Leveraging Esri tools, the nonprofit Cloud Forest Conservation Initiative was able to pinpoint a primordial montane cloud forest, Cerro el Amay, in the heart of the Guatemalan highlands. Utilizing false-colored composites from satellite imagery, our geospatial ecologists were able to model this as a potential hotspot for threatened and endangered species. Initial ground truthing explorations and data collection, in conjunction with the efforts of the indigenous K’iche’ people who held the forest in common, led to a $6M USD raised - partially through carbon mitigation funds - to help preserve over 40,000 contiguous acres, establish a Guatemalan NGO, and create landscape-level management decisions in respect to the local stakeholders and their socio-economic growth. The design of our conservation efforts is driven by geocentric, people to people connections in sync with geospatial data analysis and long-term, economically sound, impact-driven design. The dovetailing of local human aspirations and vision, with natural resource management based in data-driven decision making, is what will guarantee that the ecosystem services of Cerro el Amay will thrive for generations to come. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow us on Social Media! Twitter: https://twitter.com/Esri Facebook: https://facebook.com/EsriGIS LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/esri Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/esrigram The Science of Where: http://www.esri.com