-started project so they can really have something solid as a result. These personal projects will also be a foundation for the students’ individual ArcGIS Online applications built in the class.     *-Please describe your online access and web GIS capacity: We would like to better understand the context in which you may be applying online GIS technologies.  In this section, we ask that you describe the ways you access internet in your work. What is your connection type – cable, mobile, anything else?  What is your connection speed? Do you have any expertise with administering a server? How reliable is the internet connection that you use? Please feel free to talk about both good things and challenges that are related to your online capacity.   *-Please describe your fluency in SPOKEN English” *-Have then taken any English tests to assess your spoken and written English:   Since the courses are conducted in English, involve scientific and technical topics, and often move quickly, they require a high level of English speaking fluency equivalent to attending university in an English-speaking country.  Please provide a short assessment of your ability to express yourself and understand others in spoken English (e.g. if you have had an experience travelling or working abroad or in your country where you needed to communicate in English). Part of the review process for this question will include a short phone or skype call to verify your English ability so be sure to include your direct phone number and internet chat or skype contact, and let your reviewers know if you will be out of contact for any period of time. Or you will need to provide us with some form of English proficiently certification course that was taken online.   [REQUIRED BACKGROUND DATA] This is a VERY IMPORTANT section! In the following sub-sections, please try to be as detailed as possible. Remember, we can only make an award decision if we clearly understand the role that your organization and you play in the field of conservation, and if we understand the role of the GIS component in your work.   As we found out in the past, in these sections, applicants often use abbreviations and landmark names that are related to their work – please remember to explain these carefully, as suggested in the General Application Instructions above.   *-ORGANIZATION’S WORK: Please describe the work that your current organization does: Most applications we receive come from people affiliated with a conservation organization or a scientific research institution. In this subsection, we would like you to describe your organization’s work in general.   What kind of organization is it – NGO, protected area, university, etc.?  Is this a locally based grass-root organization, a local office of a larger organization, or something else?  What is the organization’s vision and mission statement, as applies to the local context?  What work does the organization specifically do, and what approaches does it utilize?  What is the history of the organization’s work in your area?  How does the organization cooperate locally with other organizations and communities?  Is it involved in any work on a broader geographic scale – involvement in joint projects, networks, receiving support from other regions, etc.?  Similarly, are there any international aspects of the organization’s work?      These questions are simply examples of the type of information that can be included in this section.  These are not mandatory questions to answer literally; and you shouldn’t feel confined to these questions only – again, these are just examples of what you could elaborate on in this section.  Please fill out this section in free form, don’t feel limited to the questions above, and be free to present your organization in the manner you consider the most beneficial.   If you are applying as an individual not employed by an organization you can use this section to describe the conservation projects you are currently involved in personally, using the same guidelines.   *-ROLE IN THE ORGANIZATION: Please describe your personal role in the organization: In this subsection, we would like you to focus on your specific role in your current organization or project.  How long have you been with this organization?  What are the projects within the organization that you are involved in now, and was involved in the past?  What are/were your specific duties in these projects?  Please include in this subsection anything that highlights your personal work, any personal success stories, etc.   *-HISTORY: Please describe the history of your personal work in conservation and GIS: We would like to know the general history of your involvement in conservation and GIS that might not necessarily be related to your current organization and its specific projects.  In this subsection, tell us your personal story!  Describe in free form anything in your life that is related to your interest and passion to the subjects of conservation and GIS.   If you are applying as an individual, it’s possible that all three subsections above (organization’s work, personal role, and personal history) will be tightly interweaved. In this case, please review the guidelines for all three subsections, and use these guidelines as applicable to you personally.  You can choose any one subsection to present yourself the best way, or distribute your story between the subsections if you consider this more appropriate.   *-ROLE IN THE LOCAL SCGIS CHAPTER: Please describe your connection to the local SCGIS chapter: Please tell us if you are connected to and involved in your local SCGIS chapter?  If there is no local SCGIS chapter, but there is an informal community of conservation GIS colleagues you are involved with, please don’t hesitate to describe that involvement here.    Please also feel free to tell us about any alternate connection to the SCGIS as a global organization even if this connection is not related to the local chapter.   *-TEACHING & LEADERSHIP: Please describe your experience in teaching conservation or GIS, and your leadership experience in any conservation or GIS projects or organizations: Please describe your experience in teaching conservation and/or GIS, the type of class, the kinds of students.  Please also describe any experience you have creating or leading a group or community related to conservation or GIS.     *-UNIQUE:  Please describe what is the most unique and the most challenging about the conservation/GIS work that you do: In this section, please tell us about the most exciting and the most difficult parts of your work. You can tell us about the obstacles you’re having in running your GIS projects. Also, please tell us anything you want about uniqueness of your work subject – remember, your reviewers may not be aware about the beauty of the region you are from and the threats to that region, about the species you work with, about your challenges, or about the specific approach you choose to address the conservation issues there.  This section is a good place to highlight everything that you think makes your work stand out.   *-PLAN: Please provide a 1-year plan for how you hope to apply the skills you will learn under the SCGIS scholarship, and what you expect to be able to achieve in your conservation GIS work over the next year: This is a very important part! Your plan for future work is the key for application reviewers to know what outreach the SCGIS Scholarship Program may expect, and what research or action the Scholarship Program will contribute to. You are not restricted to one year; please feel free to provide a longer term plan if you can.  Also, do not limit yourself to a formal work plan relevant to your organization or current project, please feel free to include your broader vision of the directions you think you will be taking in your conservation work.   Besides your plans for the future conservation work, in this section we are also interested to know about your plan to be involved in the local SCGIS Chapter or conservation GIS community.   [REQUIRED PAPER that you will present at the conference] *-Title of the paper you will present: *-Abstract/summary of the paper you will present: Please provide the information about the paper you will present at the SCGIS conference if awarded a scholarship. You do not have to have the whole paper finalized a this point, we just need a one paragraph abstract.  If selected as a scholar, you will be contacted by the papers coordinator for formal details about your paper (final title and abstract text, full list of authors, etc.).   [REQUIRED JUSTIFICATION (CONFIDENTIAL)] *-Essay justification of why you require a grant: This is a VERY IMPORTANT section!  We expect to see two things in this section: why you would like to join the SCGIS training and attend the conferences, and why you need a scholarship grant for that.  Justification cannot be as short as “I need to improve my skills, and I can’t afford the trip”. We need to know in detail why you need new contacts, new skills and so on, and a detailed justification of why you are asking for financial assistance.   What benefits do you expect from attending the training and the conferences? How will attending these events, in your opinion, help with your work?  These days, the opportunities to acquire GIS knowledge are getting more widely available, and with the new technologies and information exchange avenues there aremany opportunities to network with colleagues – but what, in your opinion, is different about our events that makes them important for you to attend?   Also, please describe in this section why it is necessary for you to receive a grant to be able to participate in our program.     [EXECUTIVE SUMMARY] *-SUMMARY: Please provide an executive summary of your request, and include any special statements about your work that you would like to make at this time: Please summarize your request in this section. Also, feel free to include any comments or statements here for which you did not find an appropriate section.     *=== How to submit your application   We accept applications sent via email only. The application itself can be sent in plain text or MS Word files ONLY.  Do not send adobe pdf etc.  You can use plain email format or attachments, however, please list any attachments in the body of your message, so we can catch the situations when an attachment has been truncated.   The required examples of your conservation GIS or mapping work can be included in any way that you prefer.  They can be incorporated as images in the narrative part of the application where you describe your work, or can be sent as attachments in any format that can be reasonably expected to be viewable by specialists using computers and GIS. If your work is published online, we encourage you to provide links to the respective web pages.   Please send your completed application to the SCGIS Chapter or a local conservation GIS community leader who sent you the application form, by the deadlines they provide for you. We will instruct the chapters and leaders how to properly forward your application to us.   If you have any questions, be sure to check the 2018 SCGIS Scholarship Applications Website, which will be regularly updated with FAQ’s and other support materials http://www.conservationgis.org/scgis/2018/SCGIS2018SCHOLAR.html   ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ BELOW IS THE ACTUAL APPLICATION FORM Please do not include the above instructions in the application that you submit. Copy everything below the plus signs line, paste into a new document and start filling out your application.  Good luck! Ctrl+click here to jump to the instructions ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ [SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION GIS] [SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION FORM v.2018] [Please read the instructions carefully – the form always changes, and has changed this year!]   [ORGANIZATION DATA] *-Organization name: *-Organization full street address (in your local format): *-Organization full mailing address, if different: *-Country: *-Work phone with country and area code: *-Work fax with country and area code: *-Main email: *-Organization Web site URL if any: *-Name & email of your direct manager or faculty advisor: *-Organization subject keywords (please see instructions): *-Confidential: your organization's last year total budget: *-Confidential: your last year's total GIS program budget:   [APPLICANT] *-Your first name: *-Your second name or surname: *-Your honorific (e.g. Mr., Ms., Dr.): *-Your Gender Identity (eg male, female, other): *-Your age in years: *-Your date of birth: *-Your preferred informal name or by what name should we call you: *-Your Nationality / Country of your passport: *-Do you have a valid passport that will not expire before the end of 2020(not a requirement): *-Do you have a valid visa to enter the USA (not a requirement): *-Your current country of residence: *-Your direct address if different: *-Your direct cell & phone number(s): *-Your direct skype, whatsapp or other internet chat ID: *-Your direct email address(es): *-Are you currently enrolled to study at a university or college: *-If a student, give the name of your degree program and expected year of graduation:   *-Your job title or role in the organization: *-Number of years you have been with your current organization/program/university: *-Do you have permission from your employer or advisor to participate in the proposed program? *-Your own interest keywords (please see instructions):   *-Alternate contact full name: *-Alternate honorific (i.e. Mr., Ms., Dr.): *-Alternate contact direct phone & cell numbers: *-Alternate contact direct email address(es): *-Alternate contact job title, role or relationship to you:   [TRANSPORTATION] *-Your departure airport to travel to the U.S.: *-Total ROUNDTRIP airfare in U.S. dollars (please read instructions carefully before answering this question): *-Airfare amount you can pay yourself (in U.S. Dollars): *-Airfare amount requested from SCGIS (in U.S. Dollars):   [ACCOMMODATION] *-Accommodation/Food/Local Transport costs that you can pay (in U.S. Dollars): *-Will you share a private home? *-Will you share a motel room?  *-Will you camp? *-Do you need to borrow camping equipment? *-Any special notes regarding Accommodation/Food/Local Transport in California:   [GIS EXPERTISE LEVEL / COURSES] *-Describe your current GIS capability/expertise: *-How are you currently learning GIS?   *-What GIS training are you interested in? (PLEASE SEE INSTRUCTIONS!):   *-Please describe your online access capacity:   *-Please describe your fluency in SPOKEN English:   *- Have then taken any English tests to assess your spoken and written English:       [REQUIRED BACKGROUND DATA] *-ORGANIZATION’S WORK: Please describe the work that your current organization does:   *-ROLE IN THE ORGANIZATION: Please describe your personal role in the organization:   *-HISTORY: Please describe the history of your personal work in conservation and GIS:   *-ROLE IN THE LOCAL SCGIS CHAPTER: Please describe your connection to the local SCGIS chapter:   *-TEACHING & LEADERSHIP: Please describe your experience in teaching & leadership   *-UNIQUE:  Please describe what is the most unique and the most challenging about the conservation/GIS work that you do:   *-PLAN: Please provide a 1-year plan for how you hope to apply the skills you will learn under the SCGIS scholarship, and what you expect to be able to achieve in your conservation GIS work over the next year:     [REQUIRED PAPER that you will present at the conference] *-Title of the paper you will present: *-Abstract/summary of the paper you will present:     [REQUIRED JUSTIFICATION (CONFIDENTIAL)] *-Essay justification of why you require a grant:       [EXECUTIVE SUMMARY] *-SUMMARY: Please provide an executive summary of your request, and include any special statements about your work that you would like to make at this time:   [END-this is the end of the SCGIS Scholarship Program application]   ... 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Why should GIS matter to Queer people? For the last two decades, cartographers, geographers, and scholars have been exploring the semantics of queer geography, an integrative approach to queer theory and spatial analytics that examines the social relationships of sexuality, place, and space. ... View more

(part of the new Esri Conservation "Inclusive History of Conservation GIS" website project)     Like many commentators & historians I've listened to, I agree that 2020 will be an historic year, probably the most impactful in my 66 year life.  Many of the reasons are bad ones, though some of the most important reasons are good ones, such the widest national protests ever and the beginning of important yet difficult national conversations and institutional changes.   One of these conversations is about racial privilege, an assumed set of comfort and safety features for a dominant culture that they never talk about, but that are obvious and problematic for other cultures.  It's like getting on a plane where everyone is forced to stand there and memorize the entire safety card front to back before they can board, except privileged passengers, who enjoy the unspoken assumption that in the event of a water landing they'll be rescued first.     It's a difficult topic for privileged people to talk about, with plenty of negative shame labels like "guilt" or "snowflake" to keep the topic hidden.  It's also difficult to survive and feel safe in my country if you are not privileged, that's what day after day of peaceful protests are trying to tell us.  There is also an uncomfortable confusion between the idea of talking about one's "privileges" and boasting about oneself, something that people of good conscience try to avoid.   This same confusion has come up in relation to my 31 years at Esri.   Esri has led the GIS world in innovation and a thriving user community for over 40 years.  It has done this using a technical architecture first created and implemented by Scott Morehouse in the 1970's.  To my knowledge, there is no other technical architecture or product line which has been an effective industry standard for so many years.  Microsoft Word comes close, yet it's first release in 1990 was still 8 years after ArcINFO ver 1.  But development genius is only part of the story. There are many development geniuses in tech, what made Esri unique was a different kind of corporate culture.  The norm in tech culture is inspired leaders who express a vision for the future and work to motivate everyone to achieve that vision.  I once heard Jack Dangermond say that this was a perfectly acceptable way to run a company, It just wasn't his way.  What Jack told me next was what made Esri so different.  Jack described his notion of what true leadership was: the higher you rise in an institution, and the more authority you have, the more you must recognize that that authority arises from all of the people around you, at all levels, and the more you must place their needs above yours, dedicate yourself to working for them, in their service, on their behalf.   Jack's model is to be constantly building up the people around him so that they could be effective leaders.  One aspect of this culture was the reluctance by Jack or other Esri leadership to give interviews or talk about themselves.  This was more than simple modesty.  It was a deeply held belief that the real GIS stories weren't about them, they were about all of these other people, especially Esri's users, and the hard work they all did, the obstacles they overcame.  This tradition thrives even now as an important part of the annual conference plenary, where the story of GIS is told through a dozen or so slides of user stories.  By comparison, In 31 years of user conferences I have yet to see even a single slide about Jack Dangermond or any of the other Esri leaders.  Interviews began to be tolerated about 10 years ago in part because at a certain point, Esri's users themselves began to ask for them. Jack's concept of leadership also affected my ideas about starting a new international nonprofit devoted to serving the conservation user community.   In my case the decision was to never serve on the board of directors, but instead work within the committees, helping them to succeed and to help new leaders to emerge.  This was a complex task even for the most selfless of workers, which I was not.  My success in this "leading from underneath" has ranged from decent to at times awful.  Still, the Society for Conservation GIS (SCGIS) has survived and grown for over 30 years, despite being 100% volunteer run. My greatest personal failure in all those years was my inability to include tribal & First Nations people in this Society.  My initial proposals & charters talked equally about supporting First Nations communities with conservation groups.  In my grant-making work at Esri  it was no problem to make the first grants of GIS technology to many hundreds of tribal organizations in the 90's, helping them begin on the road to GIS capability.  But I was never able to match that success when it came to the people and professionals who would want to be part of the Society.  That was a  lesson in racial privilege, hidden things about me that affected my relationships with communities of color, and that made it impossible for me to create a safe and welcoming societal environment for them. As noble as the goals of modesty & leading from behind may be at first sight, they are also outwardly similar to the same silence that keeps racial privilege hidden.  The motives are different to be sure, but the outward appearance is the same. I had much to learn about this.   The breakthrough began in 2018 when Janice Thompson, the head of GIS for Wilderness Society, began a new initiative within SCGIS called "Mapping for Advocacy".  Wilderness Society is like the Sierra Club in it's commitment to diversity, so for Janice the word "Advocacy" was as much about social justice as it was about conservation. Together with Sandra Coveny, a GIS consultant specializing in tribal resilience planning, the SCGIS Tribal & First Nations program began that same year, with invited speakers from several US tribal organizations.  I was honored to be part of that first panel. What I learned then was that there is a longstanding tradition among tribal & First Nations people that any gathering must begin with heartfelt introductions.  These are not typical western introductions of name & employer or job.  Instead, each person must tell who your ancestral people were, what landscape they are from and how you honor & represent them today.  As was explained to me, before anyone can understand the words you are about to say, they need to first understand who you are as a human being.   It was the first time I got to have a glimpse of what a world might look like where people of many cultures had empathy and understanding for one another.   I get it now why this is such an important tradition for helping a gathering of people feel respected and heard, no matter what their origins and life experiences may have been.   The fact that this cultural shift was finally beginning to happen in a Society devoted to the tools and practices of GIS made it all the more significant.  In the same way that GIS was able to change natural history from a narrative tradition into a quantitative, predictive ecological science, my hope is that GIS can also help communities of every kind work together to identify bias and privilege wherever it exists and support one another in innovative & sustainable solutions.  Towards that end, I hope to return with additional columns & essays in the coming weeks.  First however, is my introduction as I was taught to do it:   My name is Charles Convis. I am the 6th person of that name. I am responsible to my ancestors and I have studied my family genealogy since childhood. My ancestors were farmers, laborers & warriors in Europe until the late 1500's. Most of them came to America in the early 1600's, many were farmers and leaders in the Presbyterian church.  Others were leaders against injustice, creating the first written American anti-slavery protest in 1688, and fighting alongside Black Marines in the Pacific in WWII. I honor their values and try to live up to their traditions of service and justice. I now live near the mountains called Nilengli near the place called Yukaipat by the Yuhaviatam (Serrano) people, who were the first stewards of what is also called the Inland Empire of California.   My passion for conservation and my sense of self began as a child in another place, the High Sierra, first home of the Miwok & Yokuts.  This always was and still is the landscape I am in when I dream, and the place of my stewardship.   I am not neuro-typical, and this may be why I am better with machines and computers than I am with people.  I am fond of GIS and believe it offers great hope for humanity.  I am fond of photography, as it helps me to express my vision of how remarkable and beautiful are the many different people I see, even if I am afraid or unable to speak the words.  I am cisgender and a member of my country's dominant culture.   I am privileged by the society I live in, and I am just barely beginning to understand how to express myself in words that will make it safe for people different from me to hear what is in my heart and not what is in my skin.   (My deepest gratitude to my reviewers & advisors. Marsha Small (Tsistsistah (Northern Cheyenne)) advised against my many mentions of the words "white" and "black", saying that even naming skin colors reinforces colonialist divisions and barriers between people. Marsha also taught me how to properly introduce myself to others.  Ashley Du, head of the Esri ECOS Environmental initiative, helped me with editing and introduced me to the concept "intersectional environmentalism".  Sandra Coveny, tribal resilience consultant, encouraged the idea of an essay on this topic for conservation GIS readers.) xconservationhistory ... View more

Chapter 1 : Origins of Conservation: Indigenous Landscapes & Traditional Knowledge (part of the "Inclusive History of Conservation GIS")   (photo courtesy of Animesh Ghose, 2018 SCGIS scholar, Creative Conservation Alliance, Bangladesh, &  Scott Trageser of NatureStills photography)   Unlike the traditional view that conservation began in the writings of a few globally important figures, I consider it's true origins lie in the beliefs and practices of hundreds of thousands of human beings as they adapted, survived & expanded across increasingly diverse habitats that began to appear after the ice ages.  What early humans learned about the essential behaviors, social rules & living traditions of their landscapes has much to teach today to a dominant society flailing and failing to adapt and survive.   Fortunately this body of knowledge is finally beginning to be recognized and valued in modern conservation and landscape planning, in an area of the profession termed "Traditional Ecological Knowledge".   There is sometimes confusion in this term with the romantic notion that indigenous peoples lived in harmony with nature.  Harmony is a concept from privileged society which is both biologically and  historically naive.  For example, indigenous cultures in my region (westernAmerica) often set fire to the landscape.  This was not normally a catastrophic practice, it was often done in small stages to help manage natural successional processes such as ensuring reproduction for native food plants which depend upon fire in order to reproduce.  Human beings were actors and agents of change in those landscapes, just like other physical processes.  However, only human beings were able to possess a sense of responsibility and stewardship about their activities in these dynamic landscapes. For those cultures who possessed this sense of stewardship, and the centuries of knowledge that accumulated because of it, Traditional Ecological Knowledge became an important body of resources management expertise.      Storymap : Great Basin Landscape Cooperative's Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge Strategy Reference Project Profile of Animesh Ghose, Creative Conservation Alliance, Bangladesh    Following these early origins among traditional peoples around the world, Conservation as an idea in written history was part of early greek & arab "natural philosophers", attempting to understand & classify the natural world, as distinct from the world of human affairs.  Separating human affairs from the consideration of nature was a schism that would characterize western science from then on.  A notable exception was the integrative work of the 9th century Islamic genius Avicenna, (see chapter 2). Conservation as an activity upon western & European landscapes first began in the middle-ages, as monarchs set game preserves aside for their exclusive use, denying or controlling access to the indigenous farmers and hunters who might once have lived or hunted there.  The pattern of a higher power making conservation decisions unilaterally to meet their own needs, thereby denying subjects & residents representation or access, is an unfortunate aspect of much early conservation work, and one of many stains from Conservation's imperialist origins  As Annika Dahlberg said in her 2010 study: "In countries where national parks were initially created to preserve perceived 'wilderness', with decisions taken by powerful elites and central authorities, this historical legacy has prevented profound change in line with new policy directives" ( Comparing access rights and ideological legacies in three countries. ." (Dahlberg A, Rohde R, Sandell K. National parks and environmental justice: Conservat Soc [serial online] 2010 [cited 2020 Jul 7];8:209-24. Available from: https://bit.ly/3e92czd)    The conflict between the goals of exclusive & often privileged protection, versus the needs of landscape residents, remains a relevant topic of concern today.  Conservation policies are still often created at high levels of society, meant to address conservation concerns of national or global populations.  Yet they are often resisted by those who actually have to live in the affected landscapes, and who may not believe or share the global concerns meant to be addressed.  Sometimes the opposite is true, local populations may be first to feel the deadly impacts of a global environmental collapse, and begin the battle to address the crisis and save their homes.  But their own national governments may fail to acknowledge that a crisis even exists, and fail to support small constituencies well down the ladder of political power,.   This is especially true of the current advance of climate change and sea level rise, where oceanic islands and First Nation Arctic villages are seeing their homes and lands vanishing rapidly, sometimes under  governments who still deny that climate change is even real. Storymap  Climate Change And the Effect on the Inuit Peoples and the Arctic  by MEE-KYUNG LEGAULT Storymap: "Telling a Story (Map): Indigenous Peoples and the Arctic Council" by GRID-Arendal Storymap: "Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative Projects Map Series"  by the Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative (Photo: Community Conservation Planning project in Pakistan, courtesy of Doost Ali Nawaz, SCGIS Pakistan) This important aspect of supporting locally-based conservation knowledge & education work in planning and managing a natural landscape is variously called "Stakeholders" or "Public Participation Planning" and takes in many different kinds of local stewardship.   It is an ongoing process of specifically including local residents of an area, as early as possible, and with as much ownership & authority as possible, in the discussion and creation of conservation plans or policies upon a local landscape.  Stakeholder relationships are similar in some ways to Traditional Ecological Knowledge, in that it is always important to acknowledge and involve many kinds of local residents, from the original ancestral stewards to the current occupants. .It is also an important professional practice that begins to address this aspect of institutionalized inequity.    Storymap : "Citizens Participation The aim of Geodesign is to adapt communities to their sustainable geography and not the other way around"   by GDS Latam     GIS tools are becoming ever more critical in the spread and success of Public Participation Planning.  GIS as a technology addresses several key obstacles and concerns about this kind of planning approach: the informal nature of much traditional knowledge, the need for local collaboration, and the need to build local planning & GIS capacity.  Traditional knowledge is often from oral narratives and therefore difficult to acquire, process, evaluate and apply to spatial analyses and visualizations.  The strong data model foundations of ArcGIS and its multi-media capabilities, with tools like full motion video,  allow recordings to be captured, spatially defined, classified and formalized in ways that permit wider use in planning and analysis.   The collaborative nature of cloud GIS and citizen science applications like Survey123 make it easy to put local experts in charge of important organizing and management tasks at the lead of any local planning effort.  Finally, the ease with which cloud and mobile GIS apps can be learned and taught makes it possible to build essential GIS capacity among local communities quickly, allowing them to decide for themselves how to carry out the incorporation of their own local traditions and knowledge into the planning effort.  One of the best examples of rapid deployment of community-led GIS capacity, created & led by GIS novices, is the free Community Response Hubs set up by thousands of local governments to help in response to the 2020 covid-19 pandemic. Storymap : " Transcending Boundaries in Conservation "  by African People & Wildlife     Helping build local capacity, and letting the local & indigenous people lead, and speak, and be respected, is always the right first step.  As the official indigenous delegates to the 5th World Parks Congress said "The declaration of protected areas on indigenous territories without our consent and engagement has resulted in our dispossession and resettlement, the violation of our rights, the displacement of our peoples, the loss of our sacred sites and the slow but continuous loss of our cultures, as well as impoverishment. It is thus difficult to talk about benefits for Indigenous Peoples when protected areas are being declared on our territories unilaterally. First we were dispossessed in the name of kings and emperors, later in the name of State development and now in the name of conservation."   (photo: Ranthambore National Park)   Even within the imperial history of conservation areas there are interesting stories.  Protecting nature was not originally a western idea. Bogd Khan Mountain in Mongolia has the first written record of formal protection, when it was set aside in the 1200's by the ruler Tooril (Toghrul) Khan.  It was later officially gazetted by the local civil government of the Qing Dynasty "for it's beauty" in 1783.    Rajastan, India  is better known as one of the last refuges for wild tigers, and when the forests around Fort Ranthambore were first closed off in the 1600's by the Maharajas of Jaipur, they nevertheless allowed local residents access for hunting and harvesting in exchange for an annual fee.  Perhaps Ranthambore deserves credit for the origin of the idea of park admission fees. Worth noting, this period is sometimes acknowledged as the birth of the "Conservation Officer" profession, called Game Wardens or Gamekeepers at the time.  These were Individuals whose profession was the monitoring & protection of game species within the reserve from illegal poaching.   Perhaps the most famous exemplar of this profession was the Sheriff of Nottingham, arch-foe of Robin Hood, another fact which has not helped Conservation move beyond an image of elitism and exclusivity.  In the 1800's, formal national parks as we know them today began forming all over the world.  Below is a selected list of important & historical firsts, illustrating the diversity of nations, cultures and ethnicities involved. (Thomas Hill, Yosemite Valley, late 1800's) 1872   Yellowstone National Park USA  first American national park.  (These were lands previously occupied by Shoshone, Bannock, Crow & Nez Perce tribes, for whom an 1868 treaty had guaranteed the rights of continued access and use for hunting, subsistence, medicinal plants and religious ceremonies.  The University of British Colombia has a detailed open case study on the current issues of indigenous rights in Yellowstone National Park and actions needed ) see also:   "AMERICAN INDIANS AND NATIONAL PARKS" by June Starr "The Story We've Been Told About America's National Parks Is Incomplete" by DINA GILIO-WHITAKER  Storymap "Violence is Daily Life: Yosemite, The National Park Service, and the Ahwaneechee" by Gabriel Michael 1876   Puerto Rico’s Caribbean National Park  One of the oldest, if not the oldest in all of Latin America. 1887    Tongariro National Park New Zealand's first national park originated as a tuku (act of customary lore) from the Ngati Tuwharetoa people of Aotearoa (New Zealand), making this also the first national park in the world to be gifted by it's indigenous people, and the first national park to be listed as protecting cultural landscapes.  It has since grown from 2,640 hectares to 25,000 hectares 1890's   First Russian Zapovednik reserves  set up by V. V. Dokuchaev  in Russia, Aldo Leopold was inspired by Dokuchaev to begin establishing an American wildlife reserve system in the 1940's. 1895   Hluhluwe–Umfolozi Game Reserve, is the oldest proclaimed nature reserve in Africa.  The area was initially set aside by the Zulu kings Dingiswayo and Shaka in the early 1800's, then formally gazetted as a national park in 1895. This was the decade when the British Empire took over the area, and it's assumed that the prior indigenous inhabitants were excluded from the new park  1909 Sarek National Park and Stora Sjöfallet National Park: First national parks in the world to specifically protect & honor access rights & subsistence practices for its Indigenous population, Saami people, who had lived in the area for 4000-5000 years and had first obtained legal protection in 1886. 1984 Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Park, one of the first tribal parks established in Canada   2011   Frog Bay Tribal National Park,  first tribal national park in United States created by the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa   Further Reading on protected areas  &  indigenous people National parks are beautiful—but the way they were created isn’t  by Hanne Elisabeth Tidnam Canada working towards new future for Indigenous-led conservation by James Dinneen ,  2020 The People of the Glacier Lands Taken to Create US National Parks  by Peter Deneen , 2019 The Blackfeet Nation is opening its own national park, 2019  by  Samantha Weber Storymap "The Voices of Grand Canyon"  Native peoples Jim Enote (Zuni), Nikki Cooley (Navajo), Leigh Kuwanwisiwma (Hopi), Coleen Kaska, (Havasupai), and Loretta Jackson-Kelly (Hualapai) share what the Grand Canyon means to them. Wyss Campaign for Nature a $1 billion investment to "help communities, indigenous peoples, and nations conserve 30% of the planet in its natural state by 2030" .  They are also lead partners with the National Geographic Society in the "Campain for Nature"  a program to "approach biodiversity conservation in a way that fully integrates and respects indigenous leadership and indigenous rights. Indigenous and Traditional Peoples and Protected Areas,  IUCN 2000    A comprehensive statement of rights, policies and case studies for Indigenous Peoples Protected Areas. The “Map of Indigenous Peoples, Protected Areas and Natural Ecosystems in Central America”  2016, by IUCN .  In partnership with the National Geographic Society, IUCN  collected the knowledge of 3,500 indigenous people in 130 mapping workshops throughout the central America region and documented their central role in conservation.  When presented at a 2016 UN meeting, one of the traditional leaders in attendance commented ‘Thank you for making us visible"     After the success of this map, IUCN established an ArcGIS online digital cartography center to permit wider access to digital mapping resources for indigenous people.   xconservationhistory (Gratitude to Scgis Scholars Aaria Dobson-Waitere,  Animesh Ghose,  Doost Ali-Nawaz, and SCGIS leaders Janice Thomson and Sandra Coveny for the conversations, advice, mentorship and ideas  that helped create this essay) ... View more