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
PhD student with research focused on using on-site DNA sequencing for rapid species identification. Interested in wildlife forensics, and conservation genomics.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
I am a forensic geneticist with a long term interest in developing and applying DNA markers to combat wildlife crime. Currently developing and validating STRs for raptors and rapid on-site species ID using the ONT MinION portable sequencer.
- 2 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- @Gody
- | He
Godfrey Nyangaresi, a dedicated Protection Manager with 12+ years of wildlife conservation experience. Skilled in technologies, administration, and law enforcement, he leads protection efforts at STEP, ensuring the sustainable conservation of elephants in southern Tanzania.
- 0 Resources
- 3 Discussions
- 17 Groups
- @RHugtenburg
- | He/They
Student at Aberystwyth University. Bug Fanatic🪲. Worked at Octophin Digital for my industrial year placement 🐙.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 20 Groups
- @kadambarid
- | she, her, hers
Dr. Kadambari Devarajan is an engineer-turned-ecologist working on biodiversity monitoring. (Website - http://kadambarid.in/)
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 14 Groups
- 1 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 13 Groups
- @samarmstrong
- | She/her
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Invasive species/law enforcement/project management/Asia/Australia
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
- @brittanypalmer
- | she/her
Entrepreneur and environmental attorney with a passion for wildlife conservation.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 1 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 2 Groups
Entrepreneur building AI-driven acoustic monitoring technology for comprehensive wildlife conservation, protection and ecosystem health monitoring.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
University of Madras
Research Coordinator
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 1 Groups
Article
NParks opens Singapore’s first Centre for Wildlife Forensics
Singapore National Parks Board (NParks)
Singapore's National Parks Board (NParks) has now opened the country's first Centre for Wildlife Forensics (CWF), and launched a new K9 unit to help uncover illegal wildlife and wildlife products at Singapore’s borders...
20 September 2021
Article
Announcing the 2021 CLP Team Award Winners
Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP)
Our friends at the Conservation Leadership Programme are proud to announce their 2021 CLP Team Award recipients! We'll be featuring interviews with some CLP winners about their projects, the technology they're using,...
17 May 2021
Article
It Takes a #Tech4Wildlife Community
Ellie Warren
Check out WILDLABS' feature about the importance of building a community in the conservation technology world, shared on the IUCN World Conservation Congress blog to celebrate their upcoming event. Read an excerpt by...
17 May 2021
Article
Getting Started with Conservation Dogs: An Interview with Paul Bunker
Ellie Warren and 1 more
Today we're talking to Paul Bunker, owner of Chiron K9, a canine consultancy company specializing in detection, author of the workbook Imprint Your Detection Dog in 15 Days, a resource aimed at providing tools to get...
7 May 2021
Article
Protecting Wildlife with Machine Learning
Ellie Warren
Last year, Tim van Deursen and Thijs Suijten shared their new "Hack the Poacher" system with us, presenting a unique way to detect poachers in real-time within protected national parks. Read on to learn about their...
29 January 2021
Article
This month, WILDLABS member Drew Cronin shared the new paper "Empowering rangers through technology and innovation." This collaborative effort included several members of the WILDLABS community and leadership, and...
27 January 2021
Article
Hackathon Opportunity: Vaquita Hacks
WILDLABS Team
Do you have innovative #tech4wildlife ideas that could save one of the most endangered species on earth from extinction? Apply now to join Vaquita Hack, a hackathon for students and early career conservationists! This...
10 November 2020
Article
Today, WWF conservation engineering intern Ashley Rosen shares insight into the process of redesigning a camera mount for FLIR thermal cameras used by rangers in the fight against poaching. Ashley's design will become a...
24 August 2020
Funding
WWF US Conservation Leadership Award
World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Applications are now open for the the WWF-US Conservation Leadership Award, a prize honoring exceptional young people working toward conservation solutions in the United States. If you are an early career...
13 August 2020
Funding
Challenge: ElephantEdge
Smart Parks
Protecting elephants from conservation's most pressing issues like poaching and human-wildlife conflict requires big, bold, and innovative solutions. Hackster.io, Smart Parks, Edge Impulse, Microsoft, and several other...
11 August 2020
Article
Metal Detecting Sensors for Anti-Poaching
Sam Seccombe
Since 2016, ZSL’s Instant Detect team have been working on improving metal detecting sensors for anti-poaching. The team believe that using metal detecting sensors will provide a highly targeted detection of potential...
10 August 2020
Article
SMART is excited to showcase the features of their new data collection solution, SMART Mobile! Built around the specific needs of the SMART user community, this streamlined mobile tool allows staff in protected areas to...
23 June 2020
June 2025
event
Nalini
July 2025
November 2018
event
WILDLABS Team
42 Products
1 R&D Projects
41 Organisations
Recently updated products
Recently updated R&D Projects
Recently updated organisations
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In positive news from China, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) has teamed up with Tencent to combat IWT online... |
|
Wildlife Crime | 6 years 5 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... |
|
Wildlife Crime | 6 years 6 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... |
|
Wildlife Crime | 6 years 8 months ago | |
| Interested in learning about conservation criminology? See the attached details on a fall 2018 3-credit graduate-level online course and... |
|
Wildlife Crime | 6 years 8 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.... |
|
Wildlife Crime | 6 years 9 months ago | |
| Hello, Does anyone have contact information for SMART trainers that would be itnerested in a short term consultancy for the FFI Liberia... |
|
Wildlife Crime | 6 years 9 months ago | |
| On Wednesday (25th July) the Director of Forensic Services at the City of London Police, Tracy Alexander, will be giving a talk titled... |
|
Wildlife Crime | 6 years 9 months ago | |
| Due to the magnitude and complexity of the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT), conservationists are often only able to fight crises on the ground... |
|
Wildlife Crime | 7 years 1 month ago | |
| An upcoming event might be of interest to members of this group: Wednesday, March 21, 2018 8:00 - 9:30 am EDT... |
|
Wildlife Crime | 7 years 2 months ago | |
| Hi @Nafeesa+Esmail - are you already in touch with the TRAFFIC Network about this survey? |
|
Wildlife Crime | 7 years 3 months ago | |
| Hey teams, Quick link to the devpost page to submit: https://zoohackathon2017.devpost.com Good luck! Steph |
|
Wildlife Crime | 7 years 7 months ago | |
| Poacher alert dataset https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9qkd5vrU3_fUXJTNk1wM2tpSGs/view?usp=sharing This dataset... |
|
Wildlife Crime | 7 years 7 months ago |
