Kaio Hooper (Ngāitakoto, Te Aupōuri, Tūhoe) Announced As 2024 SCGIS Global Scholar To Represent Aotearoa & Australia

Moana Whenua Trust Ltd Director and Senior Consultant, Kaio Hooper was announced as one of fourteen Society for Conservation Geographical Information Systems Global Scholars, chosen from a pool over approximately 200 applicants. He recently spent four weeks in the US representing Aotearoa, New Zealand and Australia

The Society for Conservation GIS (SCGIS) is an U.S. based organisation who are committed to advancing conservation GIS globally by building and supporting a vibrant community of conservation GIS practitioners. SCGIS offers an International Scholarship Program once a year for applicants from around the world. The scholarship is designed to allow conservation GIS practitioners to attend the Esri User Conference and SCGIS Annual Conference held in California and allow them to take specialised three-week GIS courses organised for the scholarship recipients before the conferences. These courses are provided jointly by SCGIS, Juniper GIS, Esri and UC Davis.

GiC has been successful in helping four NZ Scholars over the past five years attend this training, with help from Nga Whenua Rahui, and the NZ Esri Users Group who have helped to fund the associated travel costs for the scholars.

SCGIS wrote to Hooper;

"The Society of Conservation GIS (SCGIS) is pleased to inform you that your application was successful, and you have been selected to participate in the SCGIS 2024 Global Scholarship program. This will include training in ArcGIS Pro and the ArcGIS Platform and apps, as well attending the Esri User Conference in San Diego.

This SCGIS Global Scholarship Program tuition will cover the following:

• Tuition, lodging and food for the duration of your stay with us. This includes training in ArcGIS Pro (June 24-July 6) and ArcGIS Platform (July 8-12) in Bend, Oregon, USA.

• Registration fees, lodging and food for the Esri User Conference in San Diego, California, USA (July 15-19).

• Transportation between all listed events, and food and lodging for the time between these events.

• Limited health insurance coverage in the USA for the duration of the training. You are encouraged to obtain your own health insurance.

• Free 2-year access to ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro software, renewable.  

• 1-year complimentary membership to SCGIS (www.scgis.org).

The program will also cover transportation expenses between your arrival/departure airport and all event locations, and food and lodging for a reasonable time after your arrival (pre-training) and before your departure (post-conference). This will be limited to a maximum of two days before the training starts on June 24 and 1 day after the training/conference ends in San Diego on July 19. To assist us with the arrangements, try and arrive on June 21st (although the 22nd and 23rd would still be okay) and depart on July 19th or 20th."

Hooper said that he was estactic and couldn't wait to further equip his kaitiaki toolbox and bring home knowledge gathered from others from around the world and to see how they do things.

"I want to know what fuels their passion, why they do what they do, what problems they face in their own countries and how they go about solving those issues. I especially want to learn more about other indigenous whanaunga across the moana and see how they increase their capabilities when faced with resource shortages or are located remotely and then I want to bring that home and inspire the next generation of kaitiaki whilst adding to our own iwi toolkits" he said.

"I will be sharing kōrero around my experiences and hopefully do Te Taitokerau proud while I'm over there. I have been asked to talk about our wai, water quality improvement and so I feel lucky to talk about one of my iwi roto (lake) Lake Ngātu within the rohe of Ngāitakoto and some kōrero around Lake Wahakari for my iwi Te Aupōuri" said Hooper.

He will share an interview upon his return.

To read more about the SCGIS Global Scholar Program, click here.