The Amazon Cooperation Treaty (ACT), signed in 1978, arguably represents the most ambitious community vision that South American leaders have conceived in recent times.

The ACT encompasses more than 3 million square miles, spanning 4,000 kilometers west to east across the broadest swath of South America, embracing eight nations with a combined human population of 250 million, and unparalleled biodiversity strewn about the vertical displacement of 6,000 meters and the expanse of 30 degrees of latitude. Human societies and wildlife communities exist in forms as diverse as the landscape. This unique zone includes the world’s longest river, the tallest mountains in the hemisphere, among the oldest rocks on earth, and vast stretches of unbroken forest, savannah, and wetlands containing yet undescribed species.

Management and conservation initiatives that recognize such huge natural systems - one that unites snowcapped volcanoes and lowland rainforests, indigenous with petroleum interests, intercontinental migration and slope-specific endemism, conservation priorities, economic imperatives - must be supported by robust and reliable information in accessible format.

In the Amazonia Science Gallery at the National Zoo, work continues to support and expand an Internet Map Service that will function as a clearinghouse for the region in the hope of stimulating greater recognition of and cooperation within the ACT community. We believe that the associated collection, refinement and sharing of geo-spatial data will offer opportunities for improved analysis and increased technical cooperation across a broad spectrum of potential collaborators and consumers, and we are confident that the open dissemination of quality data can only improve the chances of conservation successes in the Amazon region.