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
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- @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.
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- 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.
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- 5 Groups
Heading up comms for a conservation agency based in the United Arab Emirates
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- 6 Groups
- @CalumRyan
- | He/Him
Intern at Fauna & Flora working on the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART)
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- 4 Groups
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- 16 Groups
Tech 4 Conservation
President, Tech 4 Conservation
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- 7 Discussions
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Partner in Conservation at WWF
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- 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
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
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| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hi, I've been working on a buoy-mounted underwater acoustic recorder, kinda like what you're talking about. I'll send you a concept note. -harold |
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Wildlife Crime | 3 years 5 months ago | |
| Hi Wildlabbers, We're getting ready for tomorrow's episode with Tech Tutor Lily Xu, who'll talk to us about how machine... |
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AI for Conservation, Protected Area Management Tools, Wildlife Crime | 3 years 11 months ago | |
| Thank you very much! I'll email you now. |
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Wildlife Crime | 4 years 1 month ago | |
| Update (April 16): I just open-sourced the code at https://github.com/ecognize-hub/ecognize. I released it under the Apache 2.0 license so it can be used for pretty much anything... |
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Wildlife Crime | 4 years 4 months ago | |
| Dear Members of Wildlife Crime Group, Greetings from India! Hope you are well and taking good care of yourself. :-) ... |
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Wildlife Crime | 4 years 7 months ago | |
| A panel of 25 speakers from multiple disciplines will offer collective insight and highlight why there is a need to look through numerous... |
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Wildlife Crime | 4 years 10 months ago | |
| I am really curious! I will ask my old manager and get back to you. |
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Wildlife Crime | 5 years ago | |
| Hi Wildlife Crime comm, Just wanted to share this really interesting conversation happening over in the FIT group: Thinking Outside... |
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Wildlife Crime | 5 years 1 month ago | |
| Hi Richard, I've been working with Kerinci Seblat National Park in Sumatra for the better part of 20 years focusing primarily to countering tiger and other wildlife... |
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Wildlife Crime | 5 years 1 month ago | |
| The Global Wildlife Program (GWP) is a partnership on Wildlife Conservation and Crime Prevention for Sustainable Development led by the... |
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Wildlife Crime | 5 years 2 months ago | |
| I am writing a series of articles for Utrecht University (NL) about how synthetic biology, cloning, genetic modification and habitat... |
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Wildlife Crime | 5 years 5 months ago | |
| The ASC conference happens annually, the next one will be in Washington DC over the 18-21 November 2020. Details for the pre-conference workshops are only e-mailed a few... |
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Wildlife Crime | 5 years 8 months ago |
