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.
- 0 Resources
- 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
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @CalumRyan
- | He/Him
Intern at Fauna & Flora working on the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART)
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 16 Groups
Tech 4 Conservation
President, Tech 4 Conservation
- 0 Resources
- 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.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
Wildlife conservationist
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 11 Groups
I am a geneticist with a long term interest in using DNA markers to combat wildlife crime.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
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
Article
In this case study, conservation ecologist Ayesha Tulloch takes us behind the scenes of her recent paper, which came out in Nature Ecology & Evolution earlier this month. In this paper, Ayesha and her team present a...
20 August 2018
Funding
Society’s Marine Protection Prize will award $450,000 for innovative solutions and technologies that protect and sustain fisheries in coastal communities
1 February 2018
Article
‘The Field’… Say the words ‘The Field’ to a group of conservationists and it will immediately conjure up vivid memories of everything from sticky wet rainforests to burning dusty deserts. What’s more, it’s almost...
17 January 2018
Funding
Wildlife innovation grants available!
World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
The WWF Wildlife Practice has a small amount of funding available to provide grants of around €10,000 to support key innovative ideas.
11 January 2018
Article
Congratulations to Zoohackathon winners, team ODINN!
Zoological Society London (ZSL)
Following the UK Government’s landmark announcement of plans to introduce a complete ban on the domestic trade in ivory, it was fitting that a new machine learning product designed to tackle the supply end of this...
6 December 2017
Article
Download New Conservation Tech Guidelines: Camera Traps, Acoustics and LiDAR
Paul Glover-Kapfer
The inherent complexity of not only deploying technologies in the field but also doing so in a scientifically rigorous manner can prove a substantial barrier for the effective use of conservation technologies, and clear...
11 October 2017
Article
To spur continued progress in advancing the promising solutions that have emerged through the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge, USAID have awarded three of their 16 Prize Winners an additional Acceleration Prize, worth a...
29 September 2017
Article
DAS: A Scaleable Solution For Protected Area Management
WILDLABS Team
The Domain Awareness System (DAS) is a revolution in monitoring technology, creating real-time awareness of protected areas assets. This technology has the potential to completely change standard monitoring procedures...
26 September 2017
Article
Welcome to an installment of a new series from the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge in which we will be sharing updates from their 16 Prize Winners who are working to combat wildlife crime around the globe. This fourth...
17 August 2017
Funding
The European Space Agency is calling for Kick-Start ideas to leverage space technology for wildlife protection. Three main topics of interest have been identified: 1) Wildlife monitoring, tracking and inventory, 2)...
5 July 2017
Article
Trialing Audiomoth to detect the hidden threats under the canopies of Belize
Andrew Hill and 1 more
Its been a busy couple of months for the Open Acoustic Devices team. They've just returned back from Belize where they have been trialling the new AudioMoth design for gunshot detection. Find out what they've been up to...
27 June 2017
Article
Welcome to an installment of a new series from the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge in which we will be sharing updates from their 16 Prize Winners who are working to combat wildlife crime around the globe. Slow lorises...
23 June 2017
September 2025
January 2023
42 Products
1 R&D Projects
42 Organisations
Recently updated products
Recently updated R&D Projects
Recently updated organisations
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hi Robynne - I'm really glad you're interested. I'm running a cohort at the moment but have so far only covered some QGIS basics so you would be welcome to jump on from next... |
|
Wildlife Crime | 1 week 2 days ago | |
| I create ocean exploration and marine life content on YouTube, whether it be recording nautilus on BRUVs, swimming with endangered bowmouth... |
|
Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Camera Traps, Citizen Science, Drones, Emerging Tech, Marine Conservation, Sensors, Sustainable Fishing Challenges, Wildlife Crime | 1 month 2 weeks ago | |
| Hi WILDLABS Community! I have started mapping the project for the Gulf of America Dead Zone and here are some photos of the progress. In the last picture, I have... |
|
Climate Change, Marine Conservation, Wildlife Crime | 1 month 3 weeks ago | |
| Thank you for your reply, ChadI meant 10 as a whole, indeed. Perhaps you see your post in one group, but since it is tagged for all groups, I assumed you meant 10 in total.In your... |
|
Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Camera Traps, Citizen Science, Climate Change, Community Base, Connectivity, Drones, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech, Funding and Finance, Geospatial, Human-Wildlife Coexistence, Software Development, Wildlife Crime | 1 month 3 weeks ago | |
| HiThis is great! So just to double check - there is no way to join online? I would love to be part of this conference. Thanks, Els van Lavieren |
|
Community Base, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Coexistence, Protected Area Management Tools, Wildlife Crime | 2 months 2 weeks ago | |
| Hi @iainmcnicol , welcome to WILDLABS! Thanks for posting this on here. I have shared with my colleagues at Fauna & Flora who have some experience (especially with the... |
|
Community Base, Geospatial, Protected Area Management Tools, Wildlife Crime | 4 months 1 week ago | |
| Hi Georg,Oh, that's a pity. But thanks anyway for checking!Really appreciate it!CheersMartina |
+10
|
Wildlife Crime | 3 months ago | |
| Hi Adam! Sounds like you have your work cut out for you. I have not used radar systems or AI systems for this sort of detection, but there are methods using change detection... |
|
AI for Conservation, Drones, Wildlife Crime | 3 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Great dear Travis,This is a great news and an opportunity to me and my local bee keepers. It really sounds very helpful.Here is my contacts:Email: muganyizi@pales.or.tz ... |
|
Climate Change, Conservation Tech Training and Education, East Africa Community, Funding and Finance, Human-Wildlife Coexistence, Wildlife Crime | 4 months 1 week ago | |
| You can also check out WWF's newly launched C2C: Conflict to Coexistence approach. It provides a framework and methodology for developing tailor-made human-wildlife conflict (HWC... |
+2
|
Wildlife Crime | 6 months ago | |
| Not a book, but a very real documentary:Stroop - Journey into the Rhino Horn War |
|
Wildlife Crime | 6 months 1 week ago | |
| Thank you so much for sharing! They seem to only state the official DFFE statistics nowadays. From my connections in SouthAfrica these numbers don't always seem to reflect... |
|
Wildlife Crime | 6 months 1 week ago |
