Wildlife crime is one of the greatest challenges facing conservation, and one of the conservation tech world's biggest areas of innovation. With new ideas and solutions constantly being put forth to track and protect species targeted by poachers, manage protected areas and support rangers, and combat the growing online market for illegal wildlife products, the engineers and conservationists working to solve wildlife crime's many challenges rely on tools like machine learning, biologging, camera traps, acoustic monitoring, drones, mobile apps, and more.
This wide variety of overlapping technology makes our Wildlife Crime group a potential melting pot for many of our other communities, and makes it an especially exciting place to find collaborators working in different tech spheres to meet a common goal. Whether you're a camera trap expert looking for information on thermal vision to spot potential poachers, a machine learning expert with the skills to analyze acoustic data for gunshots, or a protected area manager seeking the latest integrated mobile tools, this group can connect you with the right members of our community!
Below, you'll find WILDLABS resources and conversations to help you understand how different technologies are being put to work in the fight against wildlife crime, and what conservation tech practitioners need for these tools to be effective.
Three Tutorials and Videos for Beginners:
- How do I use AI to fight wildlife crime? | Lily Xu, Tech Tutors
- WWF Wildlife Crime Technology Project | Eric Becker, Virtual Meetups
- SmartParks | Laurens de Groot, Virtual Meetups
Three Forum Threads for Beginners:
- Snare detection technologies | Rachel Kramer
- Tools for conservation management | Chris Muashekele
- Looking for Intelligence Database Software | Dexter Oelrichs
Three Articles for Beginners:
- Using AIS data to investigate the world's fishing ports, Max Schofield
- How do Wildlife Crime Experts view Remote Sensing Technologies used to Combat Illegal Wildlife Crime?, Isla Duporge
- Metal Detecting Sensors for Anti-Poaching, Sam Seccombe
Join this group now to get to know our community and start discussing solutions and ideas together!
Header photo: © Frank af Petersens/Save the Elephants
No showcases have been added to this group yet.
- @nadyam
- | she/her
Michigan State University
Conservation geneticist at Michigan State University. Co-founder of iCatch. Solving problems in monitoring, traceability, and enforcement through rapid species identification tech.
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- 3 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @nlubcker
- | Dr
Results-Driven R&D Project Manager | Data scientist | I'm a versatile professional with 10 years of global experience in conservation and research.
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- @mariahmeek
- | she/her
Michigan State University
Dr. Mariah Meek is the PI and co-founder of iCatch, an Associate Professor at Michigan State University, and the Director of Research at The Wilderness Society.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 5 Groups
Heading up comms for a conservation agency based in the United Arab Emirates
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- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @CalumRyan
- | He/Him
Intern at Fauna & Flora working on the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART)
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- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
- 0 Resources
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- 16 Groups
Tech 4 Conservation
President, Tech 4 Conservation
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- 7 Discussions
- 18 Groups
Partner in Conservation at WWF
- 0 Resources
- 17 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @gzlazzari
- | she/her
I am a master's student working with the Genetics, Evolution, Ecology and Conservation of Carnivores Research Group at PUCRS/Brazil. I am especially interested in molecular techniques to answer genetic, ecological and forensic questions about jaguars.
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- 4 Groups
Wildlife conservationist
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- 11 Groups
I am a geneticist with a long term interest in using DNA markers to combat wildlife crime.
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- 4 Groups
PhD student with research focused on using on-site DNA sequencing for rapid species identification. Interested in wildlife forensics, and conservation genomics.
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- 4 Groups
Article
Please help us by participating in a MSc research project on what you consider to be 'evidence' in your work in conservation.
19 June 2025
Careers
SPOTS Internship Programme
Georg Strunck
Strategic Protection Of Threatened Species (NGO) is looking for engineering interns at the Dinokeng Game Reserve, South Africa
6 February 2025
Article
INSTANT DETECT 2.0 - ALPHA TESTING
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The worst thing a new conservation technology can do is become another maintenance burden on already stretched field teams. This meant Instant Detect 2.0 had to work perfectly from day 1. In this update, Sam Seccombe...
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Article
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The Zoological Society of London's Instant Detect 2.0 is the world's first affordable satellite connected camera trap system designed by conservationists, for conservationists. In this update, Sam Seccombe describes the...
21 January 2025
Funding
The Connected Conservation is thrilled to announce our award's third round in collaboration with the Airbus Foundation. This award champions the use of cutting-edge satellite imagery to tackle biodiversity loss and...
30 September 2024
Funding
IWT Challenge Fund Evidence grants, ranging from £20,000 to £1,500,000, is a UK government grants scheme that provides support to innovative and scalable projects to reduce pressure on wildlife from illegal trade and,...
20 August 2024
Article
Enter to win a free thermal camera!
Alex Rood
WILDLABS is partnering with FLIR to give away a FLIR ONE Edge Pro to 5 community members.
26 June 2024
Article
Case Study: Drone-based radio-tracking of Eastern Bandicoots
Wildlife Drones
Wildlife Drones was deployed by Zoos Victoria in a trial project tracking captive-bred Eastern Barred Bandicoots that were tagged and released into the wild
14 June 2024
Article
New WILDLABS Funding & Finance group
Frank van der Most
WildLabs will soon launch a 'Funding and Finance' group. What would be your wish list for such a group? Would you be interested in co-managing or otherwise helping out?
5 June 2024
Funding
Apply! 2024 Conservation Tech Award
Jordan Steward
Now accepting applications for two $15,000 grants to help protect wildlife through cutting-edge, technology-driven efforts
3 June 2024
Funding
International Elephant Foundation call for $15K projects
Frank van der Most
The IEF's Elephant Conservation and Research Funding Support Program has opened a call for applications. Average grant size is $15K, whereas the IEF funds 20 to 25 projects per year.
22 May 2024
Article
Share Your Work in a Conservation Technology Video
Robin Marti Sarasa
Do you have photos and videos of your conservation tech work? We want to include them in a conservation technology showcase video
17 May 2024
September 2025
January 2023
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| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hi All, I am a natural history producer and I am looking for current lion relocation projects. If anyone knows of anyone working... |
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Wildlife Crime | 5 years 10 months ago | |
| Hi Liev, I'm not an expert on this stuff, but from the sound of it, your answer will depend on what you're looking to focus on. By 'illegal', do you mean... |
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Wildlife Crime | 5 years 11 months ago | |
| Hey everyone, Thanks for your interest in our virtual meetup special, Scaling technology solutions to tackle the illegal wildlife trade... |
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Wildlife Crime | 6 years 2 months ago | |
| Thanks for the wonderful answer to Nik's query, Joachim! I think you covered everything, but to put a cap on it: for our good to make a long term impact, it has to survive the... |
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Wildlife Crime | 6 years 6 months ago | |
| In positive news from China, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) has teamed up with Tencent to combat IWT online... |
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Wildlife Crime | 6 years 7 months ago | |
| Hi, I went to this workshop, led by Sonia O'Connor and James Barrett, and I would recommend it. Both Sonia and James have many years of experience... |
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Wildlife Crime | 6 years 9 months ago | |
| Upcoming webinar session on Pangolin Trade in China will be delivered TOMORROW at 9 AM BST/ 3 PM ICT by Yifu Wang from the University of... |
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Wildlife Crime | 6 years 11 months ago | |
| Interested in learning about conservation criminology? See the attached details on a fall 2018 3-credit graduate-level online course and... |
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Wildlife Crime | 6 years 11 months ago | |
| Hi Maike! I used ORA Pro which was developed by Carnegie Mellon University. The 'lite' version is free to use and similar to IBM - http://www.casos.cs.... |
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Wildlife Crime | 6 years 11 months ago | |
| Hello, Does anyone have contact information for SMART trainers that would be itnerested in a short term consultancy for the FFI Liberia... |
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Wildlife Crime | 7 years ago | |
| On Wednesday (25th July) the Director of Forensic Services at the City of London Police, Tracy Alexander, will be giving a talk titled... |
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Wildlife Crime | 7 years ago | |
| Due to the magnitude and complexity of the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT), conservationists are often only able to fight crises on the ground... |
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Wildlife Crime | 7 years 4 months ago |
