For more than 50 years, The Nature Conservancy (headquartered in Arlington, Virginia) has been working to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life by protecting the land and water they need to survive. During this period, the Conservancy has helped protect more than 116 million acres around the world.

The Nature Conservancy is the largest conservation user of GIS. The software is used to produce maps, conduct spatial analysis of landscapes, and manage conservation data. Now, Esri is providing the Conservancy with a $15 million grant in software and technical assistance over three years. This grant will enable the Conservancy to develop its most strategic document yet: an ecological assessment for the contiguous United States.

"The ecological assessment," says Frank Biasi, director of conservation systems for The Nature Conservancy, "represents one of the largest civilian data gathering and analysis efforts in history. It's comparable in scope and ambition to the human genome project, but for biological diversity."

The assessment identifies, ecoregion by ecoregion, the places that must be protected to ensure the survival of biological diversity in each region. The first iteration of the assessment is due out in 2004. Maps and data will be shared among Conservancy offices and partners to help implement conservation across the United States.

A study of the Conservancy's 400 offices was conducted to determine the GIS needs and capabilities of the organization.

"Better information makes for better decisions," says Jack Dangermond, Esri president, "particularly in regard to the worldwide preservation of our endangered natural communities."

Better decision making is exactly the outcome Biasi is looking toward. "All of our ecological assessment teams," says Biasi, "are using Esri's technology to do the spatial analyses, mapping, and data integration needed to develop the assessment. Our national GIS specialists will use the software to aggregate these functions and then our local staff will use the results to implement conservation on the ground."

For more information, contact Charles Convis, Esri (e-mail: cconvis@esri.com) or visit The Nature Conservancy at www.nature.org.