ESRI

Partnership ESRI has been a partner of UNEP since 1985. Under a long-standing MOU, ESRI provides UNEP with 6 complimentary copies of ESRI Arc products. These are used by DEWA (Geneva), GRID-Arendal, RRC-Bangkok, DEWA (Nairobi), WCMC-Cambridge and GRID-Sioux Falls. These products support the compilation of maps for the GEO report and other assessment reports. The value of this contribution by ESRI to UNEP is approximately $ 1.2m per annum. In September 2000, DEWA embarked on the development of the environmental gateway, UNEP.Net, and ESRI hosted the first brainstorming meeting on the development of UNEP.Net.

Around that time, the Director of DEWA proposed that the partnership between UNEP and ESRI was in need of revitalisation. The long-standing MOU had become stale. Information technology had raced ahead; DEWA’s need for reliable environmental data and information from collaborating institutions was increasing rapidly; partnerships with information suppliers had to be strengthened; environmental information had to be re-packaged and presented in understandable formats and disseminated to the user community.

Jack Dangermond attended the 5th Africa GIS conference and exhibition held at UNEP, Gigiri from 5-9 November 2001. During one of the conference sessions the idea of an award for excellence in environmental information delivery was mentioned by Mr Dangermond but nothing concrete was proposed by either UNEP or ESRI. The matter was taken up with ESRI in late 2002 and Mr Dangermond agreed to sponsor an award in area of GIS applications related to the environment and have the awards presented at the annual ESRI User Conference.