CTSP Newsletter (Web Version) PAGE 1
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CTSP Board of Directors: Ed Backus -Ecotrust Steve Beckwitt -Sierra Biodiversity Institute Charles Convis- ESRI, Inc. Marshall Mayer -Egroup Peter Morrison- Pacific Biodiversity Institute Larry Orman -GreenInfo Network Rob Stuart -Rockefeller Technology Project Janice Thomson -The Wilderness Society Forrest Whitt -Hewlett Packard Company

CTSP: The Conservation Technology Support Program

Established in 1995, the Conservation Technology Support Program annually awards grants of equipment and software to conservation organizations to build their Geographic Information Systems (GIS) capacity. The program has awarded 200 grants worth over $4 million in donated equipment and software - it has also assisted these grantees with training and technical support.

CTSP helps non-profits working on a wide range of conservation issues, including protection of biodiversity, wildlands management, rainforest protection, open space protection, environmental justice. The program enables these groups to use the power of computer mapping to better carry out their missions. For example, conservation organizations can use GIS to:

- Identify ecologically sensitive areas for protection
- Track the movement of wildlife
- Create showcase posters to dramatize conservation issues
- Analyze alternative public environmental policies
- Assess the effects of environmental pollution on affected
peoples
- Inventory endangered and threatened species habitat

CTSP provides grantees with integrated packages of powerful computers and printers, and mapping software and data. Each year, approximately 50 such grants are made to groups all over the United States (applications are distributed in the fall and then intensively reviewed by expert volunteers, with awards made in the early spring of the following year).

The Conservation Technology Support Program (CTSP) empowers conservation and environmental non-profits to make clear the geographic and other dimensions of their issues, goals and strategies, by providing the computers, software, training and support needed to effectively use Geographic Information Systems and other technology tools.
(Map: Distribution of US grantees for the first 4 years of CTSP grants, by type of group. C. Convis)

All text © by the respective organizations, November 15, 1999

Compilation & web design: Charles Convis, ESRI Conservation Program, November 15, 1999