Building upon decades of collaboration, the National Geographic Society and location intelligence world leader Esri announced a new partnership that will develop and deploy a suite of solutions for organizations working to conserve protected areas throughout Africa, ArcGIS Solutions for Protected Area Management (PAM).
As threats to global biodiversity continue to increase due to factors including; poaching, deforestation and climate change, intelligent systems for managing and protecting natural areas are desperately needed. PAM will empower protected area managers and communities to more rapidly and effectively respond to threats, minimize human impact on habitat and species and maximize effectiveness of conservation practices in protected areas.
In addition to Esri’s commitment to sharing the technology with all protected area management organizations on the continent of Africa for the next ten years, the Society will be provide spatial storytelling training to the protected area managers using these solutions to advance their ability to educate and inspire communities — and the world — about these treasured natural areas.
The Society’s President and CEO Tracy R. Wolstencroft announced this collaboration on the opening day of the Esri User Conference in San Diego. He said, "Esri and National Geographic both share a foundation of mapping and education, but also have unique strengths. Esri’s strength is technology; National Geographic’s is exploration and storytelling ... When we leverage those strengths, we can have incredible impact."
"Conservation has always been a foundational part of our mission,” said Jack Dangermond, Esri founder and president. "We are honored to join the National Geographic Society in this partnership so that we can continue to make geospatial technology a widespread tool in protecting vital ecosystems around the world."
Through the alignment of Esri’s leading geospatial technology and the National Geographic Society’s expertise in storytelling to illuminate the issues our planet is facing today, this collaboration hopes to advance partnerships, technologies, capacity and methods for management and storytelling to preserve and sustain natural areas around the world.
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About Esri
Esri, the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping, offers the most powerful geospatial cloud available, to help customers unlock the full potential of data to improve operational and business results. Founded in 1969, Esri software is deployed in more than 350,000 organizations including 90 of the Fortune 100 companies, all 50 state governments, more than half of all counties (large and small), and 87 of the Forbes Top 100 Colleges in the U.S., as well as all 15 Executive Departments of the U.S. Government and dozens of independent agencies. With its pioneering commitment to geospatial information technology, Esri engineers the most advanced solutions for digital transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics. Visit us at esri.com.