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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- @LindseyHarris
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Head of Wildlife Trade, Fauna & Flora
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Conservation Writer, Storyteller, & Digital Strategist
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Zoological Society London (ZSL)
Monitoring & Technology Lead, Conservation & Policy, ZSL

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Studying Biodiversity, Wildlife, and Ecosystem Health @ UEdi. Professionally software engineer, program manager, developer educator


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I've been working in IT for the past four years and Cybersecurity for the past year and a half. I'm looking to leverage my technical skills towards conservation purposes. I'm new on this journey and excited to jump of volunteer activities where I'm able!
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Dzanga-Ndoki national park biodiversity monitoring



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Technologist, birder, photographer and mountain guide.
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- @vandita_shukla
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PhD candidate studying drone flight planning for enabling tracking and identification of individual characteristics of wildlife; member of the WildDrone, an MSCA Doctoral Network funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research
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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Is anyone else thinking of putting in a proposal, I'm looking for collaborators? Doug |
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Wildlife Crime | 7 years 7 months ago | |
If you know you want to attend and just want to get straight to getting your tickets, here are some easy links for registration: Chicago San Diego London New Delhi... |
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Wildlife Crime | 7 years 8 months ago | |
Friends and fellow researchers in the WILDLABS community I would like to hear your valuable opinions on the doctoral research project I am... |
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Wildlife Crime | 7 years 10 months ago | |
@victoria from Global Trees Campaign just flagged an event for us over on twitter that might be of interest to this thread in particular. Starting in jus ta few hours, the... |
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Wildlife Crime | 7 years 11 months ago | |
Hi Anthony, Isla's list is very comprehensive. The Vulcan Domain Awareness System (DAS) started at LEWA in Kenya where our own JIGZAW web based intelligence database and... |
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Wildlife Crime | 7 years 11 months ago | |
Hi dave FLIR is the leading US company in thermal industry, most of their product is for industry and Militry. The price is from $6000+. When i check... |
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Wildlife Crime | 7 years 11 months ago | |
The Wildlife Consumer Behaviour Change Community of Practice has a new newsletter that is packed with the latest behaviour change... |
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Wildlife Crime | 8 years ago | |
Thanks very much for cross-posting this update, @Jan+Kees - where are you field testing the SERVAL-sensor? |
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Wildlife Crime | 8 years ago | |
Just to clarify, you mean illegal owners of exotic animals or legal owners? I'm assuming illegal because you reference wildlife crime, but in a lot of countries there are... |
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Wildlife Crime | 8 years ago | |
Post-doctoral Researcher or PhD student with a background in data/computer science to work with me on issues around illegal... |
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Wildlife Crime | 8 years 1 month ago | |
Thanks, @Drue+Freeman . You raise excellent points, here. In my experience with projects that use protected area monitoring and management software such as the... |
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Wildlife Crime | 8 years 1 month ago | |
Hello - I wrote up a lessons learned from the Hack for Wildlife that we ran in Chicago. https://medium.com/@mygshah/i-just-ran-my-first-hackathon-you-can-too-... |
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Wildlife Crime | 8 years 3 months ago |