ESRI has participated for many years in a number of conservation initiatives including those projects sponsored by the UNEP-WCMC and the highly successful Conservation Geoportal.

The Conservation Geoportal is a collaborative effort by and for the conservation community to facilitate the discovery and publishing of GIS data and maps, to support conservation decisionmaking and education. It is primarily a data catalog, intended to provide a comprehensive listing of GIS datasets and map services relevant to biodiversity conservation.  The Conservation Geoportal does not actually store maps and data, but rather the descriptions and links to those resources, known as metadata.

The Conservation Geoportal is designed to make it quick and easy for conservation practitioners to find, and if possible, preview and download GIS data and maps. Similarly, it is easy for conservation data publishers to post metadata describing the data and maps they want to share, how to access them, and under what terms.  This is a free tool for all conservation practitioners and supporters to use and contribute content.

Image courtesy of the Conservation GeoPortal http://www.conservationmaps.org/index.jsp