About CMI...

Mission

The Conservation Management Institute exists to expand the capacity of our partners to manage natural resources effectively. We provide innovative solutions to multi-disciplinary research questions that affect natural resource management in Virginia, North America, and the World. Our core belief is that effective natural resource management must be grounded in sound science.

History

The organization that is now CMI began as the Multi-state Fish and Wildlife Database project in the late 1980's. The primary activity of this group was to assist state fish and wildlife agencies in developing wildlife information databases for desktop computers.

This activity lead to the creation of the Fish and Wildlife Information Exchange (FWIE). The FWIE expanded services to include not only databases, but also GIS and remote sensing, Internet website development, and other new technologies. Through the 1990's the FWIE continued to grow and added field ecological services as well. FWIE began working with a variety of sponsors, including state fish and wildlife agencies, federal refuges and parks, and military installations. Soon FWIE was working on a wide range of projects, including designing and delivering professional development courses, human dimensions, and some international work.

In order to better reflect our breadth and administrative needs, the FWIE became the Conservation Management Institute in 1999. Since that time, CMI has continued to work for a number of federal, state, and local agency and organization sponsors throughout the US and internationally.

Structure